Advise Needed: Finding the Balance Between Risk & Reward

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Here's a little background on me. I am a real estate broker in Central Oregon and have flipped 2 homes in the last 6 years (primary residences). I’ve made good money on both and now am in a position where I have some options looking to the future. My wife and I identified a home that we wanted to purchase and after the inspection discovered some major structural issues the lead to us terminating the transaction. But, we had already sold our home. I am now in a position that I didn’t expect to be in. I have a lot of experience in real estate sales but minimal, (2 flips), when it comes to investing.

So here is the situation I have been wrestling with, I now have aprox. $110k to work with, no debt, but no primary residence. The current market is making me uneasy and I am very leery about dumping all/most of my money into a home here. My wife and I have 4 kids and homes in the size we need/prefer are selling in the $350-$450k range. I’ve seen this happen here before and I don’t want to be tied to a home like that for the next 10+ years and watch my equity dwindle if the market corrects substantially. The market I am in (Central Oregon) is very expensive and I’ve been seeing the tell tale signs of a correction coming for a year or so now.

My initial thought is to rent a home for a couple years and use my cash for some long distance BRRR investments outside of this market. And purchase a primary again when it makes sense to do so. I have explored moving out of the area but with my career and family planted here that isn't really an option. At a minimum, if I was to stick the money in a CD at least it wouldn't disappear and I can keep my options open for the future.

The rental market is also extremely competitive here. The cons to the rental route is that it definitely is more expensive than buying when it comes to monthly payments. I’m looking at close to $2,000/mo for a 3 bed home here vs $1,600/mo to purchase a similar home, but no capital expenditure with the rental.

I was extremely disappointed to loose out on the home I was buying, it was a great deal and kind of our dream home. But, I’m looking at this as an opportunity to start using my money to work for me and set my family up for a financially secure future.I’m just looking for some opinions on what you would do if you were in my situation.

Thank you all!