Moving, should I sell or keep and rent out my home?

[Christian D.]

Hi All,

Quick backstory: I'm currently in the process of learning/preparing to be a buy and hold rental property investor. I've been reading, saving money to invest, etc, and had the goal of obtaining my first investment property in 2021. However, personal circumstances are requiring my family to move from our current home sooner than expected. Now, I'm wondering whether it would be "a good deal" to keep my current home and rent it out, or if it would be smarter to sell it.

Here are some details on our current home / things to consider:

• Purchase price: $106k
• Current value (approx): $180k
• Current mortgage: $65k, 10 years left, 15 yr fixed @ 2.875% ($599/m PI)
• Home is updated/remodeled throughout, with good bones, and some robust materials used (hardwood floors, porcelain tile, etc). Need to do a more detailed analysis here but I would expect relatively low cap-ex in the next 10 years.
• Home is in a good area (on a quiet street but still walkable to restaurants/bars/parks, schools are average to above average)
• Expected rent would be about $1500/m based on quick analysis of current listings
• Our new location we're moving to will be about 10-15 mins away
• I would like to manage this property myself but budget for property mgmt anyway
• If I get into this and HATE being a landlord, or decide owning rentals isn't right for me, I have 2 years to figure that out and at that time could still sell the home and not pay any LTCG tax on the proceeds

Short term goal: Since my personal situation will inhibit my time and ability to pursue scaling a rental property business in the short term (say 5-10 years), the goal of renting this property out will be to pay it off as quickly as possible and let it sit there providing good monthly cash flow, or possibly refi to lower monthly payment and increase cash flow if the payoff timetable isn't short enough.

Long term goal: I would tentatively like to scale into owning maybe 10 or so rental properties at my time of retirement (say 20 years from now) to provide good cash flow in early retirement, and to keep me busy. I rather enjoy owning/running a business.

Can anyone advise on whether making the move to convert our home into a rental makes sense?

Thanks all in advance for the help!