Keep or sell current home

[Marian Jimenez]

Hi,

I bought a house 3 years ago and made lots of improvements. The house was a 2 bed 1 bath and I made it into a 3 bed 3 bath. I got it for $650,000 cash and I got a 3% 15 year loan for 200,000 for the improvements. I'm really sure I did everything wrong, I was not knowledgeable nor was I thinking about it as a business, but somehow I enjoyed myself so much I'm now considering getting into real estate investing.

My goal is to have passive income (I work freelance so I will eventually need it), as well as income for retirement. So I'm looking into rentals, probably out of state since the California market is kind of high.

My realtor says we can list the house for $1,010,000 now. Or I can go back to my lenders and get some equity out to invest, although I'm worried they won't lend me much due to my freelance work. Since there is not BP calculator for this I'm a bit at a loss as to what to do. 

I have learned a lot about what to do next time.. but I can't find much info as to what should I do with what I have now. I would love any suggestions and/or links to information.

Thanks for the help!