Should I sell our paid off rental property?

[Will French]

Hi all!

I'm looking for opinions both in favor and against my current decision. I feel that the "sell" option is a better one at this point, but am interested in hearing your thoughts! Here's the situation:

We own a rental property that we used to live in and have rented it out, but the property value in Portland has jumped to nearly double when we purchased it in 2009. Also due to some fortune and hard work, we paid this property off so it does not have a mortgage. Some other facts to consider:

• Purchase price: $250,000
• Estimated current market value: $475,000
• Gross / Net rental amount per year: $24,000 / $14,000 
  • That's about 3% of the property value in expected net income per year... to be re-invested in stock market

If we don't keep it as a rental, we'd use the funds to either:

• Pay down some of our home mortgage
• Purchase a vacation property to airBnB and enjoy when not rented
• Stick it in the market
• Downpayment for apartment building (but, prices are so high in Portland)

Given the low % of income relative to the market value of the property, I feel it's probably a better idea to sell it rather than keep it and take the yearly income and sell after additional appreciation (10 or 20 or 30 years on). But, I don't like the idea of selling it without a solid reason, since it's a great little 2b 1ba that doesn't have a vacancy problem.

Thanks for the help!