Eliminate debt before purchase?

[Austin Collins]

I am in a little bit of a predicament. I have a property I am interested in investing in and it would be my first purchase to get started in real estate. I am really anxious to get started but I have also been told to eliminate debt first as well. My only debt at the moment is school loans for a total of $38,000. If I were to pay that off I would have to set back in buying a property for a little over a year. So my question is what should I do first; pay off student loans or go ahead and get started? I don't see why I can't do both but it would just take longer to pay loans off. Please let me know what you would do.