Negative Cash Flow on Rental Property - Hold or Sell?

[Yun Han]

Hey everyone!

I wanted to get some advice about my investment property. So, in 2020, I bought my first house with only 5% down. I put in a lot of work and made some improvements while I lived there for a year, which helped me get rid of the PMI. Now, I've been renting it out for the past 1.5 years, but unfortunately, my monthly cash flow is -$200 when I consider rent, mortgage, and management fees at 6%. And this doesn't even include other possible expenses like vacancies or improvements.

So, what do you think? Should I hold onto the property? If so, any tips on how to generate some positive cash flow? Or would it be better to use this as leverage to invest in something else?

Oh, and by the way, I did raise the rent by 4% last December. Also, I moved to East Coast so managing the property myself is unfortunately not an option.