Wanted to throw another perspective at you since I am currently a home owner that is renting out our single family home. Our forever home (the home I lived in for 6 years prior to renting) has to be rented because we are active duty military and are stationed in a different state then our home. I refuse to sell our home because it is our perfect forever home for when my husband finally turns in his retirement paperwork. I pray he does this every day (he is currently 33 years active duty). We have been extremely lucky in our tenants. Our home has been rented for the past 5 years and we have had two sets of great tenants. We are very blessed in that because I have heard nightmare stories from other people. With that being said, homes always cost money. We cover all our costs of the home in the monthly rent that are standard home expenses. It is the unexpected costs that are always difficult and have to come out of separate savings. Most years it has not been that bad. This year has been a bad year. Since the beginning of July through just this week, I have spent a total of $18,600 on repairs/maintenance on that house. We keep our house in very good shape and always service it as needed. It has just been a bad 6 months with things breaking that could not be repaired and needed to be replaced instead. Don't even get me started on my HOA blasting us with notices about dead spots in our lawn that must be replaced or they will fine us $100 a day starting December 1st. It is always something.
My point being it may look very good on paper to keep these properties, but you also need to consider your time/stress in dealing with these properties from a distance. I hate that my house is a rental, but I am also planning on returning to that home in the next 20 months, it is my forever home. If you do not plan on coming back to that area, then consider how long you want to deal with these properties. I think the advice about keeping them for a year or two is solid to see how you feel about being a long distance land lord. You may even find yourself wanting to move back after a year or two and then will have to rebuy in a higher market. But also it might be a good idea to keep the property you would consider moving back into and let the other one go.
Again just my perspective. I know not everyone has to deal with the maintenance issues that I have to or the crazy HOA people that have nothing better to do with their time then to drive by my house once a day looking for any violation they can find because they hate that any house in our neighborhood is a rental. Houses cost money plain and simple.