Help me pick the most logical option!

[Troy Pletcher]

Good evening everyone! I am new to the BP forums and REI in general and was hoping to get some opinions from you all on the best way for me to go about getting my journey started in REI. My current goal is to get invested in long term rentals. I'm trying to decide if I should sell my house in what I believe is a seller's market that we are having in Troutman North Carolina and surrounding areas. I purchased my house using a VA loan with zero down about 2 years ago and currently owe $143,000. I had a local realtor run some comps on my house and we believe based on comparable homes listed in the area that I can now potential get close to $185,000 for it . I was wondering, would it be a wise decision to sell my house to cash in on the potentially $30,000-$40,000? Obviously I would still have to find a place to live and I would probably be purchasing another residence in the same seller's market but I was thinking I could purchase a town home using my VA loan with zero down and then I'd still have the $30,000-$40,000 from selling my house. The plan would be to live in the townhouse for the required 12 months and then later rent it out. I currently have $20,000 liquid cash and after selling my house could now potentially have $50,000-,$60,000 to use as down payments on maybe 1-2 rentals. DTI ratio is a problem for me as my gross annual income is currently only $41,000 so I may need a bigger down payment just to meet the required DTI with a conventional mortgage.