What's a good way to get advice on whether it's better to sell a rental property or keep it? Everyone with expertise seems to have conflicts of interest.
I have zero expertise, but here is how I see it:
do you still have a mortgage on the place? If so, then that mortgage is going to change if you list it as a rental. So you have to keep that new expense in mind.
In the end, I think it comes down to the individual and stress/time commitment. Do you want to deal with being a landlord, risk the potential for scummy tenants, or do you relish the opportunity? I think you can eliminate much of the chaff depending on where the property is located, pricing, the services you choose to list it on. But even if you are the best judge of character, you really never know what people are until they are on their own.
Weigh the stresses over the potential monthly income for renting vs selling now and getting a big stash of money to invest or do whatever you need with it. I think one real benefit to renting is that no one really knows what value will be from neighborhood to neighborhood. Sure, you could potentially lose out on some real value, but even if the economy takes a dump on your property, you can still rent it out at relatively the same income, wait for recovery, then sell.
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