The jerk that sold you the house. Flog him mercilessly.

Then a roofer (concur with previous comment)

Thanks! lol ya the people who lived here before us definitely cut corners.

Hi, Take a look at the gutter. I see a black mark from the top of the gutter to the bottom of the fascia. Sure fits the area of damage.

Good Luck Woodbutcher

I once had a gutter that was butted into the fascia just like that. After a while, the gutter end cap started to leak, but the leakage was initially hidden; I didn't notice until several years later when some damage started to become apparent. When I removed the gutter to get at the small amount of rotted wood, I found mush that just kept going and going. I had to do a major reconstruction of structural framing in the area. I tell you this so you make sure that whoever you hire to do the work removes and rebuilds all damaged material. If you're lucky, it will only be limited to what you see. But if this has been going on for a while, be prepared for a lot of hidden damage and deal with it rather than allowing a cosmetic fix to hide it.

lol, thanks for the warning but now I'm really freaked out. 😂. We actually don't have gutters at all. I researched it when we first bought the house and it seems like it is super common for fifties houses to not have gutters. I wasn't aware that drip metal was a thing though.

Savannah-

Maybe a false alarm from me. I looked at that picture and thought that was a gutter to the left, but I see now that it is a weird piece of trim that I mistook for a gutter. In light of that, I think you just have wood rot from rainwater hitting that area for many years, and the damage is likely to be limited to that piece that it damaged. But do make sure whoever does the work verifies that that is all it is. Good luck.