2 Family to SFH (Totally lost)

[Eric Waldron]

Hi Bigger Pockets,

Currently I live in Warren County NJ in a multifamily 6BR/3Ba house with a detached 3 car garage. The town that I live in, Phillipsburg is not the place I want to raise my daughter. My wife and I want to move to a different town in the surrounding area but the problem is that real estate values have doubled in the last few years. Right now, we pay $1700 a month for our mortgage and taxes. We receive $2050 a month from our tenant in the other half of our house and $275 a month from our garage tenant. If we move we could likely clear $4100-$4500 from both units in the house and a total of $400 from the garage if we rent out the side I have my stuff stored in. So we could be bringing in $4500-$4900 per month minus the $1700 mortgage. With houses we’ve been looking at, $400-$500K our monthly mortgage on the new place would be somewhere in the range of $3200-$3500. In aggregate with the mortgage from our current property and the new one we’d be paying on the high side $5200 and receiving in income $4500 on the low side minus expenses. So there’s a $700 delta. I guess I just have a fear of failure or am scared of committing to an additional $3500 a month mortgage. (FYI I’m reluctant to cash out refi because I have a 3.125% rate on my mortgage). Any thoughts? My income is in the $130K range and my wife’s is 90K ish. Any thoughts or advice?

[Drew Sygit]

@Eric Waldron get a HELOC on your primary - NOT to use to buy, but in case of an emergency ONLY.

That should give you the peace of mind to move forward.