Sell or rent? Small town first investment

[Austin Cole]

Just bought my first investment house. It has potential to be a duplex or a 5 bedroom. If it was a 2 unit it would have a 1 bedroom ground level with a laundry room, bedroom, bath K & L with the top 2 floors having 3 bedrooms 1.5 bath and a K & L. What do I do?!? Small town USA it’s close to a park and river access 

[Jaysen Medhurst]

@Austin Cole, a two unit is most certainly better as you'll reduce vacancy and maximize income. I suspect the market for 5-bedroom apartments is pretty small.

You just need to consider a few things:

1. Can you split out utilities? If not at least the electric, this is basically a non-starter.
2. Will the town allow you to split into two legal units? What's the process?
3. What is that all-in cost to do the split? What's the pay-back period?