Competitive saturated market, need to move NOW, creativity needed

[Brendon K.]

So I'm out in Austin Texas, and my situation may be pretty close to what a lot of other really competitive markets are so I thought I'd post in the general forum.

Currently:

• I'm with a roommate that's pretty unbearable but I don't want to move into another bad situation
• I just cleared 34k in down payment, 25 from saving up plus another 9 from an old retirement fund that won't be needed. If my math serves me, I could probably get an 800k fha if it made sense.
• Pretty much perfect credit.
• Austin is pretty saturated. LOTS of competition has driven the prices up to incredible levels. The same house that was 150k five years ago is easily over 300k now. 
• I'm spending 800/mo for an apartment right now. Spending much more than that wouldn't make sense.
• My job makes it impossible to live out of town. I have seen some duplexes that make sense out of the city limits.
• I'd like to get into a multifamily and "house hack" but most of the multifamilies don't add up to a starting investor:

Here's a typical one. 590k at 4.176% interest is around $3,897/mo. The MLS has each of those units earning 1050/mo. If I were to live in the 4th, 1050x3=3150, nowhere near the 'live in the unit for free' that Brandon Turner speaks so highly of on the podcasts. This is pretty much typical for everything in Austin.

The typical single family goes for over 300. This is still over 2k/mo so it doesn't make sense.

I could stay in an apartment owned by someone else, but then I'm not building equity, something I badly need right now.

In the future:

• I'll need as much disposable income as possible because I'd like to start doing wholesaling and will need money for advertising through yellowletters and through the web. I figure wholesaling will be an easy entry for someone who has absolutely no idea how much repairs cost. 
• I'll be wholesaling until I can afford to flip with cash, and at that time I'll have the information I need to make it a good flip.

Are there any more advanced techniques I could use to get my living situation straightened out? Have you guys had luck getting substantial deals in multifamilies through contacting existing landlords directly, and how do you find them when they haven't posted on the MLS? Any other suggestions?