My husband does the maintenance for our rentals, but we use a PM for managing the tenants. We had a sewer backup in a duplex, the tenant called the PM, hubby gave approval for them to call roto rooter, roto rooter said that a plumber was needed as their scope saw nothing. Foolishly my husband approved the work assuming the plumber knew what he was doing. The tenant got home from work and the plumber had dug the wrong direction IN their basement family room, it was a dead end and the plumber was stumped. The tenant happened to have my husbands number in his cell phone so he called and begged for help. My husband ended up saving us 1k and he worked with the plumber to find the sewer line, but then did all the repair and finish work himself. We were charged for the scope and for the plumber's time (destroying our place - but really its an 80 year old place so who knows where the sewer line is). Then the next day my husband buttoned it all up nice and tidy and patched their mess in the family room. The plumber was in the process of renting a backhoe to trench out the entire sewer line. Yikes! Cost for materials in the end $150. Hubby did come home with poopy carharts and boots which he cleaned outsite:) He's a trooper about that sort of thing.
The tenants made him cookies and said he was the best landlord they ever had! They teased him a bit and asked him how he liked being a landlord and my husband said its not bad, its all about crisis management.