Bought Single Family House in Lakewood.. Sell? or Rent?

[Alicia Johnson]

Hello amazing people of BP,

We bought a single family house in Lakewood, CA in 2016 for $520K. Before that, we were renting an apartment close to the beach in Huntington Beach. The lot of this house is 5118 sqft. and floor is 1194 sqft. We were shopping for about a year for a house around SoCal and everyday the house prices just kept getting higher and higher. Then we finally decided to pick one and be done with it (Not a very good idea). The house is OK, I wasn't crazy about. It was built in 1950. The neighborhood is OK. The house stands on a busy street which I'm not a fan of. Most houses around us have been renovated/upgraded, some have added extensions. We do have one house (right next to us) that seems to have been left behind and looks junkie.

 I do like the big back and front yard for the kids to run around. I thought we would fix it, add extension, pool etc, and make it my own. I have always wanted to create a house with my own touch in it. I did started buy remodeling the kitchen. Then my husband and I decided that we do want to go back to Hunting Beach due to several reasons including better school for our kids, and the beach. Also, we realized that we would have to spend about at least 200K to add extensions. When we thought about it, we decided to just buy about $700-$800K decent house or maybe slightly renovated, in Huntington Beach.

Now, we just don't know what to do with these property we have in Lakewood. But one thing is for sure, I would like to keep this property. So we were brainstorming ideas on how to manage this property so it can sustain itself. Some ideas are renting it as it is; fixing it and turn it into duplex. Also, the property has a detatched 400sqft studio at the back (no bathroom) which we really can't rent out unless we spend about 5K or more to put a bathroom and mini kitchen in it. Ultimately I really want to keep this property and for it to be able to pay for itself through rentals.

Any advise and/or suggestions are greatly appreciated. 

We are also in a lookout for investing opportunities out there as long as the numbers make sense.