Rent as 2 units or 1 house?

[Michael Mastantuono]

Hello,

My family owns a house in Glendale CA. Currently the house is subdivided, technically there is still easy access between the two units and can be made one house again very easily. I believe renting as two units will generate more income than as 1 house; my dad believes otherwise. it would be the difference between renting two large 1 bedroom houses vs. a nice sized 3+2. It's a fairly expensive area and rents are fairly high. While renting to a family maybe nice it seems more efficient to have only 1 or 2 people in each unit. Seems like there will be more holding time before you can find a family really qualified to make what would be probably be something close in cost to a monthly mortgage. Any insight on this or the best way to work it out on paper would bed great. Thanks everyone. *please feel free to let me know if this is better under another topic.