What to do with my cash on my first cash out, pay off debt or no?

[Drake Espenlaub]

Main question, how much debt should one carry to acquire more property, if any? Not income producing debt, I am strictly talking small payment debt. Car, cc, student loan. If you have a refi cash out, should you wipe all that out before making another purchase? Interested to hear who would go against a Dave Ramsy train of thought?

I am going through with my first cash out refi on a duplex. I have used most of my cash to get it up for remodel and carried some on cc, and refinanced an inexpensive paid off vehicle to complete the job. The refi is looking like it will be anywhere from 31k-40k cash out. I don't like the feeling of looming debt, however can I do more with the cash opposed to paying off the debt. Interested in thoughts. 

The debt looks something like this.

$4,000 on a 3% vehicle loan that is $150/mo-my mind is made up I am getting rid of the vehicle with a different plan, so this will be gone for sure.

$6,500 in cc debt. 

I also own another duplex on a 3 year ARM that I have had for about 5 months, I subject to borrowed on it for 32k and will want to refi it in the next year out of the ARM, would need it to be around 28k on the loan. I was going to put down 5k on that principal for the future refi.

Have another duplex that needs about 12k of work done before it can be rented.

[Ryan D.]

In general, consider consumer debt to be toxic, & work to pay it off ASAP. What is that CC debt costing you in interest? Likely this is something on the order of 15-20% annual rate, & going only on the info you’ve provided here, I would make this your top priority.

The duplex that you say needs $12k in repairs to get it rent ready - do you already own the duplex, or is this something you are thinking about buying? If you own it, then spend the Capital to get this business asset productive.
Then take the remaining $15k or so from your REFI & go after your next investment.

[Joe Villeneuve]

There are tow reason to get into REI as I see it.

1 - Financial.  This includes:  a- acquiring enough passive income to pay all of your monthly bills, and b - to pay off all of your personal debt.

2 - To have fun.

To the first reason, the order you pay it off.  The question usually is offered as follows.  
"What debt do you pay off first, the one with the highest interest, highest payment, or highest debt".

The answer is:  None of the above.  If you pay off the one with the lowest balance first, you hit the trifecta:  1)  You eliminate the debt, 2) you eliminate the monthly payment on that debt, and 3)  you then free up the payment you were paying in #2 to pay on the next lowest balance debt faster...and pay that off and get the same impact on the next lowest debt...and so on.

Do it this way, and you will pay off all of your debt faster than you can blink an eye.