Use ESOP payout for real estate investing?

[Pablo Kelleher]

The company I currently work for is an ESOP company and was recently purchased by another company. I will be receiving a payout of approximately $460K, 80% of which I will receive this next quarter and the remaining 20% within the next 24 months. My end goal is to eventually be able to quit my day job and invest full-time in real estate. I've been informed that to avoid any tax penalty at the time of payout is to rollover the funds to a retirement account. My question is, is there any way for me to use these funds to invest in real estate while at the same time avoiding any tax penalties? I've been reading about self-directed IRAs but from what I understand, any profits would have to go back to the self-directed IRA to eventually benefit from at retirement time. I'm only 35 so I have a ways to go to be able to enjoy the profits of using a self-directed IRA if I am understanding this tactic correctly. I would appreciate any input and ideas of what I can do with my ESOP while at the same time being able to benefit from any real estate investments within the next few years rather than only at retirement.

P.S. - I am a rookie on real-estate investing since I just started learning about it just this year but I am very eager to learn.