I want to move - should I keep my house and rent it or sell it?

[Trever Jones]

Hi all.  This is my first post on Bigger Pockets.  I've enjoyed reading through these forums and learning the past few months and I feel grateful that such an awesome community exists for people like me to learn about RE investing.

Here's my question - I currently own my home in Montebello, CA.  I owe $372k on the home and it recently appraised for $465k.  My wife and I would like to move to a nicer area so that we can have access to better schools for our son and also to just live in a nicer area.  

So we're looking at Duplexes in Eagle Rock, Pasadena, Glendale and Torrance because we're interested in becoming landlords and moving toward investing more and more. I currently have a HELOC that I obtained for $45k and that's from the equity in my currently home. I'm wondering if it's a good idea for me to rent out my current home and use the HELOC money to buy a Duplex.

Based on a little craigslist and rentometer research I think I could get $2k-$2,300 in rent for my home and that would cover my mortgage, taxes and insurance.  It would not cover the other expenses: vacancies, capex and maintenance, etc.  I would want to manage this property myself and use a service only to find a quality tenet.     

One concern/fear I have is that if I used all 45k of the HELOC money (which has a variable interest rate) and rates continue to rise, that the payment could get out of control.

What do you think?