I am moving. Should I sell my current house or rent it out?
Hi BP-
My wife and I have been looking to upgrade houses for about a year now, and finally closed on our new home just yesterday. We both have really enjoyed the search and have been considering making the leap into real estate investing by holding onto our current primary residence and renting it out. If we were to do this, we'd get a PM to find tenants and do the legal/leasing for us in exchange for one month's rent, but I would take the management from there.
I was introduced to BP through the podcasts, and have been reading up on real estate investing, and I'm pretty convinced that I want to get into buy & hold investing as a retirement strategy, but I need some advice as to if my current home is the right place to start.
- I owe $140,000, and could sell for about $175,000
- After expenses, I'd cash flow about $100 UNTIL I pay off a $10K second mortgage that I have on it. So, if I buckle down and get that paid off quick, I would soon be cash flowing $350/mo
My thinking is that selling this thing would cost almost half of the equity that I have into it, but on the other hand I don't know if there are better things I could do with the equity I'd get. HELP!