Best Ways to Invest Equity After I Sell My House?

[Edgar Gutierrez]

Hello BP, 

I have roughly 90-100k in Equity, probably around 80k after all my fees from my primary residence I bought 6 years ago. I'm ready to make some moves to create passive income. My initial idea was to use some of this equity to throw down on another house and rent this current property out.

I pay $1,000/monthly and houses are leasing around $1500-$1700/month in my neighborhood. 

After applying for a HELOC and being rejected by my mortgage company and not having access to the type of money i need down for another house i've come to the conclusion I have to sell my house to tap into this equity. With my monthly payment being so low and interest rate being at 3.25 I believe this 5 bedroom home would be an excellent property to rent out but With my credit being under 580 it seems my options are limited.

With this being said I would appreciate any advice on the best way to invest in real estate after i sell my house. Do I buy a house and sit on it for two years then rent out? If at all possible I would like to buy my primary residence first then buy something i can rent out and potentially create some cash flow I just dont think i can qualify for two mortgages at the same time. Any ideas would be very helpful!

Thank you all very much in advance!