@Adam Fansler I’d raise rent some, see if they want to be the onsite de facto PM type person like mentioned.  

An FHA loan should be more flexible with your debt to income ratio and will allow you the lowest possible down payment on multi family property. (2 - 4 units) If you are still running into a wall after that I would look at either seller financing as mentioned above or find a deal so good that friends and family want in on it.

What is really happening in the market are buyers are offering higher expecting the home not to appraise then expecting the seller to drop the price because as mentioned above buyers don't want to pay above appraisal price.

You can have a low-tax or even tax-free cash flow from renting, and often you can have tax losses that would reduce taxes on your salary.These benefits start getting squeezed out when your income is above $100k, but they still exist.What @Yonah Weiss mentioned is an advanced loophole for people with high income, however you will not be able to use it as long as you have a full-time job. 

Not to mention all the other areas where you are getting "uneven" numbers. 

I'm personally not a fan of the mentioned tactic, and frankly it has given real estate investors in my area a bad name. 

I'm going to leave this wide open and not mention any of my current plans, that way I can really feel the pulse of the community.

I'm going to leave this wide open and not mention any of my current plans, that way I can really feel the pulse of the community.

I'm going to leave this wide open and not mention any of my current plans, that way I can really feel the pulse of the community.

I'm going to leave this wide open and not mention any of my current plans, that way I can really feel the pulse of the community.