You can apply it to other money toward a down payment - of course one would have to thing really small but it's enough for something cheap to invest and later flip.
With just the 30k you can grab anything under 150k (like land) hold on to it and turn around a sell it.
Depends on your style - I did stocks once and it's not for me and for those that it is - more power to them.
I had less money when I bought a house that's now worth upwards of 750k.