Newbie Intro - To sell or rent current home in Denver area?!?

[Cody Stevenson]

Hello All! The wife and I are pretty set on moving into real estate investing. I have always been obsessed with real estate and I think it is time for a change/build some real wealth. I have been listening to the Bigger Pockets Podcast and reading up on everything I can.

I think our next move is looking at property on the Olympic Peninsula around Sequim, WA with the plan to land hack and build STRs. However, we are in a dilemma with what to do with our current property.

We currently own a home in a very sought after neighborhood next to Sloan's Lake in Denver, CO. We bought on 12/31/19 and currently owe $500k on the property with about a $2500/month payment. I am torn if we should hold this house and rent it out or sell to use the capital for our next investment. Just as a reference point, OpenDoor has offered us $700k for the home. Looking at comps around the neighborhood I believe we could easily get $2950 - $3100/month in rent.

Other important things to note:

• The neighborhood is Edgewater, CO and is becoming extremely popular as the town is doing a lot of planning and lots of new community marketplaces, bars, etc are being developed or have already opened. We also border the largest lake in Denver proper. Sloan's Lake.
• We have one of the largest lots in Edgewater. If we rented and held the property long term we have plenty of room to build out the modern duplexes that seem to be getting built everywhere around us.
• Wanted to STR this house but the city has a limit of 60 days and all kinds of other rules so that is out.
• Have checked and can long term rental.

Let me know if I have missed anything to help address this.  I'm just not sure what the best approach is with our current primary residence as we are new to real estate investing. Do we sell and use the capital on this new journey or do we hold, rent, grow equity, and then use the equity? The funding and equity portion is where I am not the best.

Looking forward to meeting a lot of people and learning on here!

Cheers!