Should I rent my house or sell it?

[Nick Mauren]

So I currently have a townhouse and we are going to buy something that fits our family a little better in a few months. I am in the process of refinancing so that I can take advantage of lower rates, eliminate PMI, and get a lower payment to increase cashflow. I knew that I had a decent amount of equity in this house but I found out today that my appraisal came in about $10,000-$15,000 more than I expected. So here is my question.

It's a nice house in a nice neighborhood and the home values have risen a lot over the last few years.  I bought for $223,000 in 2016 and the appraisal came back at $260,000.  My loan is right around $200,000.  If I were to rent it out, I would get around $125 a month in cash flow and the house is 7 years old I don't see much in cap ex in the immediate future.  With $60,000 in equity, am I better off selling and using that money to buy a couple properties?  Or should I stick to my plan, rent it out, and hopefully have a lot more equity a few years down the road?

[Nick Mauren]

@Frank Geiger it definitely isn’t much cash flow. I have some areas identified, but I have not dug real deep into looking for deals or anything. I need to do more research.

The nice thing about my house is that I already have it. No research needed, but I also know that I shouldn’t take the easy path just because it’s easy. Thanks for the input!