Advice Please - home Renovation stopped asbestos fun

[Alex White]

Hi my wife and i got a great deal on a fixer upper for our "forever home" at the time. While figuring out how to accomplish the renovations we long term wanted we encountered asbestos insulation in the attic that was hidden by the previous home owners( 2 bedrooms were completely renovation and ceilings raised, the master bedroom was still original). During the process I was laid off from work and have relocated to another city until renovation is done and my new job has materialized. Instead of fixing up for selling, with the current appreciation shown in the past several years, i believe holding the property and renting it out is the first step for joining the exciting world of real estate investing. 

I've been listening a lot to the podcasts and starting on the forums. I'm trying to use the rental calculator to crunch numbers on the property to really measure expectations and see what the best case scenario is. Once the hurdles are overcome i hope to use this as a stepping stone to slowly build a real estate portfolio and develop cash flow on the side of my full time job. 

Does this sound like a smart plan as opposed to selling? what tips are there to putting your newly renovated principal residence up as a rental or are the steps to consider the same as acquiring a new unit to rent out?

this purchase was definitely more of a long term project when initially purchased but i believe still has some great ROI potential.

Looking to Capitalize....