Hello,

Tenant informed me that the ceiling is dripping water. Turned out It required a torrential rain for me to discover that there is a leak in my rental somewhere perhaps in the roof . I am newbie and have had some really bad experiences with some predatory contractors in the past. I am finding this very stressful since this is my first time dealing with the situation and would like to carefully navigate through this phase, I hope its not as bad as I think. I will really appreciate if someone can give me some useful pointers on how to go about addressing the issue. I have few questions to begin with.

1)Should I directly reach out a roofer immediately? or

2)Bring in local contractor or handyman to identify leak?

3)should I crawl the attic and/or rip off the ceiling and try to discover a leak myself?

4)should I fix the leak or replace the 15 year old roof?

5)should I file an insurance claim?

I was actually planning to sell this home this summer

If reaching out a roofer what are some questions I need to ask to properly vet the roofing contactor any direction here is much appreciated.

Thanks