Building a Rental Property on Land

[Chris Ayers]

My grandmother purchased a plot of land near Ocala, Florida which is now in possession of my mom and uncles.  They haven't done anything with this land in 20+ years except pay taxes on it. I'm looking to build my portfolio of rental homes by building a home on this plot.  Since building a custom home is out of the question, I was looking into building a modular home on the plot. I plan on working out a deal with them for using the land. 

Rents in the area are around $1000-1200 for a 3 Bed, 2 Bath, 2 Car garage so I'm looking for that type of home for around 100K or less. Every home builder I speak to gives the "base price" of the home which normally is around 55-80K, but I know that is not the TOTAL price of the home. 

Has anyone gone through a modular home build? If so, what was your breakdown of costs? What did it include: utilities set up, land grading, permits, etc...? 

Also, has anyone built a home on land they own specifically to make it a rental property? Are there any different challenges I'm not aware of?