Aluminum ladders had their pros and cons. On the pro side, they were cheap and light—two qualities Jake greatly appreciated, given his limited budget and the fact that he was walking everywhere. Carrying a fiberglass ladder would have left him exhausted before even reaching his first job of the day. The downside, however, was that aluminum ladders were cheaply built. They occasionally folded under stress. Jake would never forget the first time he saw it happen. His father had been coming down a ladder after a job, and just as he hit the fourth step from the ground, the base gave out. In a panic, Jake had rushed forward, instinctively trying to catch him—a move that would have likely hurt them both. Instead, his father had leapt down in one swift motion, gracefully landing before shoving the ladder to the side to prevent it from falling on top of them. It wasn’t a particularly good job to begin with, things only got worse. The very next day, one of his father’s employees stepped onto an unsupported board and fell two stories. Miraculously, the man wasn’t seriously injured, but the falling board landed small-end first on his palm, earning him a few stitches and a tetanus shot. Since then, Jake had made it a personal rule to avoid steep roofs—better to leave those jobs to specialized companies with proper safety equipment.

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Finishing the job at the old man’s house, Jake pocketed $150 and shouldered his aluminum ladder. With his tools in hand, he started down the street, eyes scanning for other houses in desperate need of gutter cleaning. He stopped at the corner, his attention drawn to a neglected two-story home across the street. The shingles were flaking, the worn blue siding looked like it hadn’t seen a fresh coat of paint in decades, and the overgrown grass suggested it hadn’t been cut even once since the snow melted.

Jake crossed the street and eyed the “For Sale by Owner” sign planted in the front yard. As usual, there was no price listed—just a phone number. The house looked rough, and even if he could scrape together a down payment, he knew he wouldn’t qualify for a loan without pay stubs and a solid job history. He sighed, pushing the thought aside. No sense dwelling on something he couldn’t afford, at least not yet.

Moving on, he continued down the street until he found a single-story brown house with a simple roof plan. The eaves troughs were overflowing with leaves and debris, clearly long overdue for cleaning. He knocked firmly on the front door and waited, hopeful for another job