Need Help Deciding Whether to Sell 1st Rental Property or HELOC

[Regine Nelson]

Hi All -

Thanks for taking the time to read. My husband and I are new the real estate investment world. We have 2 sources of income passive real estate investments (REITs, private money lending, etc) and active real estate investments (SFR and MF which I manage). We currently have 3 SFR and will be closing on 4 SFR (new construction) and 1 MF (Duplex) within the next 5 months.

Our first real estate investment was our primary residence that we turned into a rental property once we made a move for work. The property is located in CA and is currently valued at $1.7MIL. As a rental it cash flows $550 -$1,500 per month depending on the rental market. 

If we sell the home, we would end up with $1.1MIL nearly tax-free due to the $500k tax exemption. We now live in a different state and could use that money to do other investments; like large MF and more SFHs. Our goal is to replace my husband's income so that neither of us will have to work.

However, on the flip side, our home has increased 30% in value since we purchased it 3 years ago. We could keep it and get a HELOC to get more properties. Both seem like a good idea but we can't seem to decide.

The other piece of info is that I think the max we could ever get for our home is probably $2MIL depending on how the market is going and if people are desperate as our home location has excellent schools and home values.

Please chime in thoughts for either direction.

Thanks!