Leveraging appreciation - HELOC or sell?

[Roman Rytov]

I have three duplexes with interesting characteristics. When both units are rented the CoC (after insurance, taxes and PM fees) are about 20% CoC which is very good. On the other hand, the vacancy rate is the highest there in my portfolio - one of the 6 units is often not rented. Next aspect is that it's a "high touch" area: a couple of the tenants on the 8th program, they often delay payments, etc. The last part of the story is that these properties have appreciated substantially.

Two distinct questions come in this regard:

1. Given that high touch flavor of the properties I'm thinking to sell them but maybe I'm reacting too emotionally? Even after the vacancy rate and high turnout are factored in the CoC is still better than other properties in the portfolio.

2. The appreciation of the properties is, of course, only on paper. CoC is high but return on assets is getting lower since the assets are growing faster than the rent. How to realize the appreciation? Should I take a loan against the properties and invest is somewhere or maybe sell them all at once and reinvest?

I know that I'm mixing two questions here. Your feedback is very welcome.