Right now, my husband and I are living in Germany with all housing expenses paid, both working full time, saving my husbands entire salary of $80,000 every year. So far, we have been here 1 year and plan to stay another 1-3. The question we are facing is what we should do with the $80,000 we have saved thus far.
Right now we have two rental homes. They were both our primary homes until we decided to move over here. They are in Lexington Ky and no house has been vacant for more than a month.
The first home:
Zillow currently estimates it is worth $210,000.
Our mortgage is a 30 year loan with PMI at 4.75% interest and our monthly payment is $1,275. We currently still owe $164,000 on this house.
We receive $1400 in rent on the house. Only maintenance so far has been replacing the air conditioner. The house was newly constructed in 2004.
The second home:
Zillow estimates the house is worth $170,000.
Our mortgage is a 30 year loan with a 3.75% interest rate and our monthly payment is $775. We currently owe $87,000 on this house.
We receive $1000 in rent on the home. Maintenance has been minor (paint) when new renters moved in. Home is from 1976.
Should we refinance one of these homes so that our monthly payments are lower with a portion of the $80,000?
Or do a portion on both and refinance both?
Or leave them as they are, and use the money to purchase 2 more rental homes with our new knowledge that we should look to charge double the amount we pay on the mortgage?
We plan on saving at least another 80,000 to 160,000 (depending if we can stay here 2 more years) to purchase a house for our family when we return, as well as plan on having one of us quit working to stay at home with our 2 children ( a huge goal of ours). What we don't put down as a downpayment we plan to save as a buffer for our rentals, and to purchase a new used car since ours are getting up in mileage (both have over 130,000 miles).
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.