Again I'm just exploring my options as this is my hard earned money that I'm spending and I'm not an iron fist person but like to be "fair" and "punctual" with any business.

Hard money is something too scary for me to even consider. 

Why not get FREE MONEY!

Two-story houses bring in more money from rent and make saving on costs easier, but buildings with four homes cost less to start and are simpler to manage.

Cities will either not be able to comply or select sites that are currently zoned and used for purposes other than housing.This can lead to more complications with lawsuits and other administrative challenges that in addition to absorbing time and money prevent additional housing units from being built.

AVOID syndicators (who will happily take your money).

They'll likely want you to use the money you're making on the sale of the lot to partially pay down the remaining mortgage since it will be for a smaller remaining amount of property which makes sense to me from their point of view. 

And consider that if they had put the money in a good MM, they would be getting 5+% right now

I would use that as a potential guidemap as to where you may need to spend some money. 

I personally do hard money lending and investing in the city.