Turning primary residence into rental

[Matthew Mays]

Hello all,

I'm looking for some pro and con style advice on my plan to start RE investing.

We live in a beautiful neighborhood in a decent house (3 br, 2ba). We purchased at a great price 5 years ago and have equity of approximately 60k in the house. That's a conservative estimate without appraisal based on agent input.

We are searching for a new primary residence that works better for our family as well start down the path of RE investing.

My plan is to keep our current house which is financed at 4.5% and has a monthly payment of $1100.00 which includes taxes. Current rents for similar homes in our neighborhood are between 1500 and 1750 per month.

I would then use cash for a down payment on our new house. It seems that we would cash flow $400+ on the rental, retain all of our equity and upgrade our residence. Likewise would have several options to purchase and find additional investment properties.

 I should mention that I have a very stable job (le officer) and have funds available to account for several months of vacany for a worst case scenario.

Any help, input or suggestions are welcome. Am I missing something?