I'm no good with a hammer, not interested in flipping which seems too much like gambling at this point in my life.

If we ran it for a year and worst-case a renter who's unhappy with us attempting to raise/normalize rents reports the leaking roof, we could be stuck with MAJOR repairs that we can't yet afford, or who knows, a condemned building because there's mold in that roof/attic/walls that have been leaking.It's discouraging - we could walk away and take our $25k and go 20% down on a duplex that cash flows $300 a month, or we gamble on this place where the cash flow is approaching $1.5k per month after budgeting conservatively with the bigger pockets calculators. 

You mention on another thread that you're from the UK.

A lot of investors that buy our properties in the US have been coming out of UK and Australia.

Your play here is gambling on appreciation hoping you make your money that way which is just that gambling. 

I got all my families' money out of that speculation and gambling game.  

Sell to my long-term tenant for $400,000, and invest proceeds in stock market, while avoiding new roof expense in a year or two and taking a gamble on new tenant when current one leaves if I don't sell him the house.2. 

Or is it a gamble and the original owner could come back and reclaim the home?

Hello, new to REI currently an expat in the UK and looking for a market to invest in the states for LTR.

Don't buy any rentals in London UK, you will never be able to evict ...