Should I take out my Equity?

[Andrea Long]

I am new to owning rental property. We lived in our house for 7 years and weren't having much luck selling it so we decided to try and rent it out. We had an overwhelming amount of people interested and picked what we think was the perfect renter. She has been in the home for 16 months now. The rental house is on a 15 year mortgage and will be paid off in less than 12 years. Most of our monthly payments are going towards the principal of the house (only $200 a month going towards interest). To make the transition into our "forever home" we had to take a loan out on the new house at 0% down and a fixed/adj mortgage that changes after 7 years. 

My question that I have asked my tax guy but haven't received a straight answer is, we have around $30-$40k in equity in the rental house now. Should I refinance and take that equity out and put it down on our forever home and refinance it to a fixed 15? I do not have the rental in an LLC but have an umbrella insurance policy on it. I was worried about being sued for any reason and losing my equity.

My thought process is if I have more interest on the rental then it's more I can write off every year on my taxes. I feel like the forever home I am in now is appreciating in value due to some major bridge construction and development near that area and the rental home is depreciating in value due to some of the crime rates going up. 

I just have zero experience so if anyone knows of a professional in the Clarksville/Jeffersonville Indiana area that I can reach out to or if they have any recommendations on my situation, I would be eternally grateful! 

This is my first post on the forum! Excited to be a member :)