Moving out of my primary home to rent in a new area, sell or rent my primary home???

[Steven Webster]

I live in Charlotte, NC and have rentals in a smaller market an hour and a half east of the Charlotte market. We have lived in our current home for over 7 years, and we are planning to move about 40 min away from our current home and are considering renting a home for at least a year. Since we own less than half of the current value of primary home and have an open HELOC ready to use, we were thinking to keep the primary home and turn it into a rental to add to our portfolio. The other option would be to sell it and hold the cash until we are ready to make a purchase in the new area maybe a year from now. I like the idea of cash in hand but think it could be better in the long run to keep it as a rental. I would love to see what other investors think about this situation, pros/cons, things to consider, etc. I have been investing in real estate for a few years now but did not see much out there for this situation. Thanks!!!