First Investment - Seeking Experienced Advice

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My business partner and I have been working for 3 years saving up money to make our first down payment on a Real Estate Investment. I have been working as an electrician and my partner has been working construction. We plan to continue working full time until we have enough overhead with our real estate investments to make that our full time job. We have 2 ideas for our road to success, but I would like some further advice from you guys to see what exactly is our best move.

My first idea is to put a down payment of around 20,000 on a 4-5 unit building and start renting for around 600-800 w/o util. This many units will cover the loan payments of what I approximate to be around 1500/mo. with a large overhead to boost our monthly salary. We are planning on working full time after the purchase of this property to increase our income until the point where we can save up another 20-30,000 to down on another property, until the point that we don't even need our current full time jobs, and taking full time responsibility to our properties.

My second idea (more of his idea) is to purchase a large amount of land which there seems to be a lot of in my local area (mid-coast Maine). We plan on subdividing the land and building a road through it and having large real-estate auctions with low monthly payment options on the land. This idea seems like it has large yield potential but at the same time also may not offer the immediate income that investing in an apartment complex does.

I am just looking for an outside, experienced opinion on my situation. Any help or advice you may have for me would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks for your time,

Pete