We were lucky to catch up with Heather Van Voorst recently and have shared our conversation below.

Heather, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Our Contracting company, Van Voorst Testing & Contracting LLC is our family owned and operated company, whose talented crew has been skilled in delivering quality work to customers for a fair market price and delivering work in a timely manner for over 20 years. Last year, I gained my real estate license, to better serve customers who were looking to take their newly renovated homes to the market, to access the most of their home’s equity, while providing education, skill, and support through the entire process.

Our contracting crew’s mission is to deliver quality, affordable workmanship for clients, and to scale our business in a fashion that respects other prime and subcontractors in our local areas, offering collaborative services, and employment to the generations coming up under us as well.

We recognize that no one can do all things, and do all things well, and that teamwork truly does make the dream work. Having a purpose driven mission in providing skilled training to our youth, and expanding opportunities, elevates everyone in the community, homeowners and property owners included, not excluding commercial owned entities and multi-family dwellings.
As far as my real estate services go, my mission is to educate families that are renting, first time homebuyers, people scared of the market due to being badly informed over past housing market busts (which never truly last, but bad lending practices, including predatory lending by giving money to those who are unable to pay it back), or not well-educated counsel from a truly good agent, is what I aim to serve.
I recognize that the person buying a luxury unit deserves the same comprehensive service that a client engaged, in say, lower to moderately priced homes and properties, deserves.
That mission also includes giving sound input, a comprehensive connection to the right team members to help all clients get the proper funding channels, programs, and tax counsel, while simultaneously providing them with access to our own privately owned contracting company, where they get preferential scheduling, though they are under no obligation to use whatsoever.
In a nutshell, we provide our clients, new or seasoned homeowners, commercial property investors, shareholders, and 1st time homebuyers alike, a valuable service through contracting and real estate services, at a fair market price, while valuing each transaction with authenticity, value, and consideration, seeing training of our crew and the services that we provide make lasting, community impacts on those we serve. Partnering with other local city organizations, tribal, commerce, contracting, real estate, and lender-related fields, are essential for providing strong and beneficial advancements in our community for years to come.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

While raising our family of four children, I chose to pursue my bachelor’s degree in marketing & sales, intrigued by the engineering firm that my husband had been a minority partner in for nearly a decade here in the Pacific Northwest. He had successfully grown the testing department, adding on approximately 11 employees to the initially small firm, and I wanted to be of service in any way I could.

During school I did several business plans and analysis specifically related to his company, the building industry, including building science, architecture, land development, and economic growth and development, relating to local and global industries alike. I also researched and developed the social implications that were intertwined with these disciplines and came to find that topics relating to urban development and raising local living standards, while lowering the cost of living for working families was an enormous topic of interest, and I would add a personal passion of mine.

Shortly after culminating my bachelor’s degree, my husband and I found ourselves in a position to open our own testing and contracting company, giving us a chance to develop even more of a partnership than before. I ambitiously pursued my real estate education and subsequent license to provide our clients with a comprehensive service for homeowners, investors, developers, and business owners alike.

Our well-rounded ability to network, connect, and provide our clients with the absolute best possible outcomes for their personalized projects is probably one of the most defining aspects of our brand, Van Voorst Testing & Contracting LLC.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I met my business partner when I was 17 at the millennial New Year’s Eve party. We had spoken once before on a phone call that his high school sweetheart had put us on, and neither of us had been interested in speaking to the other. When we first laid eyes on each other, well let’s just say, we never forgot it.

That was 25, nearly 26 years ago. We’ve grown up together, behaved badly, and greatly together, and this year we celebrate our first born graduating high school from Snohomish High School, only a town over from where we both attended Monroe High School.

Our youngest is finishing up kindergarten, our two middle daughters are completing their 4th and 11th grade years of school, respectively.

Learning to be the best versions of ourselves, for our family, business, clients, and each other alike, continues to be a goal in our marriage, and now business partnership.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

The initial funding of our company came from the slender profit of selling the shares in the local engineering firm we’d been partnered in.

Utilizing those funds was far less than the 6-figure salary that my husband had been earning, and we took a loss, while still seeing tremendous company growth. It made sense to me finally why business owners could still be encouraged while not making a profit in the early years.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.vanvoorsttesting.com, www.freedomgrantedllc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hnv_freedom_granted_llc/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/freedomgrantedllc/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/van-voorst-testing-and-contracting-snohomish

Image Credits

Kate Gansneder

Arlene Chambers