Selling single family home for second investment? Need advice!

[Cari Childers]

Hey there!

I’m 33 years old.  I bought my first home back in 2012 for $120,000 with a 3.5% interest rate in downtown Orlando.  It’s a 3/1, with a huge yard in a great area, near the airport, and good schools. I owe about $80,000 on it. 

Since that time, I’ve rented it for the past 4 years as I’ve been working abroad on boats.  I’ve upgraded the windows, the bathroom, replaced the roof, put in new flooring, updated the electricity, a new tankless hot water heater. 

From market reports it’s now worth $215,000-230,000.  It’s also being rented for double my mortgage. My mortgage is $687 and the tenant pays $1500.  Is now the time to sell, take my equity out and buy a triplex or larger property, or should I hold and just take a few years more of saving to get a bigger property in addition to my Orlando home?  The market seems to be a sellers market in Florida at the moment so I’m not sure how far I’d get.   Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 

[Wayde C Hall]

I'm by no means an expert, but it looks like pulling the equity out of the home is a great idea with a decent return.  Also many anticipate a "market correction" in the future so possibly using that return to invest seems like a great opportunity instead of waiting for a potential drop in value?

Looking to know what others say.