The main reason is people get massively stressed and fear a multi-million dollar settlement and so agree to settle for a few hundred Thousand dollars. 

So, you, as an individual, may not get to the same rate that a MASSIVE national builder can...but you can certainly offer credits to the buyers to help buy down the rates. 

Feel free to DM/call me so i can help you with your first F&F project.

A picture is worth a 1000 words and a project we helped someone on in the UP was able to gain support and approval by getting renderings done showing what the finished project would look like.

If your "estimate" works for you and your "high estimate" is still workable for you, then you can feel confident that if you use good project management practices that you can manage the project to somewhere between those 2 numbers at worst.

Are you planning to take on another project like that soon?

If not you have to scale massively and deal with the PM that come with trailer parks. 

I would like to be prepared for a larger multifamily project. 

Look for areas with solid rental demand, typically in Blue Collar America, where BTR projects are particularly appealing.

There are a multitude of roles, stages, and responsibilities for each and every unique project.