You only need to look at yesterday's market (Tues Feb 21) to judge the current volatility of the stock market.Real estate investing offers predictable returns - your rents should continue to at least keep pace with inflations assuming you maintain the properties and do your diligence when selecting tenants. 

Now, if the commercial property prices can be observed during the same period, while there is an initial dip, there is also a rather quick recovery.Even during the uncertain times of the pandemic scenario of 2020, the commercial real estate market was among the few investments that remained rather insulated from the volatility of the market and started on a recovery path much sooner.

We're in a very volatile real estate market and economy as a whole; I'd feel a lot more comfortable owning a 100% occupied retail building that's 20% below market rent than owning a 25% occupied one that everyone is paying market rent.  

Being in sales my income is volatile but I typically have an extra $50k-$150k/year left over to invest each year. 

Invest in multifamily housing and you’re likely to see a higher rate of return than stock investing with much less volatility and with greater tax benefits.While the history of stock market returns shows us that the market has been up more than it’s been down, anyone with a sizable chunk of stock market shares would tell you that this investment vehicle is not for everyone.

If you think that the stock market is too volatile, you can do crypto or NFTs..Maybe don't get out of residential real estate?

I've personally diversified into other types of investments right now for that reason:1. net lease - turnkey cash flowing properties occupied by essential business tenants with long term leases and built in rent increases - COC return isn't as high as the value-add multifamily deals of the past, but if I'm going to get lower COC returns I'd rather it be in this space versus multifamily because there's more consistent monthly income, versus the volatility you experience in the first few quarters or years of stabilizing multifamily.2. development - ground up and office-to-multifamily conversion.

In short, Atlanta is a volatile, and somewhat dangerous market.

I like your idea of doing an all cash purchase in these higher interest rate and volatile market times. 

Short term of course is volatile and difficult to predict, especially with an election year coming up.