Buy, Sell, or Rent?

[Allison Lucas]

Hi BP! This is my first post. I've been listening to the podcasts religiously for a few months now and thought I'd reach out to get some keen insight on a few big decisions my family has coming up.  I am eager to get into real estate investing and have a couple of possible ways to start due to our family situation. 
I was laid off from my job in April but have a great severance package. That said, we are planning on moving from Chicago to Grand Rapids, MI. 

We purchased our townhouse in Chicago last July.  It is new construction (we're the first owners) and has high end finishes (marble, marble, everywhere). It's a 3 bed / 3 bath with 2 car garage in an up and coming neighborhood and situated in a townhouse community with its own private park - an amazing place for a young family. We won't make our money back on it if we sell - the market just isn't there yet considering how much we put into it (~15K) because we had planned to live here for a few years. With the loss of my job, we're acting on our plan to move to Grand Rapids earlier than expected.  We plan to raise our young family there.

So - two questions - 

1. Would you rent out the townhouse in Chicago and start your investment portfolio?  We likely won't be able to get any cashflow out of it due to the rent comps in the area.

2. Would you buy or rent in Grand Rapids to start? We were thinking of renting for a year so that I could get to know the area (my husband is from there), and my long term plan was to start investing in that area.  But now I'm thinking that even if we stay in a place for a year there, why not buy something that we could then rent when we look to purchase our family home a year or so down the road? I'm not worried about getting another high paying job in that area, so I'd likely have a W2 to back up our healthy finances.

Thanks in advance for your insight BP tribe!