So many shiny objects! Where to get started?

[Brian Collins]

Looking for advice. I have a HELOC that was approved last week and closing on Tuesday. It is a 100%cltv for $79k. I know it is enough to purchase 2-3 investment properties with conventional financing, but not sure if I should use my HELOC to first do velocity banking to pay off most of my debt first (34k student loans and 11k auto loan).

Additionally, I'm not sure if I should buy local before getting in to what I'd really like to do. I'm interested in building a portfolio of Condos in coastal states... Either condo hotels or putting the condos on AirBnB. What are things I should consider?

My background: I'm a loan officer for a mortgage company for more than three years. So the lending space I have a pretty good understanding of that arena. I have been wanting to start investing for the past 4 years.