How to not be throwing away so much rent money?

[David Kiesling]

I'm totally new to this, so bear with me if I'm using terms wrong.

Right now I'm looking into ways to not be throwing away $2000/mo rent and still be able to live in the area. Home values around here are skyrocketing, I've heard people are swooping in paying 20% over listed prices with cash.

I have very little savings, and my business income fluctuates, so I can realistically only invest like 1% as a down payment. 

Is working out a lease option my best bet? I can't come up with a 3% lease option down payment for a $500k house, and I think a $500k deal would probably be bare minimum of what kind of house I would want around here, as far as I can tell.

Any other ideas? I don't need a great deal, just a less bad deal than renting for $2000/mo, if I'm going to stay in the area. Maybe there's just no way for me to afford it right now?

I was thinking about getting into real estate investing somehow, I've been reading the book Secrets of Buying and Selling Real Estate, but it's gotten me really down on the idea. I thought I could do it before, but after reading tthat book it seems like you really have to love negotiating and networking in order to meet enough people and strike deals, and that kind of thing would be a nightmare to me. But it did wake me up to how renting is such a horrible deal.