Need Advice On To Continue Renting Out or Sell Out of State House

[Sam Harover]

A brief description of the scenario, and then I'll post some more specific numbers below:

Almost two-years ago I moved to South Georgia for work and bought a house very quickly as the move was rushed. I had hoped that this house could one day be a rental, but was not dead-set on that, as I foresaw myself living there for many years - so I didn't search for the best deal to one day turn it into a rental (nor did I have time, the move was sudden). Fast forward a year and a half and I ended up moving back to where I'm from (Kentucky) for a different job opportunity. Even though the house could have sold for considerably  more than I bought it for, I had almost no equity in it and would have walked away 5,000 in the hole. Fast forward again, and I've now been renting my house out for 7-months. The market continues to stay hot, and after my tenants lease is up in November, I'm tempted to sell the house for a small profit that will remove me from a slightly risky investment and allow me to start fresh back in KY (Where I'm currently renting and saving to buy a duplex to "house-hack"). 

My main reason for selling is because I'm worried about trying to find new tenants every year (if these tenants don't renew) and going through that process out of state. I was able to interview and select this first set of tenants in person, but do not plan to spend time in Georgia every  year to find replacements. I don't think the house cash flows enough to hire a property manager, and my current plan is to pay a friend to host a couple open houses if the tenants move out. The house had lots of interest the first time around, but the rent we charge is quite high for the area. 

As far as maintenance, it hasn't been too rough as the house itself is in decent shape. I bought it remodeled, and so far I've only had one sizable maintenance expense. But who knows what larger costs could be lurking and that also causes me stress.

I'm very tempted to walk away from a stressful situation with a couple bucks that I can put towards something where I live (I have no plans of moving again), but I don't want to make a stupid decision based off of fear. I'm going to put the numbers I have below and would love any advice some more experienced investors and landlords could give me (I'll keep the numbers generic to make it a little cleaner, but accurate).

Numbers on the Georgia House:

176,000 Purchased

169,000 Loan left

3.75% interest

Renting #'s: 

1,600 Rent

1,100 Mortgage (includes tax, insurance, and paying an extra $100 in principal than min.)

500 gross

-200 (Maintenance and Vacancy. Recently remodeled house so honestly a wild guess at 100/month plus 1 month of mortgage for vacancy).

~ +300 Net Cash Flow

Selling #'s (just taken from zillow for est.)

200,000 selling price

-6,000 prep/repair costs

-15,411 closing costs

= +6,700 in profit (+ ~$5,000 in savings from rent cash flow, giving me 12,000 to walk away and put towards duplex).

Conclusion:

I know the #'s here are pretty generic but I given the short amount of time I've owned the house I think they're accurate.

Is it better to cash flow $300 (400 if we quit paying off the extra principal each month) and build equity in the house for years to come, with the risk of renting out of state or to walk away with $12,000 from the entire ordeal and a lot of lessons learned? And if  continuing to rent is the better choice, at what # does selling make more since? 10,000 profit? 15,000? Not sure where the market will be in November, just trying to think ahead.

Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated and read.

Thank you,