Sell or rent again

[Adam Bauman]

I was recently talked into electing to not renew a lease with tenants and put my house on the market by a real estate agent.  The comps she showed me justified getting out of the area and investing in more up and coming neighborhoods where I could turn my one rental into two or more and increase my cash flow.  After the tenants moved out, I realized there was a lot more work than I anticipated to get the house show ready and additional research into the market indicated that the property would not sell for the amount presented by my agent.

Now I'm in a situation where I have a house that is in poor condition and I have the option to sell as-is (which I don't want to do), fixing it up to a decent level of quality and seeing what I can get for it, fixing it up to a high level of quality to get top dollar or fixing it up to a decent quality to get better tenants in.

I have no regrets ending the lease with the previous tenants since they did not take very good care of the property and it needed a lot of repairs.  Besides doing more research into the market and finding out for myself the true market value of the property, what advice can anyone give me about what to do next?