House hacking via an FHA loan and AirBnB for a multi-family

[Patrick McNerney]

Hello fellow bigger pockets users,

I am a new bigger pockets podcast listener and forum member and this is my first post!  I recently discovered the bigger pockets podcast and it has blown my mind and changed how I think about real estate and home ownership.

I live in San Diego, CA and as many of you know it is a very high cost of living area.  House prices are extremely high with prices for desirable area's going $600k+.

I recently had an idea that would help me afford property in this city.  So here we go.

My plan was to purchase a four-plex multi-family with an FHA loan where my girlfriend and myself would live in one of the units and we would AirBnB the remaining three apartments to cover the cost of the mortgage. I was planning on using the FHA max loan amount of $1.326M and buy a four-plex in a desirable beach area where AirBnB's go for a premium and have high occupancy rates. According to airdna.com the areas I have been looking at average $120+ a night and are occupied approx 75% of the time. This would more than cover our monthly PITI payment. This would allow us to no longer spend any money on rent and our AirBnB tenants would fully cover the costs of home ownership.

So my question is, how feasible is my plan?  My girlfriend and myself both make good money ($185k combined) from our careers, but without the income of our AirBnB tenants we would not be able to afford a $1.3M mortgage payment.  Would a lender even consider approving us for a loan knowing that much of our monthly payment would come from AirBnB rental income?

Thanks in advance for any advice and critiques.