When I was in high school, and throughout the first 3 years of college (during summers, and winter break) I worked for a roofing company. The crew that I was on installed mostly large hot-asphalt roofs (aka hot-tar) which included tearing off the old roof and installing a new roof to replace it. As hot-asphalt can't be applied when it's wet out, when it rained we would stock under-construction houses with drywall, install insulation, stock shingles on roofs, and install composition shingles -- not any fun, but it kept us busy.  We couldn't run asphalt in the rain as the asphalt was about 650 degrees (Farenheit) in the kettle -- (that big, black, noisy, loud, hot piece of machinery you see on the ground that has a pipe up to the roof) -- as it would vaporize and boil when the slightest bit of moisture touched it -- 650 degrees is just slightly more than 3X the temperature of boiling water - so it's hot!.

There was no OSHA at the time (or if there was, we were so far off of the beaten path in a small town in Oregon that my employer wasn't concerned with it) - so few, if any, safety measures were in place. We often worked with no shirts on, no protective gear other than gloves and boots, and never any safety harnesses -- not a big deal on hot-asphalt roofs, as they're generally fairly flat, but on the steeped pitched roofs of the old Victorian homes on which we worked, safety harnesses would have been a good idea! I worked on a small pitched roof on the side of a grain elevator once - about 7-8 stories up (see photo below), and the guy with whom I was working, a very experienced roofer, scrambled after a piece of equipment that started to slide and he almost went with it -- not very smart and could have cost him his life -- no harnesses that day either. When I was about 17 years old, I once packed a 30-ft ladder on my shoulder, up the side of that same grain elevator, via a built-in vertical ladder embedded in the side of the building. Again, no safety equipment -- lucky I'm still alive!

In any event, what prompted this post was an email that I received from a group in Massachusetts that is working to educate the roofing public regarding the dangers of older roofing materials that may have contained asbestos, and could be a contributing factor to roofer contracting mesothelioma. I don't know anything about this organization or the information above/beyond what is contained on this website (link below), but if you know a roofer that might be affected/afflicted, they may want to avail themselves of this information:

Click Here for Additional Information

​It seems that whenever one reads a news article or scans a headline regarding U.S. Military Veterans, a common theme is that "Americans love Veterans!" -- which seems to be mostly true except, apparently, when it comes to selling them their home!

While most enlisted military personnel don't make a lot of money, VA benefits are often touted as an offset -- "Buy a house with 0% down!". Of course that's not entirely true -- closing costs (approximately 1.5% - 2% of the purchase price) and the 2.15% - 3.30% VA Funding Fee can result in a need to have anywhere from approximately 2% of the purchase price (if the fees are rolled into the loan) to 4.15% of the purchase price - in Southern California, on a $700K home that's anywhere from $14K to $29K -- out of reach for many young Veterans -- which is why VA loans/deals are so rare. That, and the large quantities of cash that more affluent buyers are often able to bring to the table so their deal looks "better" -- so sadly, the Veterans that we as Americans love are rarely given an opportunity to participate, even if they can afford the monthly payments. I've had a bank (house in foreclosure) accept a Veteran's offer (when there were other higher offers), accepted an offer -- on behalf of my seller client -- on a short sale for a Veteran, and assisted a Veteran buyer who had a larger down payment from the sale of another house purchase a home. All went very smoothly, closed on time, and without any drama.

Sellers, Veterans are simply asking for a chance at purchasing your beautiful home. When it closes, the net to you is the same as an all-cash offer at the same purchase price - and it gives a young Veteran and his or her family an opportunity to begin building their own memories.

​So if you're selling your home, and you receive an offer from a Veteran, with our without a large down payment, please consider it -- show them that Americans do truly love their Veterans -- and not just when we need them!