Thinking of renting my house - Questions

[Kenny Riley]

Hi all

I am new here, and new to real estate entirely. The quick back story on me is I am 29 years old. I purchased my first home about a year ago with an FHA loan. I moved in and have been living in it ever since and due to the recent events in my life over the last year, I just really don't want to live here anymore and the location is a bit out of the way for me when it comes to working.

It's not a bad house at all.. it's a 3 br 2 bath 1500 sq foot home that was built in 1983. It was somewhat of a "flipped" house when I bought it.. kitchen is updated and has granite counter tops, the AC is 2 years old, brand new roof, it's a nice starter home. I gave 147k for it and I owe 144k as of now I believe.. Judging by the market in my neighborhood, I could sell it for about 160k or so. I put about 7k down (3.5% + closing costs, etc) to get into it.. so if I sold it for 160k I would make my 7k back plus a couple of extra grand after the realtor fees are paid for it sounds like, not bad for only living in it for a year.

Me being a single and younger guy, I just think a house is too much for me in terms of keeping up with it on a daily basis, yard work, and things, so I was thinking of possibly renting it out and getting myself an apartment for now (or even a second home for investing purposes but I have no idea on the income requirements for obtaining a second mortgage). I have a full time job but I also have my own IT consulting business that I am pursuing and I figured this could be an opportunity for me to start dipping my feet into investing, but I need to learn more about it.

I'm trying to get some opinions on what the best financial option for someone such as myself would be in this situation? Rent, sell, or owner finance? I was leaning more towards renting because there is some construction going on around my neighborhood that should raise properly values over the next few years so this would allow me to continue to own the home, continue to accrue equity, and make a couple hundred bucks extra a month on top of it. I do realize the risks associated with renting such as maintenance, vacancy, bad tenants, etc.. I actually found this website by reading this article I found by Googling: 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/01/04/how-to-rent-your-house/

From what I understand, I can rent an FHA financed house if I've lived in it for a year, but when I am ready to buy a second home to live in, I can only qualify for another FHA loan if my first home has 25% equity in it, is that right? Else I will need to apply for a conventional mortgage?

Complete real estate newbie here looking for someone to help guide me in right direction.

Thank you!