They are fully rented (month to month) and gross ~$64000, with $17,000-$20,000 in annual expenses, before loan payments and management fees. 

It now seems that connecting to city water will be too expensive (main line is across a busy road).  

I'd go last on small claims, it's not expensive, but it's time consuming, I don't have prior experience but know some people who does. 2 weeks without communication is a little alarming, but a two week invoice is still fresh.

To get there I am working on increasing my income and reducing my daily living expenses.I had a massive personal budget overhaul about a year ago and reduced my expenses as much as I could, all expenses are planned and budgeted and I know exactly how much cashflow I have each month if there are no unexpected expenses.Part of that is I am focusing on flipping/wholesaling property to build more capital and then use it to buy more rentals as well and focusing on increasing my J.O.B. income until I can do REI full time.I think either route can work, buying only rentals may be a little slower at first but if the equity and cash flow are managed well it can increase more and more.

I didn't get the same total expenses when I added it up, but all of those look reasonable.  

You should really learn to evaluate all the expenses and run the numbers, Cha Yang.

Hopefully there is an alternate repair beyond breaking and repouring, that stuff can get expensive. 

He's allowing me to keep the property at little to no expense to me.

Tub is more expensive, but they make an epoxy that can be painted on that will make it look a whole lot better than pink.

Life and the school of hard knocks has taught me some expensive lessons.