Today we’d like to introduce you to Rob Roca.
Hi Rob, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My story begins in January of 2014. I was still in Nursing School. We had just won custody of my 2 kids and had just moved to Houston from New Orleans. When I arrived, I looked to transfer to local schools, but they all had a year waiting list. Only having about a year and a half left, I didn’t want to waste that time waiting. So I convinced the dean of nursing, at my school in New Orleans, to allow me to Zoom into my lectures but that I would come in town 3-4 days a week for clinicals and exams. Somehow I convinced them to go with it. This is where the story begins to take a turn. About a month into this journey, I was getting myself ready to leave town again and my wife had jumped in the shower. Randomly she asked me, “hey babe, have you ever considered getting into Real Estate?” Baffled, I laughed it off and said, “I don’t know the first thing about Real Estate. And I am in nursing school. Why would I even think about Real Estate?” She begins to tell me that she had a vision the night before and that she brushed it off as a dream, but that it kept nagging at her. She explained that I was in Real Estate, in fact we both were, and we were doing really well at it. She continued to she exclaim that I was good at sales and construction and that my personality was one that would excel in Real Estate. I laughed it off again and told her that once I got my nursing career off the ground, I would think about it. Fast forward two weeks later, it’s a Friday afternoon and I had just wrapped up an exam in New Orleans when I get a frantic call from my wife that my daughter had been freaking out and it escalated to the point that the police had to be called. The police gave her an option, either we enroll her in a psychiatric hospital or they would arrest her. My daughter was 13 at the time. I rushed home and proceeded to enroll her into a local hospital. When I got home late that evening, I went up to her room and cried my eyes out. My daughter was having a mental breakdown due to all the recent changes in her life. A permanent change in households. An out of state move. Her dad was gone half the week every week. Her biological mom was angry bc of the change of custody so she was portraying my wife and I as evil and convincing my daughter of it. As I laid in her bed crying, I asked God why this was happening…what did I need to do? And suddenly the words Real Estate popped in my mind and a sense of calm came over me. It was the strangest thing ever. I cleaned myself up and went down stairs. I asked my wife why she thought that I would be good in Real Estate. She began to go more in depth on the traits she had earlier explained. She got on her phone and looked up Real Estate classes and there was a class starting that Monday at a local school. Something inside of me said “DO IT!!!” I told her to enroll me. Once I was officially enrolled in the early hours of Saturday morning, I emailed the Dean of Nursing in New Orleans and officially withdrew from Nursing School. It was a complete leap of faith. Jumping into a world I knew NOTHING about. I fully submersed myself in classes and finished in 2 months and was fully licensed by April of 2014. For the first 3 years, I worked 7 days a week marketing myself to a town I knew nothing about and knew no one in. I was committed to succeeding, there was no other option for me. This new career offered me an opportunity to be close to my family on a daily basis all while opening the door to a good financial opportunity. My plan worked so well, that 5 years later my wife quit her career in Oil and Gas as an environmental engineer to join my team. Ultimately, her “vision” came to fruition and our business continues to grow as we pour our heart and soul into everyone of our clients. Treating them like family and doing everything in our power to make their move the easiest and most enjoyable one ever.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It was not smooth by any stretch of the imagination. Not being from this area and not having a “sphere of influence” made the trek extremely difficult. Then moving to a town that is extremely tight knit was challenging to gain their trust as an “outsider”. Couple that with the fact that I knew nothing about Real Estate to begin with, so it was literally ALL new to me.
We’ve been impressed with Roca Real Estate Group, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We are a full service Real Estate team that assists our clients in Residential and Commercial Real Estate transactions. Our business model is slightly different than most in this industry in the sense that we literally invest in our clients. As mentioned before, we have taken on the slogan “We Make Moving Easy”. That notion has been the driving force behind our success. It started with a simple thought. It is not an unknown fact that among life’s most stressful activities, buying or selling a home ranks high on that list. In my simple mind, I wondered why that was. Why should it be stressful, when you should rather be excited at the idea of buying a home or selling a home to purchase another. So I began to dissect the process and isolated the stressors that I could potentially take on for my clients leaving them with a more enjoyable experience. Year by year we added more and more to our client’s benefits package. All clients now benefit from receiving boxes, the free use of our 17′ moving truck, and a complimentary storage unit for 1 month if needed. Sellers benefit from those items as well as a visit from our professional stager to assist in making their homes look like a model home, a warehouse full of staging items that we use to stage homes as needed, a complimentary cleaning crew that will do a prelisting and post move out clean of the home, professional photography to include virtual tour videography, and a complimentary utilities concierge that will contact my clients approximately 2 weeks before their close date to assist them in transferring their utilities to their new home.
By investing in our clients, literally, we may make a little less at the end of the transaction but what we gain are friendships and extremely happier clients that love to recommend us to their family and friends.
What makes you happy?
I have always been a service oriented person. Seeing someone smile because of something I was able to do makes my heart happy. So to be in an industry where you can quite literally make people’s dreams come true is such a satisfying reward to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.robroca.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/184Zvz7Xjc/
