Should I sell my house, so I can have more money to invest?

[Nick Stango]

My house has been eating up every bit of income that I earn for the past 15 years, my wife has been wanting me to sell and downsize, but we still have three children living with us. I really want to start doing fix and flips, and will have about $80k to work with if I sell, but that's before buying or renting something to live in. There are almost no duplexes in are area, and my wife wants to move to CA someday but is also ready to get her PA/NJ RE license. This is a very confusing situation for me. What should I do? Any suggestions? 

[Alexander Felice]

@Chris L. nailed it imo 

If you can make 80k in cash by selling you should have a bit more than that in usable equity. Equity lines are pretty easy to get too. The last one I got had a digital market appraisal, took about 10 days, and cost me $171 

If you sell that house you'll make one-time cash but you'll lose amortization benefits, tax benefits, and you'll have to pay taxes on any profit. Also, part of that cash will have to go back into buying something else. My bet is once all the numbers fall out at the end you'll find yourself downsizing with not much cash leftover to flip AND less equity. You've reaped a ton of hard to see benefits from paying on a mortgage for 15 years. I wouldn't be hasty to throw that out, instead, try to tap into it.