Advice for converting our condo into rental and buying SFH

[Christian Aziz]

I'm going in circles trying to decide what makes the most sense financially with owning two properties. We'd like to ultimately move into a larger single family home and rent our current condo.

We bought a 2 bedroom condo in 2014 for $160k (15yr mortgage) and have now outgrown it. It's worth about $215k now and we have $88k and 8 years left on the mortgage. We'd like to convert it to a rental and move into a larger home for ~$500k. HH income is about $130k excluding bonuses and we have no other debt.

I'm having trouble determining which scenario is the best approach given the details.

Scenario 1: Refinance the $88k to 30 year, no cash-out, drastically reducing the payment for us now and for rental cash flow.

Scenario 2: Cash-out refinance up to 70% LTV. Will give us cash for downpayment but will make rental cash flow very tight (maybe $100 month or less)

Scenario 3: Keep the current mortgage terms and save up/buy second home, then potentially refinance later on (in a year or two)

Scenario 4: Sell our current place and buy a larger home. Then look for rental separately.