Buying second home to rent out our first

[Samantha Knoll]

2020 was the year I set high goals for us to begin our adventure in owning rental properties. Then the pandemic hit and we found out we are expecting our first kid so we backed off those goals a bit, but kept looking.

We’ve said for a while now that ideally we would like to buy a second home, renovate what we needed if needed, and keep our first to rent out. We love our first home and we feel it’s in a great area for rent.

We’ve been very particular about what the next house should have for us to move and we found one in one of our ideal neighborhoods that’s close to mid century modern (our biggest hurdle in finding a second home in our price range) but needs at least $100-$125k of work to get it to our dream home and cover any unexpected finds.

Could I share the listing here and get advice on what an offer should be? It seems priced to sell. It’s empty and we looked under a property search that it’s in a trust so it seems like family trying to offload after a passing.

Or just advice in general on this strategy.

Also with such low rates, should we refinance our current home to pay it off sooner, but then reducing our cash flow? And is there a calculator or spread sheet tool somewhere to help run through these numbers?

Thanks in advance!