Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Fort Collins. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Nick George helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Fort Collins, Colorado.
Is your business serving the residents of Fort Collins? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpFortCollins.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
E60: The Contractors Who Love the Jobs Others Won't Touch
What happens when you combine Alaska-tough craftsmanship with Colorado-sized heart? You get Hale Home Doctor, the comprehensive home service professionals bringing genuine problem-solving expertise to Northern Colorado homeowners.
David and Heidi Hale's journey from the rugged Alaskan construction landscape to becoming trusted local contractors offers a masterclass in perseverance and adaptation. Having started their business in 2006, they strategically relocated to Colorado seeking both greater opportunity and a chance to fill a critical gap in the market: reliable, high-quality remodeling and repair services. Their two-year process to secure proper licensing wasn't just bureaucratic hurdle-jumping—it was laying the foundation for a truly full-spectrum service where they could confidently handle everything from simple door installations to complete basement transformations.
What truly distinguishes the Hales is their appetite for challenges other contractors avoid. David lights up when describing projects involving century-old homes with concrete issues or basements with complex flooding problems. This problem-solving spirit stems from deep personal experience overcoming obstacles, including David's journey to educational achievement despite limited formal schooling, and the couple's successful navigation of a two-year legal battle to secure access to their own property.
Behind the professional credentials (including specialized lead paint certification for historic homes) beats the heart of a family-centered business. When not transforming clients' homes, the Hales tend to their 75-acre homestead with their four children, raising their own milk, meat, and eggs—a self-sufficiency that mirrors their professional approach. Their commitment to clear invoicing, punctuality, and treating customers "just like we'd want to be served" isn't just good business—it's their family values applied to every project they undertake.
Ready to experience what makes Hale Home Doctor different? Connect with David and Heidi at 970-232-8488 or visit www.halehomedoctor.com to bring their unique blend of craftsmanship and integrity to your next home project.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a home doctor who brings family values, craftsmanship, integrity and peace of mind to every visit? A full-spectrum home health practitioner that spans handyman work, home alterations and remodeling, bathroom remodels, tile work, home sale repairs and basement remodels. One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbors, david and Heidi Hale. With Hale, home Doctor, david, heidi, how's it going?
Speaker 3:It's going well. Thank you for having us on.
Speaker 2:Thank you. How did you get into the business? Tell us everything about your organization.
Speaker 3:Well, I actually started in the business back in 2006. We were from the wonderful state of Alaska and did a variation of commercial work and building houses from ground up. We moved here to Colorado for a little bit of industry and just having a little bit more customer base and we were trying to refocus our business to try for how we were going to serve it and what we were going to do, and we really felt like there was a strong need here for quality work in the remodeling repairs side. So we took us about two years to formulate the business to where we could pull permits and so we had to get our general license to be able to pull permits. Um, and so that allows us to be a full service business where we can hire quality subcontractors, you know, for the electrical work, the HVAC work, those type of things. So it's taken quite a few years to put it together and I'll get all the licensing.
Speaker 3:But I feel like we've worked hard to be a good service to the customer, service to the customer and pretty much we're able to be a one-stop shop and serve people from putting in a new door and pulling a permit to add a garage door or whatever it might be that people need, and then we also do full basement finish outs and we can make our own plans and help people to be able to do that. And we've really tried to work with people. We've done a lot of projects, two at a time, so we'll do half of their basement one year, come back and do the other one so we can really try to work with people. So that's our goal is to be a good service.
Speaker 2:And you've been doing this for a while in much harsher climates than Colorado, right? So how did you get into the business in the first place?
Speaker 3:Well, I was working for another contractor and I felt like that there could be room for me in it, so my brother and I started it together. A smaller business. My brother and I started it together a smaller business. I come from a larger family, so we had four other brothers that wanted to work for us. We employed all six of us for about six or seven years. Yeah, just a lot of trial and learning. I didn't have a lot of education growing up, but I had a lot of experience of working with my hands, and so I bring that more to the industry, I think. So it was kind of a career that I was trying to find as well.
Speaker 2:So what do you like about the Colorado environment better than Alaska?
Speaker 3:There's more people in smaller areas so it makes it a little bit easier to run a business and to be focused In Alaska. We are quite spread out so we were driving hours to work. I can focus on smaller parts of communities like Wellington and North we service this area a lot and then Fort Collins, especially Northern Fort Collins. We serve quite a lot and then we send out postcards and try to be attentive to the needs in certain local areas.
Speaker 2:David or Heidi. What are some myths or misconceptions in your industry?
Speaker 4:I would say that I think the permitting process is probably one of the biggest ones. It's kind of a confusion of what can be permitted or what what requires a permit, and so I've done my best to study a lot of the the international code book and what is required, um, just in building in general. David and I work together on that, but I'm more the kind of the studious type in it, and so I would say, getting permits what's required, what's not is pretty. So a lot of times you have to go to the city itself and kind of dig in a little what is required for your project.
Speaker 2:Who are your target customers? Like what's your favorite kind of work to do? I know that you do everything, spanning from handyman work to full remodels and moving walls and building decks, but what's your sweet spot?
Speaker 3:I actually really enjoy tackling projects that four or five of the contractors said they couldn't do, like putting a door in a 100-year-old house that's got concrete that needs to be expanded. I had one a basement that flooded and it had large holes that we had to come up with solutions to fix. To do those kinds of things. I really enjoy it. I'm pretty confident, so I tackle stuff. Sometimes I come home and have a half a night of no sleep because I'm worried about that I'm not going to be able to actually achieve it, but it's a lot of fun and I enjoy the construction side. I enjoy solving people's problems. There's a lot of old houses around here, so we're lead paint certified so we can get in and get our hands dirty with a lot of old houses around here, so we're lead paint certified so we can get in and get our hands dirty with a lot of different things. But that kind of may hopefully answer your question have you ever thought about doing your own podcast?
Speaker 3:I noticed you didn't have any videos on your uh, on your facebook or our website yet, but you do have a youtube yeah, we have a blog on there we were supposed to keep up with and I am so busy in the field most of the time I don't have a whole lot of time for this. We honestly should. It would be. It'd be fun we were gonna take and put together a whole thing of all the problems we find, how we solve them, and we've never really put that together, but at some point I'd like to make that into it.
Speaker 2:Outside of work. What do you guys do for fun?
Speaker 4:well, we live out in the country, so our fun is spent with our four children and we live on 75 acres, so we get to spend a lot of time in the out-of-doors. We have a few animals and it's just. We have a great time together. We like last night. We have a great time together. We like last night, we took a bike ride down our mile long driveway. So it's just, it's a great life.
Speaker 3:I really enjoy it. I enjoy farming. We raise all of our own milk, meat and eggs, and so we have an egg delivery route that we do. My daughter kind of started selling eggs, so we do that too, but that's kind of my hobby. When I get away from work I can usually hear playing on the farm, so that's cool.
Speaker 2:I've always been interested in something like that myself. Let's switch gears. Can one of you guys describe a hardship or a life challenge that you overcame together and how it made you stronger? What comes to mind?
Speaker 3:That's a good one. I can answer that, or you can go ahead.
Speaker 4:I would say probably one of the biggest ones is when we moved here. We bought a piece of property that didn't we thought had access road access to it and within about a year of purchasing the property it came to our attention that we did not have legal access to our property. So we went through about a two-year legal battle with some neighbors and some different folks and it was it was a challenge to work through. Um, I'm very thankful to say today that we were able to get access and it was it kind of tested our patience together, but it's it's all come out good on this end I would say.
Speaker 3:One of the things for me is I didn't have a lot of education growing up um, almost zero and so it's been a challenge in the construction industry, but it's caused me to dig in deeper and to really uh, push through and achieve things. I actually got my high school diploma here a few years ago, um, but it was quite a lot of work and it still has its challenges, but ai does help some. I'm more of a hands-on person. My dad didn't have much for um. He didn't really like the schooling side of life. He liked us working. So we lived on a farm and that's how I grew up. But it's brought a lot of challenges, a lot of learning to overcome. It. Take tests, take, do things, and it's. I've got a lot invested into the industry because it's been a lot of work to get to where I'm at.
Speaker 2:So well, AI doesn't help with being well-spoken and you are well-spoken. Thank you, David and Heidi. What's one thing that our listeners should absolutely take away from Hail Home Doctor? What's one thing they should absolutely remember about Hail Home Doctor?
Speaker 3:They can really remember that we're honest and they'll have clear invoicing and that we do our absolute best to be on time and to serve you just like we'd want to be served.
Speaker 2:How can our listeners learn more about Hail Home Doctor and a phone number?
Speaker 4:Yeah, you can contact us. Our phone number is 970-232-8488. And our website is hailhomedoctorcom.
Speaker 2:Well, Heidi and David, I really appreciate you guys being on our show. We do wish you and your business the very best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 4:Thank you for sharing this time with us.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show for sharing this time with us.