Sell portfolio of SFR to investors, or sell individually to Owner/Occupants?

[Mike McGee]

I have a portfolio of 4 SFR, 3 in Metro Atlanta Georgia area, 1 in Quad Cities Iowa area. I'm thinking about selling them all.

Why am I selling?

- I recently got into STRs, and I like that business better. Plan to 1031-exchange into an upscale STR.
- One SFR had a tenant just move out, another is going through an eviction, so with half of the portfolio vacant, it's decision time.

I'm trying to decide whether to sell them as a portfolio (at least the 3 Georgia ones as a portfolio, Iowa would probably have to be sold separately), or get the other 2 empty, fix them up and sell them all to retail homebuyers. 

I have been approached in the past by investors who want to buy the Atlanta portfolio, but they always want to buy at a discount. I get that, investors get a deal and I get the convenience of selling them all at once. However, I'm starting to think I can get much more selling them individually to owner/occupants. Here's why:

While rents have increased, the home values have increased even more. So, the Georgia home values are way above the 1% rule.
House 1: Market value: $280k.   Market rent: $1945
House 2: Market value: $250k.   Market rent: $1685
House 3: Market value: $210k.   Market rent: $153

So, if I have to reduce the prices to meet the 1% rule in order to sell the portfolio to an investor, that's a steep discount! I think it might be worth the trouble to fix up the other two and sell them all to retail homebuyers. That is, unless investors are now willing to pay more than the 1% rule used to dictate.

I know it will cost some time and money to get them vacant and fixed up, but the alternative seems to be to leave 10s of thousands of dollars on the table. I'm a broker, so commissions aren't a factor, and there's no loan on the Georgia properties.

What do you guys think? Am I missing something?