We are buying two houses right next to each other.

I have good record keeping although a bit old fashioned (journal w/hrs, mileage, receipts).No LLC although we are considering with the 3rd rental on board.Would be interested in hearing from CPA's who might fit our needs.  

I'm worried that this equity we are sitting on is not being put to its best use, and am wondering what someone in this situation would do? 

We found that two key factors significantly helped us succeed with our short-term rental (STR): using NightlyPricer instead of AirDNA and opting for Safely Insurance.NightlyPricer: Rather than relying on AirDNA, we chose Nightly Pricer, which provides more dynamic, real-time adjustments based on demand, local events, and market trends.

Since we are considering a 4 bedroom house, let's compare it to a 2 bedroom 2 bath duplex each side.  

Quote from @Edgar Duarte: hi allI would love to get some perspective from your expertise, we have a property that we would have to sell in 2025 to avoid paying taxes on the capital gains, we believe we rcan sell it for $700K and get an equity of almost $500K after paying the mortgage balance, if we invest all of it option in index funds at 7% rate (standard com growth calculator), or in more rental properties as we are all here for, I can get the equity of around $900K.option B would be keep paying the house at 2.3% int rate while we have it in AirBnB and maybe sell it in 10 years for $900K, knowing that we would be paying taxes but it is not that bad still. or we can 1031 at that point?

We are still in a real estate expansion phase.  

we are seeing more and more of this.

I work in similar facilities and there is a lot of wear and tear on the property.

Snow plowing is an emergency service , we are on call 24/7 for the entire winter , the prices you pay cover the salt that we stock , the prep for each storm , the desalting of the trucks , the overtime .