Should I be debt free before investing?

[Mike Lee]

Over the past few weeks a good friend of mine and I have discussed the potential of starting to invest in multifamily properties together. Both he and I have dabbled in rentals alone in the past, transitioning former primary residences into buy and hold rentals. At this point, we both have some non real estate debt that is lingering, and have differing views on whether or not we should eliminate that debt before going all-in with RE investing.

If I focused on paying off my non-RE debt, I would be done by the end of this year sometime (November/December 2020 likely). My friend would likely take an extra year (December 2021). Since I can see "the light at the end of the tunnel", 9 months of focus is feasible, however he rather get started investing now, with the notion that if we did 2 flips, he and I could make enough potentially to pay off said debt.

Thoughts/advice welcome.