To sell, refi, or hold?

[Heather H.]

What would you do if you had an SFR worth $200,000, owned free and clear, bringing in about $500/month cash flow (for which you originally paid $65,000)?

I'm thinking it might be time to sell and use the proceeds to step onto the next rung of the ladder, but the question is, which ladder?

It seems like a good idea to do a 1040 exchange and use the proceeds for down payments on 5-6 SFRs, which will cash flow about $100/month each (since these ones will have mortgages). However, this seems like a lot of hassle to essentially maintain the same cash flow (although with the added bonuses of mortgage pay-down and potential appreciation on more houses).

The other obvious option is to use it as a down payment on a larger SFR, but I would be concerned about putting all my eggs in one basket, in an asset class I'm not as comfortable with. I know a lot of people on BP love multifamily, but with the extra turnover and expenses, I don't see yields being much better than for SFRs.

What would you do? Thanks everyone!