Advice and guidance

[Michael Olvera]

I am looking to move from Michigan to Texas here in the next 3 months or so. As a result, I'll be selling my house and using the gains to put a down payment on a secondary house next to my current rental property. I've spoken to several lenders and each one says I have to high of a DTI ratio. I currently have about 9K saved up and was wondering, is it better to pay down 9K of my 70K debt now? Or keep it until i close and have escrow help me? I'm looking at a gains amount of 40K after closing costs, realtor fees, and tax payback. Either way, they all agreed I must sell my house and use the gains as a debt paydown and down payment to purchase the next. What are your suggestions?