Buying land and building a four-plex

[Bryce Bender]

I am new to the BP forums, but I have enjoyed the podcast for the past few months and I have read Scott Trench's Set For Life and I am reading Brandon's Investing with zero/Little down book now. Three weeks ago we purchased our first home and are house hacking as we speak by AirBnB-ing the basement. Its been going amazing so far, and I have loved applying the first steps in Trench's book. 

Thinking through how I want to grow my real estate portfolio, I came across an idea I haven't read about, but my hunch is it could be a good move in my market. As I detail this idea, I am curious if anyone has experience with any piece of this concocted idea, and if they can lend their experience and success. 

The idea of purchasing a multi-family, namely a four-plex or smaller, intrigues me. However, their are not very many on the market in my area, and when they do go for sale they are sold for top dollar because investors (like me) see great value in them. The idea was planted in my head when I saw a piece of land that is zoned for multi-family construction for sale and in a price range that is easily attainable for me. (also finding land like this in my area is much easier than finding the multi-family type homes I want to buy for sale). The thought was I could purchase the land easily, work with a builder to design and build a four-plex and take advantage of a little money down loan (such as USDA or FHA) to fund the project with the plan to live in one of the units for a year.

I have an understanding of the purchasing of the land, and getting a little money down loan - however I have no experience working with a builder and haven't done enough research to compare numbers and really see if I would be coming out ahead of the over valued multi-families for sale in my area due to hype.

Thanks in advance for your tips, thoughts, experiences and criticism!