As much as I hate annuities, you might speak with an annuity agent about the employer awarding a bonus in the form of a single premium deferred annuity invested in index funds and that you do not have the right to access until a date certain and then a full payout over time.

You'll also have access to the MLS, be able to do a lot of the work yourself, and save quite a bit on your first purchase. 

Once you gain that experience, it may become more efficient to delegate the task rather than managing it on your own.

We do not do Syndications; we have access to all the funding we will ever need, and I don't like sharing the profits. 

If you're able to get tenants paying over market rents, you can also gain a lot of interest because of the heavy cash-flow. 

Gradually transition to larger, higher-end projects as you gain confidence and expertise, balancing risk and reward.

For example, needing a driveway/access point off a State owned highway is something to be discussed immediately.

I'm biased and can provide reasons and data to show that using an agent will protect you, get you more money, less stress and so on.The reality is you can do it yourself, but tenants generally don't cooperate with showings and that causes lots of problems for buyer to access the unit to show, inspections, appraisals etc.

I do recognize the value and potential for great gains in doing a fix and flip and it is definitely on my radar.

If you can do a renovation loan with 203k or a homestyle loan to house hack a 2-4 unit multi-family, that typically has the highest potential for equity gain with the lowest cost.