From everything I hear the costs exponentially grow when a PM hires out your repairs/maintenance compared to the cost of you source the work yourself.

How is the small multifamily inventory compared to larger multifamily there?

So percentage wise Jacksonville has seen a crazy amount of new supply being delivered which has affected rents.We also manage a portfolio of new construction homes in Palm Coast and Palm Bay and rents for those homes have dropped $25-75 depending upon floorplan and submarket and they’re taking longer to lease up compared to 2 years ago.A lot of Florida is having similar issues of stagnating or dropping rent, but it definitely depends on market, submarket, asset type, etc. 

Compare your options.Sell and breakeven is not a bad option.Rent and cashflow negative temporarily but only if you can manage doing that. 

If you don't have that, keep earning, saving, and managing the risk you take by investing in REITs (which is small but risk still exists).If you already have at least $100k to invest, and you're wondering where to start as an OOS investor, I recommend this dataset that we at BiggerPockets put together specifically for people like you and me.https://www.biggerpockets.com/resources/housing-market-data/...It contains information like job growth, population growth, and rent-price ratio for all markets to compare and contrast.

It would help if you studied how your home compares to others and ensured it is priced right.

Have you compared the appreciating cash flow on the duplex to the potential savings on your current mortgage over 1,3, and 5 years? 

I am guessing in Muncie the cap rate is probably 8-12% cap rate so take the NOI and come up with a comparable cap rate to determine the value. 

Compare Savings: Subtract the prepayment penalty from the potential savings generated by refinancing (e.g., lower monthly payments, reduced interest rates).

In your case looking to larger assets where you can effeciently cost segregate to gather bonus depreciation would be a smart move.Appreciation - Where in the country is the asset class you like growing or going to be growingAmortization of the loan - What sector or even region if you look locally for funding, is going to offer the most favorable lending so that less goes to interest expense and more to pay down of principle.Have fun with a spread sheet comparing these 4 returns from your investment with the type and location of assets you find attractive.