What path should I take?

[Zachary Gray]

I'm looking for any help, advice, tips, tricks, or ideas. I live just outside of Charlotte, NC. My wife and I bought our house in 2015 with the idea of eventually turning it into a rental property. This was before I knew anything about REI. We bought it for market value of $162k, put $7k down, and got an FHA loan for $155k. I had a hunch that the area's value would rise, and a little over two years it's worth $205k (according to Zillow), with our loan paid down to $145k. Our mortgage is $1,050 monthly. I made a poor choice to buy an expensive car in 2013 and had high payments of $420 a month. Knowing I had to change something to make my Real Estate dreams happen. I have sold the car for a profit of $5k which went directly into our savings which is now almost $20k. I've been thinking of trying to get an equity line of credit on my house. This way we can keep it for a rental. I've also thought about selling the house. Taking the profit and buying a fixer upper while also buying another property for a rental. I love the idea of long distance investing, essentially following David Greene's "core four" strategie. I just don't really know how to find the good markets, or run the numbers on property yet. Any help on a path or strategy I haven't thought of, would be great thanks! Let me know if you have any questions for me.