Do I need to eliminate my debt before beginning my RE career?

[Anthony Aragona]

I’m really looking to begin my journey into real estate but I’m unsure if my own personal finance situation needs to be addressed before getting off the ground. I’m married with 2 small children. My wife and I both make decent money but we don’t exactly have a lot of positive cash flow from those jobs. We have a mortgage, car payments, utilities, school tuition, credit card debt (more than we should) and my wife’s student loan. If nothing changed, the student loan would be paid off in just over 4 years. Do I need to pay off most of these debts before beginning? I live in an expensive market (NY) and I don’t have a lot of money available for down payments on an initial investment. I’m not asking for someone to break down my whole situation. if they point me in the right direction for education materials, it’d be immensely appreciated.