Just bought triplex in CA, want to keep investing

[Camille Joos-Visconti]

Hi, my name is Camille. Nice to meet all of you. My husband and I just purchased our families triplex in Los Angeles area- got it for what was left in the mortgage and comparing that to what the property is zillowed at, we have a lot of equity available- probably around $550k. We have 3 young kids and take care of my father in law- who lives in his unit rent free. Currently the income we get from the 3rd unit pays for the whole property itself. Since there is so much equity available, I'm hoping this will get us a good start in the REI world and we can just keep on investing and making passive income over and over. My current situation is: myself, husband, 3 kids, 3 dogs live in the 2bed unit rent free. Gramps lives in 1 bed unit rent free. And we rent the 3rd 2bed unit for $1575, which pays all of the property's bills. !!! (Low property tax!). Our family is getting too big for that 2bed unit and we want to move. If we were to move elsewhere, we would need to bring gramps as well, therefore having 2 units open up. I think they can produce $3000 combined rent income. And since property is covered with current tenants rent, the $3000 would be extra money. So do we use the equity in this place to buy us a nice bigger home for the 6 of us to live, gramps maybe in a guest house on the property? And would doing that prevent us from being able to get an investment property since my equity was used up on this purchase? Or do we purchase another multi family and rack up some passive income from that, before buying ourselves a home? We def cannot stay where we are at, we need more room. Finding a multi family that would accommodate what we need would be hardif we were going to Iive there- need big yard for kids & dogs, a unit for gramps, and 3bed2bath min for us & kids. We have also entertained the idea of purchasing a out of state property and paying for a PM but from what I've read, the income is only about $200 month average? Sounds low to me but I know a little more then nothing. Have seen that AZ is booming and there are SFH's for 90k, whereas in Los Angeles 90K would get you a bathroom. So that's why I was thinking of out of state. Anyway- hoping to meet some people on here that can offer any advice on these different directions and options we have. Going to try to become a regular on this site and really get involved with REI. I think we've hit the jackpot with purchasing this triplex at such a low low cost and getting all that equity- and I just want to make sure that that what we do with it will allow us to continue investing in rental properties. I am only familiar with this multi family but not against purchasing a SFH for rental income either. Really just don't know what to do that would be in our best interest. I do not want to mis-use that equity and therefore create a brick wall in front of any possible passive income plans. Overall- we need a bigger living space and still want to be able to invest in properties at the same time. Looking forward to conversing with others.