Sell or dive into our first rental property?

[Amy Blunck]

Hey all, humble beginning here hoping for some guidance.

We are building a new home and had been planning on selling our current home. However, we're interested in jumping into the property rental investment side of things and wondering if this is a good time to do that. We're in the beginning stages of understanding real estate investment so I'm hoping you all can give me some advice on this situation. Basic details: If selling, we were going to take about $90k equity and take that to our new home. I don't really want to bring less equity to the new home and raise our new mortgage payment. What are good options to making that happen if we keep the current home and rent out - e.g., HELOC, refinancing? What are some numbers, strategies, or calculators should we also consider in selling vs. renting?

Thanks in advance for your help.