Should I sell my first home or rent it.

[Mohammed Saeed]

I bought this house back in 2014 for $177k, It is now valued at $285k. I work a 9-5 and really don’t want to do it for the remaining years of my life.
I decided to look into real estate investments but with no funds except for the equity on my house, I thought it might be a good idea to sell this house and take whatever I get out of it and buy a smaller property to start my brrrr journey. During that time I will have to rent but it will be cheaper than what I pay today for a mortgage.

My thought is to try and find a duplex within the first year and live in half and rent the other.

My other option is to just rent the property and move into a cheaper rental but I’ll probably have to refinance the mortgage into 30 year to lower my monthly payments.

The only problem is I can’t afford to rent and pay a mortgage if the house is not rented out fast enough.

Any thoughts or suggestions for this newbie investor?