Hello! I am new here. We have a tree in the front of our house that the previous owners let overgrow. This type of tree is apparently brittle and should not be this tall! We have a pruning service coming out but were told that we can't simply chop the top off of the tree since it would be unsightly.
I'd like to get this below the gutters, so remove about 5 feet+ from the top. There's also a cable line there that would be freed if the tree was lower.
What's the best method to get this tree to be much shorter but to avoid some common pruning pitfalls? Should I clip the main two branches and try to shape the remaining offshoots so that it looks pretty? Should I prune it over time?
Thank you!

Is just having it chopped down an option?

aesthetically .... the tree is too tall for that spot - plus - it looks out of place ...

that forked top may become a problem later

Cutting by half or taking the top off ...will force new growth downwards making it bushy ... first few years will probably be able to "see-through" the "bush"....over time, may become too dense ....making it more shrub like than tree like

If topped ....in another few years, will be back to about the same height it is now ...only *bigger*... in your gutters, cable line & too close to the house

if it were my tree, on my property ...while still somewhat small & manageable the tree would be cut to the ground ....

another point of view ...... the bigger that tree gets - the more expensive it will become to cut it down & removed
(in 10 or so years add a thousand)

look for a dwarf tree or another shrub to take its spot

Sadly, yes it should go. It's too close to the house and will be a bigger problem down the road.

Wow this is good feedback! A lot to consider, thank you. Didn't think I'd have to cut it down and was hoping to chop it small enough so that I can cut it annually myself. Appreciate all your replies.

Do you know what kind of tree it is? That might affect your possibilities.

That tree should have never been planted there in the first place. Wrong choice from whomever did it; 0 research was done.

Plain and simple: it needs to be removed.

1) Cutting off the leading shoot(s) to accomodate for the lines above will only stimulate a mass of new shoots beneath the cut which will compete with each other for dominance; aka replace the leading shoot that was cut. In other words, this is how the tree is genetically programmed to grow and there's nothing you can do about it. Hacking away at it every year will only worsten the problem and you'll end up with one manky looking, aesthetically butchered tree.

2) The tree already has two competing leaders that make up 2/3 of the height already. In time they will grow against each other and then outwards because there is no room to accomodate normal secondary growth. They won't fuse either. The bark in between might rot and eventually, given the right (ughh, wrong) circumstances, could tear away from each other and cause damage to anything/anyone in the vicinity, and you end up with needing it removed anyway.

So cut your losses and have it removed. The silver lining here is that you now can dream of a new and beautiful tree that won't cause issues down the line. (genera Acer, Amelanchier, Magnolia, Cercis, Hamamelis....have species which don't grow too big. Just do some research)