New member from Arkansas with a question

[Jeremy Woody]

Hello, all.

In my quest to repair the wreckage of my past, I have discovered real estate investing and this site. I have been reading quite a bit and wanted to share a brief summary of what led me here and questions that I have.

I am a Speech Language Pathologist with massive student debt. It is going down, but not as fast as I want. I fell into the "Rat Race" trap and have been working on changing that. I had medical issues and addiction issues years ago that left me with a horrific credit rating and massive debt. I am 41 and have no retirement. So, I am behind but an eternal optimist. I got healthy physically, emotionally, mentally and now am working on financial. I was able to improve my credit score from 400's to mid 700's and it keeps climbing. So as I am finishing up paying off my credit cards, I am looking into real estate investing. I still have a mortgage and a car loan. I rent out my back room for $600 a month. My mortgage is $1030 so that helps with the mortgage a lot. 

I have a few questions. I have listed them below.

1. Should I continue to live in my home with a roommate and work on deals in other areas?

2. Sell my home (only been here three years. I will not make much after fees if any) and start looking for deals for house hacking, etc.? I have an FHA loan here so I couldn't get one of those for 3 years post sale, but could still get a mortgage. Maybe a 203K, etc.

3. Refinance and take any equity out to assist with deals?

Thank you in advance for any input you can provide. I enjoy learning and am excited to read anything you can offer.