Breaking into the rental market with Inheritance property

[Anthony Pollachioli]

I have been reading about the costs to build a duplex and begin renting, but thought my situation was a bit unique and so I decided to make my own post.

A few years ago we inherited a house and land in town close to a local graduate school for physical therapy, occupational therapy, physicians assistant, etc. 

Being in the field of physical therapy myself, I know that these students come from all over the U.S. and have difficulties finding places to rent in this very low-income and rural town. These students typically are backed financially by their parents willing to pay these "cheap" rent prices to put their kid through graduate school. The graduate school is less than 10 years old and still adding programs, and while dozens of people have begun converting old of homes/office spaces to rental units to capitalize on this obvious opportunity, it remains an investors paradise.

The situation:

The house is a ~1400 sq ft brick ranch style home on a good plot of land that we recently had surveyed and parceled into two individual lots. The first plat has the house (recently appraised at 154k) which requires more work than we'd like to put into it. The second plat used to contain a mobile home years ago and has town water/sewer/electric hookups not currently being used. Our goal is to sell the first plat with the house and use the money to build a modest modular duplex on the other plat to rent.

We are both very inexperienced when it comes to building and renting, and need all of the information we can get- what are some unforeseen costs associated with building a modular? What are some questions we should be asking prospective builders? What are some costs associated with hooking up utilities and electrical to our modular and what should we be searching to get an idea of cost? 

A general breakdown of the costs you would look into as an experienced builder/investor would be very appreciated. Not looking for specific money amounts obviously, I can figure that out on my own as long as I have some direction. Just want a general itemized list of potential costs to look into, such as cost to develop land, build foundation, permits, delivery and building of modular, hooking up utilities, etc.

Thanks in advance!