Seeking advice: Pay off Debt or Invest in Real Estate?

[Alex Schafler III]

After a chat with a friend of mine about how I am not satisfied with where my Real Estate knowledge currently is, I did some thinking and came up with a crazy (I feel) idea. I have nearly 40k in government student loan debt, debt that I would love to get rid of. So, in thinking about what my interests in Real Estate are - I am primarily interested in house hacking - and my dreams of being debt free, I landed on purchasing some of the BP recommended Real Estate books, reading through them by the end of this year, and attempting to purchase a duplex somewhere around May/June of 2017. Then, I would use the money I am throwing away on living expenses every month to help me pay down my debt over the course of about 4-5 years. This is all assuming I am able to find a property that cash flows sufficiently to where my living expenses would be paid for by the tenant I rent the second unit of the duplex out to.

Sound insane? It kind of does to me, considering my current financial situation. It also sounded crazy to a lady I spoke with at a local REIA meeting I attended last night. She was the only one in the room who said she had done something similar to what I want to do, except she lived in a house and rented the extra rooms out. That's why I sought her out, to see if I could potentially make a quality connection with someone with actual experience. She seemed excited to talk to me, until I started giving details about my situation. You see, I currently wash dishes for a local restaurant chain during the day, bring in barely 1k per month in income (after taxes), a little over half of which goes toward living expenses, and use a bicycle and the local transit system to commute around town since I don't own a car. She advised me to try and focus on getting my life together, which she defined as securing better employment in science; the degree that earned me my student loan debt.

I don't know if I will be attending said REIA again next month because of the "speaker" they had that night. He sounded very guru-y, claimed that flipping houses is "easy", and used the entire presentation as a pitch for a "class" he is holding two Saturdays from now. But I digress.

I thought I would present this situation to the BP community and ask their advice and opinion on the whole concept of paying off debt versus using Real Estate as a vehicle to help you reach your goals. So, what do you guys think? Where do you fall on the spectrum of this concept? 

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. 

P.S. Apologies if I posted this in the incorrect sub-forum.