Let's say you have $80K in your savings account...

[Jennifer Fernéz]

Let's say you are a brand new investor. You are 40 years old and you have a family. You have $80K in your savings account, and you decide you want to invest in real estate.

Knowing what you know now, what would you do with your 80K? How would you make it grow the quickest?

[V.G Jason]

Don't househack,  especially with a family. That's a great way to sacrifice your family.

House hacking works if you're ready to do it every 3-7 years and put 10-15% down, not 3-5% and doing it every 1-2 years. You'll run into DTI problems. Also, a SFH> 2-4 unit in almost in any area, especially HCOL. You can househack non-conventionally, but that's by renting the room out and the better way. Still with a family, that's a no-go.

$80k cannot get you at $400k house, you need closing costs + reserves. It gets you a $260-$280k house with "BP reserves" and normal closing costs. 

You need to tell us what this $80k is and what your intentions are. Is it your actual savings or was this saved to invest, because there's no such thing as "excess" cash. 

But ideally you don't tell us, you are just going to have agents pitch their city like @Julian De la Guardia & the sort. Rather I hope you had an intention with this, and therefore can answer it yourself.