Evaluating my current property

[Michael Schmeling]

Bigger Pockets,

I was introduced to this website while talking to a coworker (we're both active Marines in Okinawa), so naturally I've jumped in and read a few of the "Ultimate guides", watched some videos and signed up for a Webinar. I figured a good place to run some practice calcs was on the home I already have and rent.

I bought my $168k single family home in Feb 2014 with 0% down on a VA loan, lived in it until Sept 2017 and have rented it out ever since. I'm coming up on the end of 10 years of service and am jumping into the civilian world and want to make sure I'm not starting with lead weights on my ankles! Hoping to get some solid feedback from experienced investors.

I'll use 2019 numbers and estimate Q: 

Per month rent (1250) mortgage/escrow (1080), property management (125), HOA/termite/insurance (138) which gives me a monthly cash flow of about --$91. Since I'm 6ish years into the loan, every year I'm paying about $1100 out of pocket to own the property but building about $5500 of equity. The cash flow numbers are junk because I put 0% down so I'm kind of investing in equity at a 5:1 ratio .. which doesn't seem terrible but the cash flow is.

I have about $16k paid off of the $168k original note, and Zillow/Realtor estimates my home worth has gone from $168k to between $185-190k now. If I put another $15k in and refi the loan at 20% down I can get my VA loan back, probably lower my 3.875% rate and get a positive cash flow per month (maybe $100-150) at the expense of restarting a 30 year mortgage.. or just cut ties with my single family home in NC, look to do a 1031 exchange and invest in something more local to the Houston, Tx area where I will be moving.

Cash flow is king but at the moment I have more than enough saved & earning via regular job to support a $100/mo fee to build $500/mo equity. It's not a model that scales but is there merit to keeping it as is and using it as an equity bank? Or would it make more sense to add $16k cash and refi for cash flow? Or exchange for a du-tri-quadplex that I want to use as my vehicles? 

I look forward to everyone's feedback! And thank you for this awesome wealth of information and sharing.