Help me chose a type of RE investing to pursue

[William P.]

My situation

Have a decent sized portfolio of stocks, bonds, etc and a main residence.  Have about 250K  to deploy in an alternative asset class, preferably one that inst correlated with the stock market.

Work full time as an finance executive in a technology company.  In pretty high tax bracket, particularly living here in Calif.   An investment yielding current income would have a high hurdle to pass.

Live in highest cost RE area in the country - SF bay area. Housing prices are about $700 per square foot for SFR for mid tier suburb. Palo Alto at the top is $1200 per SF. The low income areas are about $300 per square foot. So local market is not a typical one.

Obviously recognize that RE investing is more work than just placing an mutual fund order. That said, I don't have more than 5-10 hour a week to devote.

Skills - I think good business sense, probably everybody thinks they have that tho. Better than average at working spreadsheets  and understanding finance concepts.  Strong analytic skills.

No real estate specific skills.

Dont want to deal with a tenants directly on a regular basis.

Risk averse in the sense that I don't want to take on investments that could bleed over liability into my other assets.  The 250K can be in risky investments, but I am very wary of liability. Of course there is insurance, but there are crazy juries out there too.

As I write this up, I am not well suited to a lot of the categories of investing, but there a lot of niches so I am throwing it out there. I can always buy REIT shares in my 401K, but looking for something with a bit intellectual stimulation to it