Taking Advantage Of Current Spike In Home Prices

[Joseph Peyton]

Hello,

New to this forum and this is my first post. I am a current home owner with 4 acres of land in Knoxville, TN. I bought this home 3 years ago. I haven't had an official appraisal done yet but websites I've checked out and loan officers I've spoken to said the home could easily appraise for $100K+ over what I originally paid for it. I don't want to sell my house just to buy another house at a higher value because demand for homes are so high right now. My family and I have talked about finding a way to keep our starter home as a rental while being able to build us a new home. We've considered splitting the 4 acre lot and building on this. It would require an easement but we would own both properties anyway. This would be our first rental property and would help us get our foot in the door. 

Would it be a finanically wise decision to have our starter home appraised, do a cash-out refinance, and use the cash as a down payment on a construction loan?