I’m in a real quandary: to sell or not to sell? That is the question. Becoming a landlord was not wholly intentional. I fell into it two years ago on moving from Edinburgh to London. Loath to let go of my first property – and spurred on by reports of buy-to-let investors amassing a small fortune – I decided to let out my two-bedroom flat, in a converted whisky bond building in trendy Leith.

It all seemed so easy. I enlisted the help of a letting agent – the one who said it could achieve the highest rental income. The first potential tenants to view the property signed on the dotted line that very day. And I decamped to the big smoke leaving the contents lock, stock and barrel – plates and cups; television and sound system.

There were costs involved. The “marketing” fees – a letting-agency dogsbody turned up and took some photographs, which then appeared on its website – came in at around £100.

I had to cancel my home insurance and take out another, more expensive policy for a tenanted property. And my lender, Portman (prior to its acquisition by Nationwide), added an entire percentage point onto my mortgage interest due to the added perceived risk.

This I found hard to fathom: the mortgage was secured on a property worth double the value of the loan. So, even in the event of me being unable to meet repayments and the property being repossessed, there was little chance of it selling for less than the balance.

Irrespective, I was sanguine: this could put me on the road to riches. Since then, the rent has increased by a meagre £25 per month to £775, from which the agent takes a meaty 15% cut. That is unlikely to improve anytime soon. Supply has surged, as a vast number of sellers decide to let their property instead, denting rents.

The costs have mounted. Maintenance, repairs and factoring fees have set me back something approaching £5,000 in the past two years. Simply breaking even each month is a fortunate occurrence. The largest cost – the mortgage – is actually marginally cheaper (a saving of about £10 per month), thanks to remortgaging in April with Nationwide, which doesn’t charge any premium on tenanted properties.

That fact that I’m now on a tracker – a rate that moves in line with Bank rate – rather than a fix, means my borrowing costs could drop further. Minutes published last week from the Bank of England’s August meeting, when rates were held at 5%, show that its monetary policy committee mulled a cut.

The Bank is, of course, keen to keep inflation expectations anchored. Inflation is running at more than twice the 2% target and is set to spike even higher, but evidence of a worsening economic outlook leads most analysts to believe interest rates will soon fall.

There is a flip side, though, to the downturn, and it is a big one: property prices. House prices are plummeting at their fastest rate since the housing-market crash of the early 1990s, and the average home has lost £3,099 in value in the past month alone, tumbling to £169,316, according to Halifax.

Scotland is weathering the storm better than England. The number of loans for house purchases north of border slumped 34% year-on-year to 18,500 in the second quarter, compared with a 46% drop across the UK, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said.

Savills, the estate agents, believes Scotland, along with London and the southeast, will lead the eventual housing market recovery due to its higher level of housing-market equity and stronger household purchasing power. But who knows when it will come?

With my investment doing little more than washing its face, and the lease up for renewal at the end of next month, I have that question to answer: to sell or not to sell? Or, perhaps more accurately, to try to sell or not?

My financial backers are unperturbed. The Bank of Mum and Dad tends to be rather lenient; my parents stumped up half of the property price – interest-free – and will receive half of the proceeds. So it’s up to me.

I think I’ll put two signs outside: “To Let” and “For Sale”. That way, fate can decide.

Jennifer Hill is deputy editor of the Money section