Are we better off leveraging these funds to start our real estate venture immediately on a solid footing, assuming that in the long run (10, 15, 25 years) we will be able to compound and leverage our gains to build wealth far faster than we would waiting 5 years to save for an adequate down payment for our first property? 

Investing passively in syndicated real estate offerings can be a great option for some people.

But it might be more passive, for sure.All depends on math, and that I do not plan much more than 10 years (if I will survive up:).If I factor the expenses (related to cost of the residental rental) 2,5%depr+1,5%ptax+2%insurance+management etc., that leaves me really small space to get the profit without appreciation.May be for commercial the numbers will look different.

Although, I am a passive RE investor with fundrise, which is not bad as of right now.

So net equity gained will be $35K on a $20K investment.

I will be self managing this as my first investment to gain experience.

I want to put 25K worth of upgrades into my condo prior to selling in order to gain a better sale price.

If you want to open up your deal to non-accredited investors (investors with less than $1M net-worth excluding primary residence), there are very strict non-solicitation rules that would apply, to which your original post would probably disqualify you for.So, now you're left with an SEC 506(c) offering, which allows you to solicit accredited investors (net-worth of $1M and above), or taking general only partners, who have actual active roles with decision making power.If you're still want to take passive investors, you definitely want to talk with a good SEC attorney!

We still have plenty of credit available and we use it on our daily expenses (i.e. food, gas, utilities) in order to gain some of the rewards but it tends to keep our credit available low.

That reports the non recognition of gain and lets them set up the new depreciation schedules etc.