House Hacking a Duplex

[Ammon Hasson]

I am looking at a potential house hack of a property that is zoned as a duplex. 

Each unit is three floors, with a kitchen on each floor, and 6 bedrooms. The property is located next to our local university and is renting essentially as a 4plex by room. There are even 4 single car garages. One unit is renovated and current rents are at $6.7k a month with the ability to renovate the other unit for a potential $8.3k a month. 

I went into the analysis wanting to use a $0 down VA loan. However because the property is only zoned as a duplex, the lender I was talking to said they will only count the rents from one unit towards qualification. Conventional financing would take at least $30k out of my pocket that I was going to put towards renovations.

The property is priced at $1mil. 

My question is two-fold:

1. How feasible is it to have the property rezoned as a 4plex? 

2. I have heard a lot on the rookie podcast and read in the forums that it is possible to talk to smaller local credit unions or banks to get funding. How does one do that? And, considering the situation, would they realistically give me a different answer?

I’m not married to this deal, but I've been looking for a while and it meets my buy box very well.

They are also open to seller financing but would naturally require a larger down payment.

I am rookie and ultimately would love the opportunity to learn from the scenario. Any advice is great. Thanks!