Mike Nichols, the older of 2 children, is a 3rd generation native Southern Californian and was born and raised in the then small town of Fullerton. He first met his wife of 35 years, Claire, in nursery school. Both Mike and Claire came from large extended families in the Southern California area, and, to this day, value strong, close family ties. After graduation from Chapman University in Orange, California, Mike and Claire settled down to raise a family in Fullerton. Soon after, Mike opened his own construction company, specializing in building new custom homes, apartments, and commercial tenant improvements.
When Mike and Claire's two sons, John and Tom, had filled up their small home in Fullerton, they moved to Newport Beach, California in 1973. As the construction company grew and the market share increased, Mike decided to go back to school to improve his business skills and received an MBA from Pepperdine University in 1980. These added skills enabled Mike to take his construction company to new heights until he was a dominant force in building and remodeling high end homes in the Newport Beach area.
It was during the high growth period in the mid 70's that the stress and strain of business began to create problems in Mike's personal life and marriage. The event that brought everything to a head was the death of two of Mike's childhood friends in an auto accident. These brothers were also close associates of Mike's in construction. As a result of this wake-up call, in 1976 Mike became a Christian followed soon after by his wife Claire, and both sons. They became actively involved in the "Jesus People" movement. The family became active members of their church, and over the years, Mike was the Scout Master of the church Boy Scout troop, led and taught Bible studies, and among other things, had his own worship band. It was at this time that Mike's company also began to build and remodel churches.
Until both sons, John and Tom graduated from Pepperdine University, all of Mike's activities revolved around family, church, and running his construction company. Mike, Claire and the two boys loved all kinds of outdoor activities, including water skiing, snow skiing, golf, tennis, 4-wheeling in the family's old Jeep, camping, hunting, fishing, and yacht racing. By 1993, both sons had graduated from college and moved to Central Oregon to start new lives and raise families. That same year they decided that they didn't want to miss out on being grandparents, so Mike and Claire sold out of Southern California and moved to Central Oregon. The move was an immediate fit for both of them. There was plenty of family around, new friends to be made, a new church to be involved in, lots of outdoor activities, and now three grandchildren.
At first, Mike was only half time in real estate, enjoying owning and operating a gas station, mini-mart, and car wash with son Tom. After two years, Tom wanted to go back to working in construction, and Mike wanted to do what he had always wanted to do, work full time in real estate. Mike worked in Redmond for his first six years as a real estate agent and was always in the top 10% in sales. In 1999, Mike became an Associate Broker and a new Pastor came to Bend. The new pastor had been affiliated with Mike and Claire's old church in Costa Mesa, California, and wanted to start a new church in Bend. Since Mike and Claire were already living in Bend, Mike decided to move his practice to RE/MAX in Bend to consolidate his activities, and also so he could play an active part in planting a new church. In his first full year at Re/Max as an Associate Broker, Mike produced in the top 5% of all agents.
In 2006 Mike realized yet another dream. He joined Keller Williams Realty and is now principal broker and major owner of the Central Oregon office.
As a result of all of this, Mike brings a very well rounded knowledge of real estate in general and a broad knowledge of Central Oregon property to his practice. If you like a straightforward approach to business, with hard work and dedication to details, and only the highest ethical principles, you'll love Mike. This disciplined approach served Mike quite well in his career as a building contractor and as a Real Estate Broker. You will find Mike's style low key, very informative, with no high pressure or manipulative tactics used. Mike understands that real estate is a service business, and his job is to help his customers reach their goals. If you like what you've read, and you like Mike's core values, give him a call, or email Mike today.
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