Help me brainstorm my next move!

[Andrew West]

Hey BP!

Wanted to bring a current decision I'm facing and leverage the power of this community for advice. 

Long story short, my family and I are considering moving, and I'm trying to figure out the best financial move for our primary residence. We've owned our primary residence for 6years and seen dramatic appreciation. Principal on our mortgage is $395k (interest rate 2.5%) and it's worth about $800k, conservatively. Mortgage payment is ~$2200. If we keep it, the house will rent for about $4000/month.

(As an aside, we own one triplex and one short-term rental (both out-of-state) which combined bring in ~$1500 in cash flow.) 

Options as I see it:

- Leading option: Sell the house now and roll all equity into stable, passive REI investments (what kind exactly, I'm not sure). At 12% COC return, the $400k equity could make $4,000/month in cash flow. This would leave no capital to buy our next house so we'd have to rent (Which we're not opposed to, especially since it'll likely be a new location). I expect rents to run around $3500 in a new location.

- Sell the house and roll all the equity into buying a new house where we decide to move. For ease of analysis, I'm assuming "apples to apples" with the old/new house and that anything we'd buy would be ~$800k (albeit with a MUCH higher interest rate).

- Rent it out and continue to hold it with the current mortgage as-is.

- Keep it, do a cash-out refinance to use some equity for other investments, and rent it out.

I know that everyone's situation is nuanced, but I would just love some general thoughts on how YOU would think about this! Is this a good idea? Are there risks? I've love to hear both the analytical and philisophical sides of this equation! I've done my own spreadsheeting, but hit me with your thoughts & wisdom.

Cheers!