I Have $137,000 In Equity & I Want to Buy a New Home & Rent Mine

[Michael Mataluni]

Hello, I would really appreciate the advise of an experienced investor.

I currently have about $144,000 In Equity in my current home.

I'm thinking of refinancing to get access to the equity/cash as I purchased the home for $180,000 6 years ago and it's now worth about $300,000 and has a note of $156,000 remaining on the principle. 

I have 3 kids and our current home is 1700 square feet. We need a little more space. My thought is to refinance and to make upgrades to my current home, then rent it out and put a down payment on a slightly larger home. 

My goal is to have 5 to 10 rental properties over the next 5 years.

Is this the best strategy for my goals?

Best,

Mike

[Jay Hinrichs]

Originally posted by @Robert Goldman:

Renting the property you have now for that $500-$700/mo cash flow would be nice but if you refinance or get a HELOC, your payment will go up much higher than you would get in rent. You would also pay more in property taxes due to losing your homestead exemption as well.

 it would be crazy to rent that house ..  what you do is sell the sucker.. take your tax free 121 owner occ tax treatment you now can start over without taking a property that has the best tax treatment and turning it into one that you have to depreciate and when you sell you have to recapture.. the 121 is hands down the greatest tax gift in America.. Use it dont lose it..