Numbers nerd? Take a look at this. Would like opinions

[Kim Durst]

Scenerio:

We own a lakefront property and turned it into a short term rental THIS summer. Would you keep it or sell? Keep in mind....June, July, August this year was at $275-$325 Next year, our rates are $340 in the hot season. 

Purchase price 2017 $ 324k

Currently worth approx $450-530k

Currently owe $284k

We sunk about 80k into improvements

This year we generated $20,659 in STR (may be more if we book rentals this fall)

Pontoon rental made $5700

Expenses are approx $29k per year

We are projecting a higher income next year, our first year was spent getting our feet off the ground, etc. Our thoughts are this....sell or keep? The house is large, 4500 sq ft. a ton to take care of. We are considering taking the profits from a sale an buying 2 more smaller lakefront properties as STR. (actually we are in contract for one now)

Or....would you keep on the STR track to help recoup some of the cash you put in? We also think, lakefront property appreciates more than traditional properties and feel "safer" holding on to it for a few more years than we would with anything else.

Is there something we may be missing here? Would love you thoughts.

[Paul Sandhu]

I would sell it and buy 2 more lakefront properties.  We have 23 STRs, and they all make about the same amount of profit each year.  A 2BR is constantly rented out, but it doesn't bring in as much money.  My bigger houses bring in a lot of money when they are rented out, but they aren't rented out that often.  The 2nd house my wife and I bought was a 4BR 2BA that appraised around $40k.  2200 square feet.  We bought it for $28k.  Looking back with hindsight, we would not have bought it.  We could have used the $28k to buy 3 smaller houses that each would make as much money in a year as the big house does.  

But it is by far our nicest house, hands down.  There is pride in ownership of a nice house, and that is something you can not place value on.  In a few weeks it's going to be rented for $1200/week.  Still not bad for a $28k investment.