In this day and age with technology taking over, we are continuing to be more efficient and ever improving our services. We now have DocuSign to help speed up the process of signing contracts and even paying with a credit card.
When scheduling your inspection you can mention to the scheduler that when sending your confirmation you would also like our forms via DocuSign. We will send your contract(s) and a credit card authorization via DocuSign when requested.
Every month, the PFAR YPN puts on a mixer called the Monthly YPN Social. The idea is to have regular mixers so we can all stay in touch, network, and hopefully meet new contacts and create new friendships along the way.
Below are pictures from the social mixer at Bar Celona in Old Town Pasadena on February 27th, 2013.
Hope to see you at the next one!
Sunday December 2nd marked the 5th year that LaRocca Inspections has organized a team for the annual Say No to Drugs Race.
This year we had a team of more than 50 folks, including the children and grandchildren of many of our Inspectors and employees. We all gathered at the Universal Studios back lot despite predictions of rain to walk and/or run In support of the cause. Thankfully the rain held off until the afternoon and we all got to enjoy the beautiful morning and get some exercise while traversing through the back lot, walking down Wisteria Lane, past the Bates Motel, through Whoville, and various other amazing movie and television sets.
Thanks to all who came out this year to participate and those who sponsored some of our team members! And congratulations to Joe Pacilio from Century 21 Earll for taking SECOND PLACE in your age division! You are quite inspiring! Here are some pics from the race….. Goooo TEAM LAROCCA!
I recently decided to join Toastmasters International. If you don’t know what Toastmasters is all about you should check it out at www.Toastmasters.org.
I joined Toastmasters for a number of reasons. I am regularly asked to give presentations on inspections as a part of my job here at LaRocca Inspections, I also have taken on a number of leadership roles within the REALTOR associations I belong to which require me to organize, and facilitate meetings and give presentations on occasion, and last but not least, I have my side career as a singer which requires me to be on stage for hours and keep things rolling and interesting in between songs. I already felt pretty comfortable in front of a crowd prior to joining Toastmasters but I figured it could do no harm to try to hone my skills and hopefully learn new skills and tricks to make presentations and performances smoother and more focused.
So far, I’ve belonged to the All StAARs club in Arcadia for approximately 6 months. We meet every other week. I have enjoyed learning about the rules and rituals of Toastmasters and giving speeches with specific learning objectives in mind such as organizing my speech, and clearly identifying and sticking to my speech topic.
This past Friday, I gave my third speech for toastmasters. The “Get To The Point” speech which puts importance on identifying a General Purpose, Specific purpose, and maintaining focus throughout the speech. I chose to do my speech on the topic of self-esteem with the specific purpose of inspiring the audience to be kinder to themselves. The title of my speech was “Learning to Love Yourself (Is the Greatest Love of All).” I think it came together really well and was especially proud when my fellow toastmaster voted me the best speaker of the day! Carrie caught the speech on video so I decided to share it with you. Let me know what you think J
-April Kass
Marketing Director
LaRocca Inspections
LaRocca Inspections wins Readers Choice “Best Home Inspection Company” 2012 from Daily News!
Every year I get a copy of the Daily News “Readers Choice” edition and every year I wonder how one gets named the “Best.” Well this year I found out! I got a call from Daily News letting us know that we had been nominated and recieved a certain minimum number of votes that entitled us, LaRocca Inspections, to the title “BEST HOME INSPECTION COMPANY” So as it turns out, it’s really a readers choice. And it feel extremely gratifying to have our clients value our company enough to nominate and vote for us!
All of us at LaRocca want to thank the readers who voted for us! We strive daily to provide exemplary service and are committed to delivering the best inspections in the industry. We know that buying a home is a huge investment and our goal is to ensure that our clients have an accurate understanding of the property they’re considering buying.
THANK YOU AGAIN for your votes and your amazing support of LaRocca over the last 18 years. We wouldn’t be able to exist and persist in this industry throughout these tough economic times without clients and friends like the ones we have!
We’re experiencing the lowest prices in 10 years, the cheapest cost of money in 20 years, and very low property taxes so it’s almost a no brainer. It’s a great time to find a piece of the American Dream.
Many take the plunge. They get out there, search the neighborhoods, go to the open-houses and find a property that works best for them. They get their offer accepted and then, wham! Second thoughts set in and sleepless nights begin. Frankly that’s what happens to me and I’ve bought many properties in my 40+ year career of buying, renovating and selling property.
It’s the possibility of surprise costs after I’m locked into a deal that drives me crazy. If a major system like the chimney, sewer system or foundation has hidden problems I could lose a lot of money and my plans to make a good deal would be wrecked.
Frankly that’s why I started thoroughly inspecting buildings. I don’t like making a dumb mistake and end up losing money on a deal. A mistake in real estate can make my life miserable and take years to recover.
My best advice to every buyer is to do your homework. Do the inspections, research the permits, and find out as much as you can about the history of that property and the future of the area.
No one should let their reach for the “American Dream” dissolve into a nightmare especially when it’s very preventable if you fully investigate the property.
By John LaRocca
Has anyone else noticed that Real Estate is a 24 hour a day/7 day a week business? I get emails in the wee hours of the morning, calls on the weekends, texts on the fourth of July for an emergency inspection… and of course Labor day is no different. In fact, in the past 8 years I’ve been involved in the real estate inspection industry, Labor Day has been a very busy day. I assume this is because so many potential home buyers are off of work and thus able to check out homes or schedule their home inspection on Labor day Monday since they already have the day off… whatever the reason, it’s a historically busy holiday for LaRocca Inspections.
So although our office staff will be off enjoying the Labor day festivities, our inspectors will be laboring through Labor day, performing inspections as usual. And our messages will be picked up regularly throughout the day to accomodate any last minute needs you real estate agents or buyers might have!
So let us know if you’d like to spend your holiday with us and have a happy and safe Labor Day!!!
April Kass – LaRocaa Inspections
You may have noticed that we have a new marketing representative in our office! Her name is Carrie Crest, she started with us about 2 months ago and we love her! She fits right in like an apple in an orchard and we are delighted to have her. Since she’s begun showing up out in the field, I’ve had an alarming number of people ask if everything’s okay, did I fire Jason, am I leaving LaRocca and “grooming” her to take my place… I’ve even been asked if I’m pregnant!!!
I PROMISE YOU GUYS, I’m not going anywhere and neither is Jason (and neither of us have a bun in the oven)! I love my job at LaRocca Inspections and they love me. I was just spreadng myself too thin and needed a little help! So this is how I’ve structured our Marketing department:
Me (April Kass): I am still our Marketing Director and handle our marketing department’s strategic planning and annual budget. Jason and Carrie report to me and I give them their “marching orders” so to speak. I will be spending the majority of my time working on planning, public relations, and networking. This means I may contact you to ask you some marketing research question, get a testimonial from you, etc. I will spend time at our local associations, on various committees, in the field (delivering presentations at sales meetings, going on weekly caravans, etc.) writing articles, blogs, and keeping up on social media.
Jason Wrightsman: Jason will be taking over the promotional design section at LaRocca Inspections. With the four companies that we represent it really takes a full time employee to do all of the concepting, inventory, printing, ordering (and reordering) of promotional brochures, cards, pens, and other items that we order on a regular basis, basic layout and graphic design, keeping our websites current, sending out email deals, and posting those photo blogs that everyone loves! As part of his new position here, he will also be attending school part time for graphic design which he is already talented at and this will make him just invaluable to me in the marketing department!
Carrie will be taking over a number of the functions Jason and I were previously doing. Her main focus is promotional activities. She will be scheduling office presentations and educational classes and she will prepare what is needed for those presentations (bring the food and goodies everyone loves so much!). She will also be doing the rounds visiting the offices around town, keeping our brochure stands stocked, droping off fliers, sending direct mail, and assisting me when needed at networking events, trade shows, etc. If you see her out in the field, say HELLO!
I know that we are structured a little differently than other companies that service te real estate industry and I hope that this clears up some of the confusion out there. We feel that this structure allows us to get the most efficient use of our time and energy to best serve our clients!
April Kass – Marketing Director
Being too wired can be a shocking experience! This water heater has exposed wires, which is never good when electricity is involved.
This is a good example of a dangerous find on an inspection with an easy fix.
On August 16th the Southland Regioanl Association of REALTORS (SRAR) had their annual charity golf tournament. This year it was held at Wood Ranch Country Club in Simi Valley, which was a very nice course situated between beautiful sprawling homes and the neighboring mountains. The tournament format turned out to be what is referred to as a “shamble,” which in case you don’t know (we didn’t until we got there) is where you take the best drive off the tee, and from there each person plays their OWN ball in, unlike a scramble where the best ball is continued to be played in until the hole is finished.
Each foursome was also paired with a professional golfer, which was a lot of fun to see someone so good right in front of you. TEAM LAROCCA was a couple players short for the tournament so we were fortunate enough to get Scott Shimamoto, and Mike Ojeda to agree to play with our team, who though not quite as good as the pro, definitely graced our team with their talent. As a whole, we thought we did pretty good and we definitley had a good time!
April Kass and Jason Wrightsman
Below are some of the photos of our adventures around the course:
laroccainspect 