One other way is to find someone who built what your looking for. And find out if they would like to sell their plane if you paid for all the material for them to build another for them self. You would not take possession until they were done (Two years). Some people take longer than that to find the certified plane they are looking for.
Here in Alberta where so many guys are making a killing on oil, there's a whole industry that has popped up to build kitplanes for guys with lots of money and either no time or no ability. So we see airplanes like Lancair IVPs with Garret TPE331s in them (700 hp turboprop), Glasair IIIs with the same engine, and so on. Sometimes its a Walter turbine, for the poorer owners
Millions of bucks for those. But even the ordinary kitplane, like an RV-6 with an O-320 in it that can be built for $35K or so, easily soars to $100K or more once the six or eight months or so of shop time is figured into it. So there's no savings at all, just a quick little airplane for an owner who might go and tell everyone that he built it, which I find rather annoying.
In Canada we have a category called "Owner-Maintenance." It allows the owner of certain older models to re-register them in this category, and it basically gets treated like a homebuilt after that. Many older airplanes are difficult to support, as parts aren't available anymore or are stupidly expensive, and many of those parts are easily built or adapted from other parts. The airplane's resale value drops, but the owner has the choice of losing the money on resale value or endlessly feeding it to a shop to keep it legal. Comes to the same thing, pretty much, with the advantage on the O-M side for the oldest types. Here's a list of qualifying types:
http://www.tc.gc.ca/civilaviation/RegServ/Affairs/cars/Part5/Standards/a507sh.htm
Others can be added at the application of the owner, but they have to fit into this definition:
(e) An aircraft type and model may be included in
Appendix H of this Standard, Aircraft eligible for a Special Certificate of Airworthiness - Owner-maintenance?, where:
(i) the aircraft is of a type certified in accordance with Chapters
522 or
523 of the
Airworthiness Manual, or an equivalent foreign standard;
(ii) the aircraft type certificate does not authorize more than four occupants;
(iii) the maximum certificated take-off weight (MCTOW) of the aircraft does not exceed 1,814 kg (4,000 pounds);
(iv) the aircraft is of a type and model that has not been manufactured during the 60 months preceding the date of application;
(v) fewer than 10% of Canadian aircraft of the type and model concerned are operating in Canadian commercial air service at the time of application;
(vi) the aircraft type and model is powered by a single, normally aspirated, piston engine, and is unpressurized; and
(vii) except for gliders, powered gliders or aircraft with airframes of wooden construction, the aircraft type and model has a fixed landing gear and a fixed pitch propeller.
Dan
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RC51
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