Thank you everyone for all the shares, advice, and your time. I had the pleasure of speaking on the phone with Syed
and meeting in person with JJ. The community here on BP is truly remarkable.
A quick update... I drove down to Allentown just to show my face and assess the situation (although I have no expertise in plumbing, carpentry, or similar) in person. It was a good call. Turns out it wasn't that bad. The tenant had clogged the old cast iron sewage pipes with baby wipes and other garbage (e.g. pens. Pens!!). The sewage water had then started accumulating in a below-ground hallway by the finished basement. Around 3 inches of it.
The roofer patched what needed to get patched for $300. I got three completely different quotes on snaking the pipes and cleaning the sewage "water". Zoom Drain quoted me $699 for the snaking alone. Clean up several hundred bucks on top of that. 911 Restoration quoted $1,500 to snake and clean up.
I gave the job to Affordable Plumbing that did everything for $375. That's a discounted price for landlords who are under Empire Property Management (my mgmgnt company). Regulars pay $475.
The price difference in these quotes makes no sense to me. I was upfront about getting three different quotes so all three were incentivized to give me their best offer. I opted out of the camera. I feel like they either do the job right or not and me looking at the pipe from the inside not understanding anything is a waste of $.
Given that the tenants clogged it, we're billing it back to them on top of their next four months rent.
As to selling or not selling, I'm leaning towards selling before the summer.
