I have a big old silver maple in my backyard which need some work. I stood up on my roof and took a panorama of the tree to get the best possible view of it.

The most worrying leads are left most and right most in the photo. Most of the bulk of the left is hidden by the canopy, but it extends far out over the back of my neighbors garage (hiding behind the lilac in the bottom left corner) and above the garage and pool of the house behind them. In addition, the tree has a large crack/split/seam between the large rightmost lead and the rest of the tree.

My worst case scenario is the left lead lets go and hits both neighbor's garages and pool when it comes down and I have to deal with all of that. Second worst case is the right most cracking off and taking out my garage.

Anyway, I've called 10-12 places since mid July and in that time only one returned my call and came out to quote. He quoted around $2700 to trim out about 30% of the crown, all the deadwood, and to install 4 anchor cables, two in each of the troublesome leads anchored to the main trunk and also quoted around $4000 for complete removal. Since I've had some time, I know that they are one of the most expensive in the area, but they have a great record.

Is it just me or does it seem that even proper cabling is delaying the inevitable since Silver Maples have a tendency to crack and drop limbs? Especially with how rotten the main trunk looks.

I have a feeling that this is the sort of thing that comes down to it could fall today or in 40 years...