What to do with my useless down payment money?

[Robert McGreevy]

Hi ya'll,

I'm pretty much a total newb when it comes to r/e investing, so please pardon me if this post is long-winded and full of dumb questions, I appreciate any and all input...I spent a good few years saving up for what i hoped would be a pretty decent-sized down payment on a house for myself to live in. Unfortunately I live in Austin TX and as I'm sure anyone involved in r/e in any way knows, the housing market here pretty much blew up overnight, so my $50k downpayment, which seemed pretty good by 2019 standards, currently will not even get me a seat at the negotiating table here. So now that a home purchase in Austin is most likely permanently out of reach, what should I do with all this money that's just sitting idle in my savings account?

So the question mostly comes down to, I could invest all this cash in various stock funds, bonds, reits, crypto, etc...or I could invest SOME of this cash in those things, and then also set aside the rest to maybe buy a rental property or something, in a market where I can afford to buy. 

I guess what I'm largely looking for is some resource or something where I can learn a lot more about this stuff because I feel a little in over my head, and maybe get some general advice on whether or not purchasing property is even the best idea for someone in my situation, vs just going with traditional investments or trying to make money off real estate through something like Fundrise rather than non-occupied ownership...is there a such thing as like a general real estate advisor, such as you can get for general finance/investment stuff? Of course I have my realtor here, but she can only help me deal with local real estate decisions, I feel I could benefit a lot from having somebody with a broader scope talk me through some concepts and guide me to an action plan.

Also, and pardon me if this has come up before, but anybody have any experience/opinions about Roofstock? It seems like it could potentially be a useful resource for someone like me (a newb possibly making their first real estate purchase) but I can also just as easily see the potential to get screwed.

Think that's all I got right now, thanks in advance to anyone who read through all this and offered advice!