Buying a fixer upper & renting my old house

[Robert Arquilla]

So my wife and I found a off market house built in the 60s with about 1800 sf. Most comps in the area are around 140-150 and I think we can buy it for around 60-75k. It’s a solid house and just needs freshened up. It’s in a great school district (main reason we’re moving) and is about a mile from a lake with a state park. Our plan is to fix it up and build equity in that house. So we have a house that we got a great deal on when we got married 5 years ago. Houses around the same size are selling for 50-80 and were owned by older folks so they could use updating. Our house has been updated over the years of living there(all new paint, re did bathroom, granite counters, new carpet) so my question is do we try and sell at a higher mark and cash in on our house and put some in to the new house to build equity and reinvest to a rental or do we keep our old house as a rental, which would be the nicest rental in the area? The house we have now is again in a area with older folks mainly but over the last couple years we have noticed some younger families moving in. Thanks for the help again!

[Nicole Heasley Beitenman]

Actually, yes. My father flipped a house, and I'm buying it from him. He added my name to the title in February, and after 6 months, Huntington Bank said they'll give me a HELOC which I'll use to buy him out. Then I'll pay back the HELOC as opposed to paying a traditional mortgage. It already has a tenant with a 2-year lease. Very exciting stuff!