Weighing debt paydown vs real estate investment

[Gary Dezoysa]

Preamble: Real estate investment is less certain than paying down debts and the safest thing to do is get to 0 debt before investing.

With that out of the way, how would you advise a real estate investor holding non-REI debt but a good amount of savings to approach a potential investment? What is is a good savings cushion as a percent of the initial investment? How much higher of an ROI should be targeted to justify the added risk of buying an SFR instead of paying down debt?

In lower cost areas (in terms of median home value) I'm seeing IRRs north of 20% which seems like a good setup to invest provided the savings cushion is there.

Thanks