I bought the house in Tacoma, WA for 64K five years ago. It is worth about 150K now. After expenses, I make about $8,400 a year in cash flow. Again, this accounts for taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc.
Even though it is a rental now, I lived there longer than any of my current homes though the one thing I didn't care for there was the traffic noise from a somewhat busy street. Not a major road, but enough people use the side street that the swoosh of cars get's annoying, mostly because it is sporadic. 5 cars at a time during rush hour, minutes apart, or one car every few minutes during the day. After about 8 PM it is pretty dead.
Thing is, right now I'm holding it because I like it as a fall back position: a paid off place to live with a reasonable commute to high paying jobs, transit, entertainment, etc. But as the value rises I think I might be better off either
A) 10-31 exchanging into a similar house in the same area that is not on a busy street. Basically, I look at it like I'm trading one house for another, so as far as I'm concerned, I still paid 64K for it. This way I can keep renting it out, and it's a better place to live should I want to keep using it as a fall back position.
B) Sell it and use the money to finance several properties. This is something I had not really considered until I saw a few youtube videos where the investors with 50+ houses tell you how they turned a little into a lot.
I think either one is a winning strategy. Option A gives me more safety and improves the living situation if I ever do decide to move back in. Heck, if it was not on a busy street, I'd probably move back in NOW.
Option B allows me to build more wealth, especially in the long run. For a fall back position, I can always buy one of those 50K houses in Idaho :-)