sell or hold onto current rental property? what do you think?

[Paul Guetter]

hello all, first post here. thanks in advance for reading further..

In need of financial advice. My wife and I own two houses, the mortgage on each is roughly $3000/month. One we live in, one we rent as two separate apartments. 

The rental income from both tenants is $3900/month. So we clear about $900 month profit in the rental income before expenses. We pay for landscaping and the oil bills, which is roughly another $300/month averaged over the year, leaving us with a $600 month ‘profit’. 

We are considering selling this house, as the market is currently in our favor. We should clear about $100,000 profit after the sale (we owe $318k and it’s valued at around $455k). We’re not sure if this is the right move, as we would lose the additional monthly income from the rents, and also any equity the house may gain in the future, if we choose to wait to sell. 

On the other hand, our monthly profit doesn’t leave us much to cover any required repairs and purchases for the rental house. Luckily there has been nothing lately, but it’s only a matter of time. Additionally we have gotten ourselves in a bit of debt and could use the profits from the sale of the house to clean up our current finances (about 15k in credit card bills). 

Lastly we don’t want to miss an opportunity to take advantage of the high resale value right now, should the market drop again in the future. If we did sell, we would look to reinvest down the line, after paying some bills and keeping some in flexible savings. it’s very tempting with the market to cut and run and be able to pay some debt as well as a cushion to reinvest. Also I should add, we make about $150k per year combined which is enough to cover our living expenses for one house, but not enough to float both mortgages if we are ever without tenants.

any recommendations/and or help with our situation? thanks again