What do you think? Sell or keep as rental?

[Alicia Hensley]

I have a SFR rental in Utah. It makes about $140/month in cashflow. The city it's in is growing quickly (new hospital, a new high school, businesses, etc.). I would like to free up some cash from the property and I don't think I can get any sort of line of credit, or equity loan (still waiting to hear back from the loan officer though). I have about 20% equity.

I have a couple of options:

#1. Keep as a rental to gain equity and rental income. I would sell in about 2 years depending on the market. 

#2. Sell when the lease is up this spring and use part of the the money to buy a primary residence using a FHA 203K loan, and use the rest to reinvest in other real estate.

I want to walk away with a minimum $30,000 with the sale of the house and use that for real estate investing. If I waited, I could get more (from equity and rental income), but if I sell in the spring I can use the money for other investments...which could, in the long run, possibly mean more money if everything goes well. 

I've been going back an forth about this for a while now....thoughts? Ideas? Advice? Thanks. 

[Becca Summers]

Have you thought about what the tax implications would be? If you owner occupied for any two of the last 5 years you could sell it without capital gains. That is where I would base my timeline. If it's been a rental for longer and you'll pay taxes either way then I'd debate how much I liked being a long distance landlord.