Replacing an HVAC -- Should I Buy a New System or Do an HVAC Rental?

[Account Closed]

My fiancee and I are in the process of prepping her condo to rent. This is our first rental, so we are very much rookies. The HVAC (heat pump and furnace) are both very old and will likely won't last through the upcoming summer. The condo is in Atlanta, so the A/C will get a lot of use once it starts warming up. Our options are buying a new HVAC system, which will run us probably $5-10k based on our research, or we could go with a "rental" HVAC from a local company that includes all repairs, maintenance, filter replacements, etc. for a monthly fee of about $100 over 8 years.

I figure we could offset the monthly cost by increasing our asking rent and save our reserves for something else that may come up, but I could also see this limiting our cash flow potential for the next almost decade.

Has anyone run into a similar scenario? Any suggestions?