Buying new primary residence, What to with current paid off home?

[Anant Radadia]

I have SFH in Jacksonville FL. Paid off that home around 2017. With new home purchase, what would be best strategy to go? If i sell this home it would be around 480k. I already have down payment for new home so i really dont need this 480k go there. There are couple of options i have from here. 1) Rent this home. Current area rental is around $2500/Mo. 2) Sell Home and put more down payment towards new home. It also make sense as Interest Rate is 6.8% and Mortgages are front loading, means very high interest in starting years. 3) Sell this house and get 2-3 smaller rental homes. This is good option too.

I thought option 3 may make sense. I started to find good cash flow deals on rental homes. Reading all day how to do it, Listening pod cast 5 hrs a day. When i started to see rental properties its totally heart breaking. Find a deal in Florida is very difficult. How you guys do it? Am i making bad decision here? Is it totally wrong market to find rental?

Please help anyway you think. I am also ok if i need to get some help/ paid service to move forward.