Kickstarting my investment life after many years of reading and planning, it's time to take action. I own a SFH and I'm deciding whether renting or selling is the best option. It seems rather obvious but pulling the trigger for the first time has me in an over analyzing paralysis. Looking for feedback.

Here are the financial statistics.

- Purchased in 2011 for approx $145,000 @ 4% on a 15yr fixed mortgage. Originally a foreclosure an investor flipped but sold at a lost due to market and financial pinch.
- Current mortgage left is a shade over 100k. House value has bounced back and appreciated to 190k, give or take a few thousand. This value is from a realtor valuating the home, not a website estimate so I'm confident in the value.
- Market in this area is very strong; homes are lasting an average of 9 days on the market.
- Selling would net somewhere between 70k-100k, depending on the sell price and if I use a realtor.

However using this as my first property is also attractive.

- After refinancing, the new combined payment of mortgage, taxes, and insurance (no HOA) would be about $950.
- Rent would be somewhere between $1500-$1700.
- Brand new roof installed a couple weeks ago plus the indoor HVAC Unit and Hot Water Heater have both been replaced in the last 5 years, so major maintenance costs should be low for some time if nothing goes incredibly wrong.
- This puts my cash need at basically 0 to acquire my "first investment" and the cap rate is about 17% depending on what numbers are used to assume monthly costs.

I feel like if I saw this deal online, I'd think it was too good to be true and that I should make this my first income property. Seems like it's clearly the best idea but the allure of a quick, easy sale to net a large profit to use to acquire more than a single property and have the option to really accelerate my portfolio keeps biting at my heels.

I need someone to shake the tree so I stop holding on so tight and make a call one way or the other. These first steps seem overly daunting, which I'm sure is a surprise to no one.

Thanks in advance!

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