I know a HELOC was mentioned or taking from retirement accounts but I wouldn't because a HELOC requires equity (i.e. larger down payment) and/or appreciation and it sounds like you won't have much of either to maximize growth and your cash on cash return in your cash flow market.

The ones i am finding only have larger cities.

There aren't a lot of multi-family homes in my immediate area other than larger apartment complexes. 

The ability to pump paint directly out of the 1 or 5 gallon bucket saves a lot of time doing larger jobs.

With regards to building a 2-4 unit anywhere, has anyone been able to work with the municipality on the zoning to get the multi-family approved in a traditional single-family area, without it being a larger apartment complex?

Condos have always been location based, stay away from larger buildings that have high high fees

In theory, rents should remain stable and there may be a larger tenant pool to choose from (depending on the quality of your area).

But yeah, we realize we're getting into a competitive market with a lot of investors having a ton of liquidity sitting on the sidelines waiting for the next deal...so we're keeping our expectations for finding our first investment reasonable! 

We are looking into East Austin to purchase a house - preferably a duplex (or larger) that we can house hack or a home w/ an ADU built in it, that we can also house-hack.

Because of this I would most likely not have enough income to get approved for a larger loan needed to buy a multiunit.I live in California, and multi-units within the area and neighboring counties are more than I could qualify for on a loan(4k plus).