No, I didn't do it myself, because it is gas water heater and I wanted to transfer risks to a licensed and insured plumbing company, similar with roofing, etc. It leaked not long after I moved in, maybe a year. I fixed it myself since the emergency water heater replacement companies wanted to charge me 2.5K! But I knew I needed to replace it before it leaked again. Better now than when it becomes a major emergency and does thousands in property damage I figured, and technically in this case it came out of my tenants pocket since I budget for this from the rent. I got bids and picked a good plumbing company for about 1K out the door for the parts and labor with tax and all. They even fixed the valve and brought it up to code, since the valve was the wrong kind and didn't actually shut water to the tank off. I had to shut it off at the street when I worked on it, but now it's fixed too so I can easily shut just it off from inside. It took them 5 hours while I worked from my rental house using my phone as a hot spot with my VPN.
One less thing to worry about. Glad I took care of it now instead of when it becomes an emergency when I have stuff going on at work, school, other rentals, etc. Right now I have time off from school and work is slow so I figured I'd take care of a ton of maintenance items during the time off this December. About to do the roof next. Oh, mind you I had another contractor out replacing the gutters at another rental at the same time. Wohoo! Basically pouring some budgeted money for capex into keeping the places running good and looking nice for a while. Adds value to my property and allows me to charge higher rents. Well, maybe not for the roof and the water heater. :-)
