advice? 22 year old with decent savings beginning journey to FI.

[Arjun Parmar]

Hey everyone! First post here in the forums.

I am looking for some general advice for somebody in my situation with my goals. Currently I am 22 years old and recently graduated with my business degree and luckily no student debt. I have around 25k in the bank, and my car is paid off so I am in pretty good shape. However I live in a super expensive area (currently San Diego) and will soon be moving to an even more expensive area (Santa Cruz). I am moving to pursue my dream job of doing marketing for a new brewery, so avoiding the move isn't going to happen. 

My goals involving real estate are to obviously become a rental property owner and be producing passive income long term. In the short term though I am torn. I think realistically I do not want to pursue an out of area deal, and because rent is so high ideally find an off-market deal in Santa Cruz that would allow me to house-hack. Ultimately I will need at least 50-60k for a down payment in my area, my current dilemma is whether to invest this money I already have into index funds while I continue saving towards that goal, or is it impractical to have all the money tied up in the case that a real estate investment opportunity came up?