Rent or Sell Primary Residence

[Max Haffner]

Would appreciate input on whether to rent or sell our primary residence.  We are looking to buy a larger home in the same area to accommodate our growing family.  This would be our first time having a rental property.  

Purchased home for 250K in 2016, now would sell for ~450K.  Owe 220K (@2.76% 30 yr). Payment = $1250 (mortgage, taxes and insurance).

Option 1: Sell.  Would net ~200K with sale.  Difficult to find cash flowing rentals in my area and don't feel we have the expertise or time to do long distance investing at this point.  Likely money would go toward retirement accounts/stocks...but don't have a great plan for the money as of now.

Options 2: Rent for ~1900/month. Factoring in expenses (repairs, paying water/garbage/gardner, vacancy), it would cash flow $323/month. Factoring in principal paydown, I'm calculating a 4.5% ROI when assuming we have 200k invested into the property.

I've talked with family and some are saying "you don't want to miss the boat" on the market upswing in our area and others saying its would be better to keep the property for a number of reasons. 

Would appreciate any advice on the situation.  Thank you!