Refinance my personal residence or sell?

[Jon Proulx]

Hi everyone - I’m just getting started in real estate investing, and I’m looking to get some input on my current situation:

I purchased a SFH last April (2019) to live in (no idea about investment properties at that time). I have recently been listening to 2-3 BP podcasts a day and I'm really excited to start investing. I think wholesaling sounds very interesting, but ideally I want the freedom generated from multiple positive cash flow rental properties.

The situation is, I don’t know what to do with my current residence. It’s a 3/2 in a rural area, 10-15 minutes (drive) from a university. I bought it with no intention of an investment, I paid $15k over asking as an emotional decision since I’d been looking to buy a house for 2 years. My lender reached out to me asking if I want to refi and I qualified to drop my rate by 1.5%. The only rentals I can compare to are rentals around the university, but I’m concerned where I’m not within walking distance I can’t compare those rates. I don’t think I could rent it for enough to cover any more than my mortgage, taxes and insurance. So all other variables (repairs, maintenance, cap ex, vacancy, etc) would be out of pocket. I would require the tenant to pay utilities.

I’m currently renting the other 2 bedrooms to my friends, but they’re planning on moving out in March. I’m thinking my options are either refi and rent it, refi and keep house hacking and try to find 2 new roommates, or sell the house and house hack my next property (I’d like to get a multi family).

Please let me know what your thoughts are or if you need any more info to analyze the situation more!