Cash flow conundrum decision

[Nicholas DeGaetani]

What should I do - buy my next primary residence and rent out my townhouse for a year at about a $500-$700/month loss (based on comps) or sell the townhouse when I buy the next primary residence and buy a cashflowing rental property? A few of the Pros and Cons I've noted...

Pros:

1) Tax incentives (home office, travel mileage, marketing, capex, etc.) to lower capital gains.

2) Potential 12 more months of equity build up yields more cash from sale in future (12+ months).

3) After 12 months, may obtain "landlord status" to consider 100% of monthly rental income (i.e. ~$2,300) towards DTI ratio

Cons:

1) Lower monthly savings rate by about $500-$700/month. Any Capex from appliance/hvac replacement further lowers monthly savings rate. In turn, this would increase the time to buy next rental property.

2) Negative monthly cashflow of $500-$700/month.

3) DTI ratio when buying 2rd property (2nd rental may be negatively impacted/reduced by $1,000.

Note: I've been eager to get started since 2012 but life (marriage, baby, etc.) have slowed plans down. So I don't want to rent this property out just to get into the rental game.

Questions:

1) Based on the Pros and Cons, what would you do?

2) Does anyone have a CPA with rental experience who they recommend?

3) Has anyone used a Solo 401(k) (i.e. self-directed IRA) before? If so, can you recommend one brokerage companies over another?

Thanks in advance and Happy New Year!

Nick