Sell a profitable rental to start a house flipping business?

[Chad Jones]

Hi everyone,

This is my first time to post, so I'm hoping it's in the right place. 

I've had a rental for about three years, it's worth about 165K and I owe 65K on it.  My renters just informed me they are ready to move.  This investment earns a decent rate of return and has cash flow every month.  It's a good house, 12 years old, it strikes me as one of those rentals that could be held for a very long time.  

My question is, should I sell it to start a house flipping business?  100K would be enough to at least get started, with the help of some hard money lenders.  I've wanted to do this type of business for quite a while now, but never had the capital available to me, until now. 

So I realize this is a very broad and general question, just wanted to get some opinions of other investors.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Chad

[Simon Shih]

Why would you sell it? Keep it, Refinance and pull out the equity. Use the equity to start flipping houses and still have a house that cash flows.

This is the definition of real estate investor. Use your real estate to buy more real estate.