Financial/ Investing Plan advice.

[Shane Short]

Hey Everyone, 

So I need some advice, as i'm in a very difficult decision making point in my life.

I currently have approx. 9,000 in my savings. My goal was to save 14k by the beginning of March '18 (when my lease ends for my apartment), and purchase a Duplex to house hack the one unit, and rent one of the rooms of the unit i'll be in. I was approved for an FHA loan for 3.5% down. I already have a guy wanting to rent a unit for 1500, as rent here in Portland is Insane, and that's on the cheaper side. And I have my current roommate, who'd also be moving into my unit and continue to pay 650/ mth. to rent it. All in all profit of a little over 2k a month, and my mortgage would be about 1600 at max since i'm setting my max purchase price at 400,000.

The dilemma i'm having though is this, I'm currently 22, and about 27k in debt. Credit card debt to say the worst.... long story short, lost my HVAC business a few years back and lived off of a card for a while. I've been paying it down for a while, but I don't know if I should go with the duplex, then allocate my current 3k of savings a month to my debt after buying a duplex, or to pay off all of my debt for the next 8-12 months, continue saving a little more, and then purchase a duplex. 

Choice No. 2 sounds a lot more stress appeasing, but, being able to save an additional 700 a month that i'm currently paying for my rent, plus making a 5-600 dollar profit would help tremendously, and i'd be able to pay off my debt much faster, and also get another MFR late summer/ early fall of next year.

Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated. I'm so eager to get out and start making good money. I've been trying to situate my life for this for years. But I want to make sure i'm not making a mistake and letting desperation get in front of my decision making. My long term goal is to have 10-15 properties to provide passive income, and to be able to flip houses, go to college for whatever I feel like learning and being able to enjoy it and do it for me, not just a 9-5 career immediately after graduation, and to be able to travel and start having kids, and being able to devote my time and energy to what matters in this short life we have.

I appreciate you all listening to my rant!