To deal or not deal

Rookie investor seeking advice - 

with hot seller market, we find ourselves priced out of SFH purchase for ourselves, House hacking won't cash flow because we have young kids and school requirement becomes a sticky point even for MF units. BRRR require cash to compete with off market buyers and experience with contracting team. What's the best path forward? We don't want to do a deal for the sake of doing deals, and haven't found a strategy that cash flows in this market. Maybe just buy starter home to settle in for now, and invest later? Is renting/biding time the best option to move forward?