Did I buy a bad investment, and should i sell?

[Charles Giovanniello]

Hello all! I purchased my second investment property (a duplex) almost a year ago (November 2019) in Allentown PA. I'll just get right to the numbers.

Purchase price: $140,000

Cash to Close: $43,000

Initial repairs: $6,800

Monthly PITI: $846

Total Expected Rent: $1,750 (First Floor $675, Garage $75, Second Floor $1,000)

Expected Cashflow After All Expenses: $550

When I bought the house, there were tenants on the first floor and the second floor tenants had just left. First floor was recently renovated, however the second floor needed some work, so that's where most of the initial repair costs went. The repairs were finally complete around February 2020 and the tenant search began. Unfortunately due to COVID, it took longer than expected to get tenants into that unit and my property manager finally got a tenant in there by June 2020. Up until this point, I was making $750 / month from the downstairs unit + garage so i luckily wasn't losing out on all the rent. Once the upstairs tenants moved in, several other repair jobs needed to be done. Hot water heater broke ($1,485) and plumbing issues arose ($2,000). So at this point I'm at about $10,300 on total repairs. On top of that, in the middle of August a drunk driver hit into the front stoop of the property and broke the rail / did some serious damage to the stoop. This has not been repaired yet as finding a mason is almost impossible around there but we've booked one for October 2021. Now almost a year since closing, my property manager texted me last week and said she hasn't received rent from either unit for October (except the garage, which is rented to the pervious owner) and recommended we file for eviction because she hasn't heard from the tenants at all. I fear that it will be another long search to find tenants and I'll have to go months with holding costs until we find someone new. 

I'd hate to let it go because of all the work that's gone into it, and I know it could perform well if there were just good tenants in there. The holding costs wouldn't kill me yet and I'd probably be able to hold out for a couple months before I start to get uncomfortable but I just don't know if it's even a good idea to wait since the performance on it has been lackluster since the start.