Not sure if my rental property is worth keeping

[Mica Moore]

SFH, I bought it almost 5 years ago (Dec 2021) & since then have made $20K in capital improvements. I didn't intend to be a landlord, I bought the house as my primary. After a year living there circumstances had me permanently move away to a different area. Its been a rental for about last four years. Surprisingly no tenant issues, it's been smooth sailing.

But here are the downsides:

In a city that has no growth & property values either stay the same or go down - so no hope of appreciation.

Taxes & insurance combined go up about $1000 per year & keep climbing. Insurance is sky high anyway because it's in a hurricane zone ( it's 3x the amount of my primary homeowners insurance which is inland 2 hours north & not in hurricane zone-- for comparison). BTW the taxes & insurance are 35% of my mortgage payment. I would be surprised if they keep climbing & reach 50%. I don't know how the assessor gets away with increasing property values every year when all sales data  is way below their assessments.

Home is aging so it's more upkeep ( since I've owned it I put in new flooring, new roof, new appliances, new water heater, new windows, fixed dropping & aging fence).

so basically costs continue to climb but home values doesn't move. In this market is worth pretty much what I bought it for 5 years ago. I have gained nothing.

i don't see any upside to owning it long-term. Are there any reasons I might be missing to keep it?

I'm seriously thinking of selling it soon. But it's a big decision so try to get perspective.

[Jay Hurst]

Quote from @Mica Moore:

SFH, I bought it almost 5 years ago (Dec 2021) & since then have made $20K in capital improvements. I didn't intend to be a landlord, I bought the house as my primary. After a year living there circumstances had me permanently move away to a different area. Its been a rental for about last four years. Surprisingly no tenant issues, it's been smooth sailing.

But here are the downsides:

In a city that has no growth & property values either stay the same or go down - so no hope of appreciation.

Taxes & insurance combined go up about $1000 per year & keep climbing. Insurance is sky high anyway because it's in a hurricane zone ( it's 3x the amount of my primary homeowners insurance which is inland 2 hours north & not in hurricane zone-- for comparison). BTW the taxes & insurance are 35% of my mortgage payment. I would be surprised if they keep climbing & reach 50%. I don't know how the assessor gets away with increasing property values every year when all sales data  is way below their assessments.

Home is aging so it's more upkeep ( since I've owned it I put in new flooring, new roof, new appliances, new water heater, new windows, fixed dropping & aging fence).

so basically costs continue to climb but home values doesn't move. In this market is worth pretty much what I bought it for 5 years ago. I have gained nothing.

i don't see any upside to owning it long-term. Are there any reasons I might be missing to keep it?

I'm seriously thinking of selling it soon. But it's a big decision so try to get perspective.

 Have you challenged yuor assessed value?  if the comps are lower then your assesed value and you have deferred maintence you should be to challange the assesment. Even if successful this property might not be worth keeping, but a lot of investors with high taxes do not bother to challange and it always makes me scratch my head. Absentee landlords are the taxing authorities fav target because they rarely fight back.