First home first investment

[Joseph Z.]

hey all
I'm living in NYC, 
I want to go into real estate, not sure yet if I would want to do house hacking or cash flow investment, or both.
I have over 250k cash ready to invest, would want to hear from the professionals about which way and path I should choose, should I try to invest in my area (NYC isn't cheap) or should I start out of state?
I'm not very risk-tolerant.
would love to talk to someone who is in the business for a while and wants to help.
Best