On cold days like this, we sure miss Benny's though! 

The investors who learn a single strategy or tactic, usually from a “mentor” and do not bother to learn real estate fundamental, real estate finance and real estate law miss out on “creative” opportunities to significantly enhance their ROI or significantly decrease their risk.  

Since many details are missing in your post so it is hard to see the overall picture from the Seller's perspective.

If you've done your end of making sure that the ceiling leak has been addressed and you want to go in there and patch it up but your tenant is withholding rent.

Am I missing something?

You can do it yourself but are almost certainly missing out on tax benefits.

We did get negotiate money from them to help with roof repair, but now know they were not honest on their disclosure.Our inspector missed code violations, HVAC issues, pipes that had been worked on and issues hidden that had occurred while sellers lived in the house, signs of drainage and water damage inside the house that had been painted over, completely blocked dryer vent...and we are finding more daily.We have had the house looked at by a structural engineer and HVAC techs that has told us we need thousands (likely tens of thousands) of dollars worth of repairs to make this property able to rent and come up to code for rental. 

I found myself missing out on more fun occasions than I'd like to admit because I needed to be at my properties handling some issue or showing it when vacant.I found that I had become conditioned by the sound of my phone (even though I helped alleviate it by having quiet hours on my phone from 7:30pm - 08:00am). 95% of the time when a tenant contacted me, it meant something was broken, there was an argument, or there was an excuse about late rent.My husband has been gently pushing me to get a PM for a while.

Don't be afraid to miss a "great deal"... 

It was extremely hard to get information about properties while owners and brokers seemed a lot more careless and missed basic things.