My answers are all coming from the perspective that you will be hunting for a mortgage for this multifamily property and not paying cash or using private funding.....
Step 1 - check your credit report and score. You can get your report for free once per year. Make sure everything is correct, and if you have any late/deliquent accounts, get those fixed. You want to know your credit report before you go to the bank and get surprised.
Step 2 - where will you be working? Do you have a job now? If you have stable employment then that is very favorable. If you don't have a job yet, focus on getting a good one first (unless you have lots of cash and or access to private funding and can buy property using "alternative" means).
Step 3 - Play with some numbers to determine how much of a mortgage you can afford. This is the step which will tell you if you need to pay down your student loan/car loan first, before attempting to buy the kind of real estate that you want...
Incomes on one side (include your job - monthly gross, 50% of the rents you would expect to get from the other units) and one the other side, your debts (monthly car payment, monthly student loan, and an estimated monthly mortgage payment ) - if your ratio of debt to income is less than ~42-44% then you won't have to pay your loans off first to start investing. If you are higher than that percentage, then you should focus on paying off your debts so that your ratio falls under that limit.
Hope this helps.
