Sell or Rent my primary home in Arlington, VA?

[Jason Piccolo]

Hi Everyone,

I am going back and forth on renting or selling our primary residence.  The mortgage is $3505 a month and we can rent it for about $3900.  The principal gets paid down by about 1k per month.  The only issue is that money will be tight since we are only putting 10% down on our new home and the payment will be high.  The primary house is in an excellent location walking distance to shopping, restaurants and metro, so I know that a long term hold may be worth it. It will require about 8-10k for a new paint job before we rent it though.

On the other hand, if we sold the house, we would be losing around 20k after realtor fees, closing costs, etc.  What do you guys think?