Hello, Newbie post looking for advice

[Ethan Feller]

Hello everyone at BP! I have been a lurker for some time and now have the opportunity to begin my real estate investing so I decided to post and ask for some advice. I am in a rather unique position in terms of money so people who like planning and hypotheticals will probably be interested.

For reasons I won't be detailing I have come into about $500k that I am interested in deploying into real estate opportunities. I want to build wealth, and income for my family and me for years to come. 

I would like to know how someone with experience would best leverage this money. 

About me: I am 23 years old living in the NYC area, and recently left a job in finance. I have the opportunity to take another job, but would also like to pursue building a real estate company full time with the funds. Ideally I want to find investment properties yielding at least 1% of property value per month, and possibly look for fix and flips for extra income. I am quite business savvy, and am very familiar with numbers and planning (I worked as a quant at a trading firm). 

Would it be best for me to leverage the entire amount and look for a large rental property to purchase? Should I purchase a rental property 100% cash and use the equity to fund more deals? Should I pursue smaller scale properties and slowly build up to using the entire amount? Would it be advisable to pursue this full time? 

Additionally who should I be contacting to build a team? Lawyers, agents, CPA, contractors? Should I set up a separate LLC to pursue deals? what areas around NYC are best for investing? I was thinking Jersey City, any locals have an advice.

All of this is very recent so I will be attending RE investor meetups asap to find a mentor and network. Sorry if this is a bit all over the place, I have a number of questions and sorta just spewed them all over this page. 

Thanks in advance everyone!