$80k in Cash and Ready to make the leap...

[Anthony Feola]

I have had a passion for real estate investing for a long time but never put the passion to use. Now that I have educated myself the last few years in my path to becoming a Financial Advisor (understanding and learning Real Estate is almost mandatory when being a financial advisor) I wanted to make the leap to expand my investing portfolio. 

To keep things short, I have $80k in liquid cash and was tempted to buy a small condo/apartment unit within a complex in cash. The more I read and the more I talk to investors, they advise a different approach in putting a couple down payments on maybe 2 multi-family deals instead. 

I guess my question is what would some of you recommend? My thought process is with a paid for rental unit I will be able to snowball real estate investments much faster than leveraging multiple deals at one time...Thoughts?