Formulating a plan...

[N/A N/A]

I am currently 24 years old, a full time law student, and I will be graduating in the spring of '08. This will be the first time I will have a chance to start saving money, investing, etc. and so I have been researching and reading into real estate.

Before I get down to the questions, I'll give a little synopsis of my background and goals that I have. When I graduate, I should be in about $80,000 of debt. Most of the debt (just over $50,000) has an interest rate of 7.2%. Of the rest, the interest rate ranges from 9.1% to 7.9%. When I graduate, I will be living at my parent's house, who plan to not charge me rent, and so I plan on having a significant portion of my salary to save or invest.

My initial plan is to do as much research as I can over the course of my last year of school. I have been reading books whenever I get the chance and going to websites and browsing forums. I want to start small and become a residential landlord of SFH or multi-family homes (possibly student housing because it is something which I am familiar with). I have no plans on how far I will take things. I just want to concentrate on: saving as much as I can now, making sure I'm educated in what I'm doing, investing in good deals, and working hard and efficiently with my time.

My first question is getting input on whether or not I should be paying off my student loans (see above) asap, or whether I should be paying them off over a 15-20 year period and saving the rest the money that I'm not spending to begin investing in real estate. I forgot to mention I don't have a car payment to worry about either, so I definitely plan on having extra money to save or pay of loans more quickly. I currently have a FICO of about 740, which is hindered mainly because of my lack of credit history, loans, and other things which are out of my control (my payment history is good).

Also, my second question is whether it would be a good idea to start off with buying a fixer-upper first home to live in over 2 years and sell. The major benefit to this, in my eyes, would be to learn my way around handling house problems and becoming generally 'handy' with fixing things up. This is a major skill that I currently feel I would be lacking in order to become successful in real estate. It is also a skill that I really want to have, because I really think I would enjoy doing it. I worked for a landscape architect as a laborer installing lawns, landscapes, walkways, etc, and I really do enjoy physical labor and seeing projects through to completion.

Anyways, this is my first post, so it is also sort of an introduction. Feel free to also add any general advice!