Building multi family on land I already own

[Matt C.]

Hi Everyone,

Would love to hear feedback on a project I am considering. A little bit of a unique situation my parents bought a track of land in a suburb of Dallas in the 90s. It is roughly 3 acres with around 588' of road frontage running north and south so a long rectangular property. My mother still lives on the property and has a house on the south acre. She is gifting me the north acre which would be around 255' of road frontage. I am checking now with the city to see if they will allow me to build multifamily on this acre. I would love to build a couple 4-plex town home style properties on this. My main question is the pitfalls of building new. Land is free besides taxes so it would just be the construction cost. I'm also wondering if this is a good route or if it would be better to do a few duplex instead. I'm under the impression more doors under one roof is better but that may be wrong as I am new to multi family. I'm sure a lot of this is market specific but would love to hear from others that have built new multi family. 

[Matt C.]

@Steven Byrnes thanks for the response! Geez I wish it was in Wylie! This is actually in Balch Springs pretty close to 635 and I20 split. The street it kind of odd but is turning for the better in the last couple of years. Relatively new apartment building was built just up the road and a few new builds are being done right now. I'm waiting on the city to get back to me but I am curious if it is actually re-zoning since it should be residential already. Honestly I know very little about zoning this is for sure a learning experience. I think the big deal will be if the city will allow me to build multi family and if that is considered re-zoning. I intend to build and hold.