All this equity and no clue!

[Brittany Snyder]

We have a home that was gifted to us worth approximately 250,000. We’ve been living in it for the last 10 years. We want to start investing in rental properties and are sitting on all this equity but are terrified and unsure of what to do with it? Ideally we would like to rent out our current property and buy a new home elsewhere. What would you do? What creative financing opportunities do you see or know of? What situation will cost us the least but make us the most? We would be total newbies!!

[Joe Splitrock]

I agree with @Joe Villeneuve sell it and use it as seed money to leverage into a larger portfolio. One reason to do this is because you will own no taxes. If you convert to rental, there will likely be tax burden in the future. @Brittany Snyder taxes will be one of your biggest expenses as an investor or more specifically as a successful investor. Always thing of ways to minimize taxes. Leverage is your largest advantage in real estate, so always thing of ways to maximize leverage. In case you are not familiar with the terminology, leverage means using debt (loans) to buy real estate that is proportionately larger than your available cash down payment. The term leverage means "to gain advantage" whether that is mechanical advantage or financial advantage. It is doing more with less using tools.