This leaves the tenants extremely frustrated, especially if it's a refrigerator issue causing their food to spoil, or possibly an issue with an appliance leaking water onto the floor, etc. 

She trapped us into signing the lease as 1) there were no reasonably priced properties to rent & 2) we were not planning on moving this fall, so no money saved, nor household packed.Her property needs new windows because they leak and we have had major water damage, bathroom vents to be installed & mold removal from said bathrooms.

Syndications are only suitable to players who have experience with deep due diligence, basic understanding of fraud prevention/detection techniques and enough real estate experience to understand the market, macro economy and how those factors will impact the investment. 

This is where you put on your detective hat and dive deep into the world of real estate data, demographics, and trends. 

What about leaking roofs or accidents you can't predict?

Remote control and locable thermostates,  water leak detetors and main cut offs.   

This year I've had two water leaks, one of them is ongoing.

Do that an at some point you will end up buying a vacant lot that used to have a gas station on it, that still has the old buried leaking tanks and the oil change guys just dumped all their oil changes behind the shop, and you will now be responsible for EPA cleanup to the tune of 100Ks. 

This morning she said the kitchen faucet is leaking at the base. 

There’s no indication that the leak is coming from the roof so it’s got to be from the walls or the ground but I’m at a loss on how to diagnose the cause and fix the problem.