I sort of did this with some of my engineer friends from college. I say 'sort of' because although we're all hackers, we're not all hackers of the YC news variety.

I'll just say you CAN get housing for 4-5 engineers, but it's not always easy. We were rejected from at least 1 place because we were not a family.

You might have a hard time if some or all of you don't have steady income and are not students with access to their parents' checkbook. If you do have income, you're going to look better than students, and many landlords are open to renting to students.