Underwater Personal Property and REI

[Cesar Castillo]

Greeting everyone and thank you in advance for any help any of you can offer me.

I currently live in NY and am 1 year away from retiring. My wife and I want to move down south to FL.

We bought our home prior to the market crashing. Because of that our personal home is underwater. We bought it for about $340K and according to Zillow it is now worth about $280K.

I also want to start investing in rental properties. With that said I will be able to cash out some savings with penalty of approximately $100K.

With all this said here are my questions:

1. What do you suggest I do about my personal home? Should I rent it out? (Mortgage is pretty hefty...at least I think so, about $3K a month)

2. Should I sell it and take the loss and use some of the $100K to cover the difference?

3. Should I use the $100K or a portion of it to buy a new personal home in FL?

4. If I use a portion, should I use the other for REI?

Again, thank you all!