House Sold - Now What?

[Hilary Stalder]

So I sold my house and pulled out everything I had invested in it. I bought the house for $280k, sold it for $350 and paid $10k in expenses on top of the $60k for the renovations, so in short... I broke even. I have $82k in student loans. I made the decision to pay off one large student loan with 7.5% interest at $29k. There are (2) more loans at 7.5% interest rate that regardless of where this cash goes I will focus on the next 2 years (29k and 7k) with any money I'm saving monthly. Remaining loan totals = $54k.

I've already decided that if I can pay off the high interst loans at the 7.5% interest, I'm okay with having the $300/month monthly payment the remaining loans require because they will be paid in full by 2026 (some earlier than that). So most important to pay down is the $29k + $7k student loans at 7.5% interest. 

On the other hand, I'm extremely motivated to continue my real-estate investing journey. I've prided myself on home ownership since the time I was 24 and have reaped the benefits of those labors (my first flip made me $40k). I want to continue this journey and believe in the results. I want to focus more on rentals for that long term wealth building. 

So that leaves me with this... I have $27k left from the sale of my house after paying off one very large loan ($29k). The idea of being out of debt sounds great, but maybe not at the price of delaying investing in another property for years. I'm currently house hacking a duplex with my fiance that leaves me with a VERY small home payment ($400/month including utilities). I'm able to save $2k/month min. We will have lived there for a year in April. 

Long winded, but my final question is this. In the BIGGERPOCKETS communities opinion should I: 1. pay off as much student debt as possible with my remaining money and wait to buy another property as a live in house hack next spring (min $20k for the small multi-families we're targeting in A areas) or 2. invest my remaining money in another house hack now as my primary residence and pay off the debt in small chunks monthly as my savings allow

Let the advise begin... :)