Should I sell my first home to invest in flipping

[Deva Kamatham]

Hello Gurus,

My situation is very confusing, please advice. I have a home in los angeles and worth about 500 + now with an equity of 140 k. I quit my day job a year ago and moved out of country as I am not interested to work in IT for longer. my income currently is real estate rentals and some agriculture in foreign country. Currently i have ARM with another 2 years left over for that fixed period and then variable start. I rented this home in LA and managed by myself( Difficult and i was lucky so far). Now that tenant moved out i am thinking of selling as no cashflow on it with the loan, mortgage insurance which wont drop for another 3 years.

My question is should i sell the home and invest that money in real estate rehabbing? ( I have plenty of time now) or should i leave that house as is and look for real estate with self directed IRA ( i have around 120 k on it) ? Please advice.

Thanks

Dev

[Elizabeth Colegrove]

Honestly that is a really hard one. You seem to have a good plan of "what" to do with the money. The key I would make sure you are able to flip long distance. We have been VERY successful long distance managing but honestly I wouldn't be comfortable long distance flipping. On the other hand that is me !

Here is a detailed article where I go into the topic of sell or rent in great length

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/12/29/sell-or-rent-out-home-factors-to-consider/