Weighing a personal purchase - Worried about DTI

[Phillip Rosin]

Hello and thank you in advance for your time!

I currently have two duplexes (living in one unit currently) and work a full time w2 job in tech. Credit score hovers around 800. Only non-real estate debt is student loan and car. I'm planning to purchase more property soon, but also have been wanting for quite some time to finally upgrade to a larger boat. My biggest concern, however, is how that payment impacts my DTI and ability to get lending going forward.

Currently, I'm sitting around $155K gross combined income with around $49K in expenses (mortgages, insurance, taxes, car pmt, student loan pmt). That gives me a current DTI of around 32%.

The new boat payment would fall somewhere in the $400-$500/month range, bumping me to around 35%. 

If I'm doing my math correctly, when purchasing another property and including 75% of the projected income in the calculation, a $400K property with 25% down would put me around 43%, which is generally the max allowable DTI I believe?

My question is, am I overthinking this and would I likely still be able to find funding at reasonable rates for a more expensive property, even though it goes over that 43% mark? I ideally hope to be able to target property up to around $1M in value, with 25% down, unless I purchase as a primary with FHA. Granted, as I approach the $1M budget, I'll be most likely looking at a commercial situation (5+ doors), at which point my personal income may not matter. However, I may come across a 4plex, for example, which exceeds $400k. Should I be worried and postpone the purchase several months to a year, or will it likely have less impact than I'm anticipating?

I have briefly read about DSCR loans, which I imagine could be a fall back plan, worst case? I've also read about portfolio loans, which may also be an option? I understand both of these options may result in higher rates than conventional. Seller finance is also a potential possibility, I'm just trying to not limit myself to these alternatives if possible.

Thank you for any and all input, advise, perspective, etc! 

Side Note: I'm not here looking to find justification to buy a boat. I'm very responsible, rarely splurge on things and I know I can afford it. I will be buying something in the next year either way, but I'd rather do it now as prices are already slated to go up and interest rates are low. Again, I'm just worried about it having a big impact on my investing and wondering if I'm worrying about something that isn't going to be that big of a deal for me in that regard.