Advice on selling or continuing to rent

[Brett Dudley]

Looking for some advice on our current situation. One of our rentals (Michigan) has been being rented for $1300/month, the mortgage is $618 so it has cash flowed well. We have owned this home for 2 years. The tenant notified us that they will be moving out at the end of July when their lease is up. It is an older home and I know there will be some larger ticket repairs needed in the coming year(s) (roof specifically will likely need work soon). If we were to sell it now it would probably sell for 20K more than we purchased it for. So my conundrum is do i just keep renting to a new tenant and deal with the maintenance expenses as they pop up, or do i try to get out now before a major expense pops up and just take the little bit of profit (less the capital gains tax)? Any advice is appreciated. thank you 

[Nathan Gesner]

A little clarification. The property is earning $600+ a month. In two years you could have saved over $10,000 and it would pay for the roof. That would also increase the value of the home.

Continue putting money into improving the property. Rent rates will go up, but your expenses should remain stable or go down. You will eventually have a house earning $1,000 a month or even $1,500 a month and the property value will be $200,000 more than you bought it for.

Instead of incurring more costs by selling and then buying a new property, focus on keeping this one forever and saving up for the next purchase. It is slower, but it's proven to build real wealth.