Negative Cash Flow Rental Investment Advice

[James Kim]

Hello,

I have been recently introduced to the world of real estate investing and places such as biggerpockets have been extremely informative and inspiring. My goal is to generate another stream of income for retirement and am not interested in amassing a multi-million dollar real estate empire. I think maybe around 5-7 units is what I envision overall. 

I would like advice on our only property that currently negative cash flows 450 dollars per month. It was originally a primary residence bought in 2015 for $400,000 with interest of 4.25% . The down paid was 5% at $20,000 via doctor loan. At the time my wife had extra cash laying around and our thought process at the time was "why pay $2400 a month for 2 bedroom unit when we can pay it to a mortgage ourselves?". PITI ended up $2800.

5 years later, we relocated for my physician training but wanted to maintain our property. Rent is slightly below market cost at $2400. Based on vacancy, we end up needing to pay $450 for the HoA per month. Townhome is only 15 years old, but not sure how to guestimate CapEx?. Thankfully maintenance and repairs have so far been a non-issue for now. We could increase rent a couple hundred dollars to market rate but given the low down payment, it will still negative cash flow. Fortunately the property has appreciated quite nicely by about 30% in the last 4 years with the neighborhood officially gentrified. It is in a big coastal city with healthy rental market. There is 25 years left on the loan.

Should we sell? Should we keep? Is it ignorant to consider refinancing once LTV <75% into another 30 year loan which would lower mortgage expense and put it into positive cash flow?

Thank you all