In this market, if you have a substantial equity position and a plan to redeploy it in a profitable fashion, I would sell this property and do that. 

I started with 10 turnkey -ish properties and athought I would not recommend getting that much it is a great place to start.For those who are able to save more than $30k a year or have substantial liquidity (over 200k), being a landlord and especially flipping is a lot of work.

There is a fairly substantial section specifically on vetting contractors, how to hire them, how to pay them, how to keep them honest, etc:https://www.biggerpockets.com/store/long-distance-real-estate-investing-ultimateEven though you won't be long distance, the entire process he lays out still applies. 

@Dan Rivers  This won't qualify for Opportunity Zone benefits since you won't meet the 50%  "substantial improvement" test.

If your vacation home happens to be located near a major event — like a PGA golf tournament or a big multi-day concert — you may be able to rent the place out for a short period even at high rates and pay zero federal income tax.Tax-smart year-end strategy: The more rental days between now and year-end, the better — as long as they don’t exceed 14 days for the year.Rented more than 14 days with substantial personal useYour vacation home falls into this category if you rent it for more than 14 days during the year and your personal use exceeds the greater of:(1) 14 days or (2) 10% of the rental days.

How to Win Friends and Influence People" is of amazing value too - this one will literally set you up for success in life.I'd start out with those two.Hope this helps?

I had substantial tax assessor increases in all Jackson County properties that I own. 

It's also a form of insurance, against litigation, and used for asset protection.That being said, till you have substantial assets and/or income to protect, you should concentrate on getting the level of wealth or generating the income requiring asset protection an LLC provides.

I don't think I would let a dog influence a purchase decision on a house as there are probably ordinances that could be brought into play if necessary.

We started substantially lower than asking price and got in a bidding war.