Is my current home a bad deal?

[Justin Michael Johnson]

Just closed on a home in December. This was before I knew anything about real estate investing and just wanted a nice rental. Well to me at the time it was just a nice home in a nice neighborhood. Now that I have actually pursued education in this field, I feel I know what needs to be done to get started. 

Bought this home with a VA loan, appraised at market value. 1600 sq. ft in Tucson for $225K. 2 Story, 3 bed 2 bath upstairs is a master suite. My stand on it is that I should just sell. I would have to dump $20-30K of money in it to maybe make $5K in return. So an increase in equity doesn't seem like the route to go.

I also am not seeing much profit renting. Mortgage is around $1400 so Id be lucky to make $150 positive cash flow, so by the time a year rolls around if I even have one month of vacancy there goes all of my potential profit. 

Just trying to get some input on my situation. I am also married and may be considering house hacking if we can ditch this property. Thank you for your input!!

[Matt Dickens]

I do not know how close you are to U of A or Raytheon, or even the university district around U of A, but any of these areas will keep their value for a while. I am in a very similar situation in Tempe, AZ where I am outside the immediate area of ASU, but I am well within a longer bike ride or short (less than 10 min) Drive. I am not cash flowing well now, but my goal in purchasing it is that Tempe is a landlocked City and Maricopa County is the fastest growing county, meaning people are always moving in, while the current building permits do not necessarily support the assumed growth coming in to the city. With these factors, I know long term the house will appreciate well, and the rents will continue to rise. This, plus the extra 100 a month I will receive once PMI gets refi'd out, will set this up nicely in the long run. Was it a great first buy like you hear a lot on the podcast? No particularly. But, it was a great first step into investing and my roommates pay a lot of the Mortage right now. I consulted a few different people, and for my goals, they all said the same thing. Keep the house, and wait for time to bring the value up. Feel free to message me if you want to know more about the analysis that I did!