Hey Gabriel,
Welcome to the site. It looks like you've already made a number of friends! Having previously worked as a career counselor (among other things) I always recommend new investors find something that fits in with their skill set and that they'll enjoy. There are a bunch of different niches to real estate investing and you don't have to follow the beaten path. Find what works for you. You mentioned having a sales background. That's a great skill set, but do you want to stay in sales or are you looking for a change? Do you want to
write reports or hammer nails? Do you want to work with contractors, city officials, tenants, lenders, delinquent homeowners...?
You mentioned having built up a network. There's definitely a place for people who can raise funds for larger projects and that includes building networks of potential investors, getting them interested in a project, and selling them on the abilities of your team.
Finally you said,
Before you jump into spending that money, make sure you have someone more experienced confirm whatever you're about to do (even if it's simply posting here). For example, you mentioned two options: buying outright or using that money as a down payment on (I assume) a larger property. Well, option #3 would be to divide that money into thirds and use it as three down payments on three smaller projects. Given that you're new and no offense, more likely to make a mistake, diversifying could be beneficial.