Everybody thinks about gutters once the leaves start falling here in metro Atlanta, but the spot that actually causes trouble first is your roof valleys — the V-shaped seams where two roof planes meet. Leaves settle there before anywhere else, pack down into a wet mat, and hold water against your shingles instead of letting it drain.
Give that a few weeks and the trapped moisture works under the shingle edges into the decking below. That’s how a simple gutter cleaning turns into a rotted deck repair. Undersized or clogged downspouts cause the same problem at your fascia board, so flush them until water runs clean.
If you spot any hail or wind damage while you’re up there, don’t sit on it — Georgia gives you 12 months from the storm date to file, but the physical evidence weathers away a lot faster than that.