Hey BP Community,

I am an Atlanta resident and bought an older triplex about a year ago to house hack in (live in one unit and rent the other two out). It's working out ok other than some latent defects the seller hid from me and my inspector during my due diligence period. From that experience, I got the idea of just building a multifamily (ideally a quadruplex) from the ground up as my next home to house hack in.

I've done some preliminary research and had some questions if any experts care to chime in:

+ There aren't many multifamily zoned lots in metro Atlanta. I'm aware that I'll have to talk with a zoning board to rezone a single family lot to a multifamily lot. Are there areas/cities more open to multifamily rezoning compared to others? If you've done it before, how long did the rezoning process take?

+I've call some GC that do new construction homes to get an idea of the build cost. None wanted to give me at least an estimate without architectural drawings, which I guess is understandable. From my research, I'm seeing $100-$150/sqft depending on complexity and material. The floorplan I'm interested has a slab foundation, 2 story, 6844sqft (1711sqft/unit), 3br/2.5th, garage, and W/D. Is the cost/sqft still good with that floorplan info? Also are there any GC that specialize in quadruplex construction in the Atlanta area?

+I've researched something called an FHA Construction loan in terms of financing this project, but it seems that most large banks don't offer that product. I'm interested in this product because I'll only need 3.5% down for the loan. I did find a CU that offers that product but they don't take into account the rental income from the other units. Are there any institutions or other loan products that offer 3.5% down (potentially can go up to 10% depending on the total construction costs) AND takes into account the rental income?

Thanks for reading! If you can only answer or help out with one of these questions, that'll be more than good enough.