To pay off student loans or put $$$ down on a rental

[Amy Ranae]

Hello Friends! I'm a realtor working in the twin cities and I do a lot of good business. I got into real estate to pay off my student loans without really thinking too much about investing. However, the more I work with investors and listen to podcasts, the more I think I really need to get into this. I've got about 30k left on my student loans and about 18k saved up. What are your thoughts on just paying those stupid loans off over the next year-ish vs. buying a rental now and paying the loans off more slowly? 

I feel like I go back and forth a ton. I've made offers on a few properties but our market is pretty competitive at the moment and I don't want to bite off too much with my first one. 

Thanks for you input!

[Jake Thomas]

This is a the same dilemma I started I went through a few years ago. I tried to buy properties when I had student loans and I was very limited to what I could buy and I had to be careful of payments etc. Once I decided to get out of all consumer debt before investing it has become the best decision I ever made. Saving money becomes much easier without all those monthly payments and you just feel a little more financially free. There will always be good deals whether it be this year or next year so I would get focus on getting out of debt and then save up for real estate.