New Member, First Property - Does this make sense?

[Christine Shay]

Hello Everyone,

I'm excited and nervous to be here all at the same time! I am unexpectedly getting into my first rental and was hoping for some feedback.

I'm buying a new home and keeping my current 3/3 single family to rent out. 

I purchased the 3/3 single family property in 2019 for 225K and it's now worth about 350K.
My outstanding loan balance is 163K @ 3.5%
I calculated that I'd clear 900/mo after expenses.

I was planning to buy my new house for cash, but with the market where I'm moving/buying I'm having to go about 100K over what I was planning, so I'm taking out a 50K loan for that property. I'd plan to pay off both loans within 5-7 years with cash flow from the rental and other income and assets.

I'm an accredited investor and will still have more than a year of expenses covered in liquid assets and additional funds to buy another 1-2 properties in the next 2 years, which is my goal.

I don't know if I've provided enough or the right information to get some opinions if what I'm planning to do with my current house and new home purchase makes sense. 

My overall goal with real estate is to have a small portfolio of STRs and LTRs that I'd hold to sustain my lifestyle going forward. I'm on my own doing this and didn't expect to be, but here I am. I'm actually excited about the prospect of finally owning some rentals, as I've wanted to do it for a long time but I let life get in the way. 

Thanks for reading and for your feedback.