Max out retirement before real estate ?

[David Limbaugh]

Hello BP family, I'm a recent grad (<2 years) and have been working since graduation (corporate job). I have been educating myself as much as I can financially, and real estate seems like a really good potential investment. My Goal is to become FI and either retire early or live life less stressed. A bit of advice I see a ton is advising to max out all retirement accounts (in order below) then invest your extra money: 1. 401k to company match 2. HSA 3. IRA (Roth depending) 4. 401k to IRS limits 5. Invest in taxable accounts I understand this is to take advantage of tax shelters, but I also understand that you can avoid/delay taxes with some real estate deals. I agree that is good advice however, I only make ~52K a year so it will be a while before I could max out my accounts and further invest. My question is at what point is it most financially responsible to focus more on real estate that some of the retirement accounts. I think I would like to do the buy & hold strategy with rentals as it really makes sense in my mind. I plan to match 401k and max out my HSA as a minimum. Other than that should I focus on real estate ? If anyone has some lessons learned (success or otherwise ) I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for the help!