Turn home into rental and rent another home

[Austin Powell]

Residence to Rental - Rent next place?

I’d like to turn my primary residence - $225k townhouse (3 bed 2.5 bath) - into a rental and then go on and rent a $2500/month luxury townhouse.

I've owned my current town home for two years and have roughly $35k-$40k in equity. The mortgage, insurance, and HOA totals to be $1750 a month.

My goal is to purchase a bigger home with my finance in the next year or two (thinking around $400-450k single family home). However, we want to save more money before purchasing that next home. The main issue is that we need more space than what we currently have. The $2500/month luxury townhome we are looking at has an additional 1100 sq ft, larger garage, and better location.

What I’d like to accomplish is an upgrade in home (space, location, etc) without putting myself in a bad financial position.

Is renting a house and owning an investment property a good idea for a year or two before purchasing our next home?