Basics of New Home Construction - Pittsburgh

[Joseph Sangimino]

All,

I may have stumbled across a unique opportunity to acquire a lot for dirt cheap in the West Mifflin area. It used to have a house on it, so all the utilities are right there and the lot would not be difficult to build on (at first glance at least). I would ideally like to put a duplex or triplex on it, but its zoned as a single family and that would be a difficult negotiation with the township (although I may try regardless). Anyway, I don't have the first clue about how to estimate construction costs for new singe or multi-family structure. Aside from getting actual quotes or baseline $/ft^2 range to run with, I don't know where to start. 

I'm basically looking for any/all advice pertaining to estimating new construction costs, assumptions, the main risks, etc - so I can perform a cash flow analysis for building a rental on this lot. Like I said, I'm just not sure how to begin analyzing this deal since new construction is so foreign to me. 

Thanks