You Don’t Know Jack? 40th Anniversary of Jack Chivers Realty.

In Minnesota, we all grow up with lakes. There is no way we Minnesotans would live life without them. And, we all celebrate the lakes year-round as we are surrounded by thousands of them wherever we live. For some, this relationship has been established for generations. For others, it came coincidentally.

This is the case for Jack who was not born and raised in the area. His story, which transformed into a Real Estate company and become a lifestyle brand for West Central Minnesota, began when Jack Chivers moved to Detroit Lakes in 1966. During this time many now famous brands and places were founded in the area such as Arctic Cat, Concordia Language Villages, Maplewood State Park, ZORBAZ and many more local lake icons. It seems this time was a lake life pioneer period.

JACK CHIVERS

Growing up in Pittsburgh, PA, in the 1950s— Jack wanted to see more of the world in his early years. At that time, Pittsburgh was going through a depression and he took the chance to leave by joining the Navy. After sailing all seven seas and spending time in Africa, his path led him to North Dakota at first to play college Basketball before he eventually arrived in Minnesota. Here he immediately became enamored with Lake Life. Jack found himself at the lake for the first time on July 4th, 1966, while attending a party in Detroit Lakes. This defining day, he decided to make Detroit Lakes his home and still lives on the lake today.

Back when he arrived, he enjoyed lake life year-round, snowmobile racing in the winters and jet skiing or sailing in the Summers. Jack started working as a full-time real estate agent for Calhoun Companies, based out of Minneapolis, selling commercial real estate properties and businesses in the tri-state area. He traveled all over and sold many businesses which got him in contact with people going into retirement. Jack began proposing to move to Lakes Country for their retirement before anyone else did. He eventually found his niche as a lake property expert and decided to open his own brokerage: Jack Chivers Realty was established in Detroit Lakes in early 1980.

For Lakes Country, the commodity of living on a lake is one that spans vast price ranges, styles, and demographics. With all the properties on nearly two thousand lakes between Becker and Otter Tail County alone, the competition is stiff. However, a forty-year-old brand that has sold billions of dollars’ worth of real estate, is a lakes area marvel. Jack Chivers Realty is one of the longest standing businesses and possibly the oldest real estate company in the area.

HOW DID THAT ALL HAPPEN?

Jack always shared his passion for Detroit Lakes and Lakes Country, saying, "Don't just visit... live it!" However, living life and seeing the world was also important for Jack. Besides his Real Estate agency, he founded Magnum Belize, a travel company for hunting and fishing which lead him to venture to Belize to open and manage a resort for a while.

Jack found himself traveling to this charming small country and building this venture company for over nine years with some business partners. Something from nothing. Prior to that Jack sold hundreds of resort properties in Minnesota and Canada which gave him the experience and insight in that industry. Captain Morgan’s Retreat became the first resort property of several, in which he was invested in. It's still going strong to this day, but Jack left Belize and the organization long ago.

Jack came back to the Lakes area after many successful entrepreneurial gigs. He learned so much about businesses when working to sell them, which in turn also led to many fruitful relationships with other entrepreneurs. These connections blossomed even more when getting buyers into lake homes.

The process of selling a lake home isn’t just about real estate. Jack describes it as getting the personality of the property to match the buyer. "What do you want the lake to do for you?" Jack was one of the first "Lake Experts" in the greater area around Detroit Lakes and known for that throughout the State of North Dakota. After he founded his own brokerage, he grew the company steadily offering residential and commercial real estate services.

To this day, Jack is the most experienced and most successful real estate professional in possibly the whole tri-state area. His company’s name has become an icon for recreational property sales and is known far beyond local borders. Jack Chivers is one of very few in the nation celebrating over 50 years of industry experience. He has resigned from the company a few years ago but his passion and love for the lakes is the spirit which drives the success of our group to this day.

A NEW BEGINNING

In late 2013, Dirk Ockhardt purchased the brand and took over as managing broker of Jack Chivers Realty. At this point he had no idea what it means to live on a lake, and he was of the belief he would simply be selling real estate. However, he soon realized he would be doing much more.

Dirk was born and raised near Düsseldorf, Germany, and initially became familiar with West-Central Minnesota attending a high school exchange program in Barnesville where he graduated in 1996. He has remained friends with many of his classmates from that time and was the beginning of his Minnesota story.

After spending only one year as a foreign exchange student in Minnesota, Dirk had returned to finish school in Germany.

In Germany, he grew up in a very entrepreneurial household which inspired him to create his first company at age 18 while still attending high school. He founded a new sparkling wine brand called The young Paul, which he had produced through a winery in the Southern German wine region. He designed the brand, created marketing campaigns, and built his own distribution network. The passion for advertising and creating something new is one that never left him.

After that, Dirk became more familiar with the Midwest and Canada, first as a foreign exchange student, but later as an intern at an engineering firm in Calgary, Alberta after he graduated High School in Germany in 1999 and then as a member of the German Air Force, stationed for one year in Happy Valley Goose Bay, Canada.

In 2001, he started his sales career working with Dresdner Bank in Essen, Germany. He earned an associate degree in banking and planned to continue with an MBA program.

But he got swept up in the world of art and changed direction, running an art gallery for several years while studying art history and eventually opening his own gallery before returning to school in 2006 to earn a law degree. The art world allowed for experiences unlike any other. He traveled the world and met famous artists and collectors. His passion for the arts remains to this day.

The law school he attended is one of the oldest in Germany near the Baltic Ocean north of Berlin. During this time Dirk did not stop organizing and building things. He established the University’s Golf program and founded an annual student golf tournament for competing students nationwide. Procuring sponsors and organizing events became his hobby while cramming for exams. In 2007 he also founded the LLB Forum, which became Dirk's first digital platform, helping law students compile study material and form group meetings.

MADE IN MINNESOTA

Dirk is a true visionary and creator. He is an entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience as a brand manager and founder. When he purchased Jack Chivers Realty in 2013 he had no idea where it would lead to. He just wanted to own and operate his own company. Real estate made sense as he has experience in banking and education in contract law as a business lawyer. But as time would tell– Dirk would be handling more than just contracts.

He arrived in Fargo after graduating from Law School in 2009 and began his Real Estate career in 2011. When he moved from Fargo to the lake in the Summer of 2014, he had no idea what it meant to live lake life. He did not know how special it was and that living in Lakes Country is a lifestyle decision. Being so connected to nature gave him a new perspective on living life after growing up in a metropolitan area. He had always enjoyed water and nature, but this was different.

Shortly after moving to a small lake and raising his son rural, he felt the transformation which he began to incorporate in the communication and advertising of his company. He felt that Jack Chivers Realty is not just selling properties but that they are connecting people with a unique lifestyle by bringing them to the lake.

This understanding was the trigger for building more than a real estate company. In 2015, he began publishing a small booklet with stories about the area and including real estate listings which he distributed throughout the Fargo- Moorhead area and Lakes Country. Together with some partners, the pamphlet grew to become a small magazine with even more lifestyle content. The foundation for what became the LAKE LIFE WKND community was established. During the past years, Dirk added a podcast program, an annual expo event, and a digital map interface to the mix.

THE LAKE LIFE WKND COMMUNITY

Without the intent, Dirk transformed a traditional real estate brand into a lifestyle company by reinvigorating the brand's advertising and breathing fresh marketing campaigns into the often stale niche. Real Estate needed new ideas.

When Dirk bought Jack Chivers Realty, he actually began creating a network of companies all active in the communication and advertising industry. He concluded that a Real Estate Brokerage is in fact an advertising agency with one product: real estate property. After he built up his sales team which serves buyers and sellers directly, he spun off the marketing department of Jack Chivers Realty and founded Matz & Greiff Media Group in 2017. He purchased the old Matz & Greiff Garage in Perham which was founded in 1927 and added it to the company network.

The Perham group produces exclusive campaigns for a small number of companies including Jack Chivers Realty. It is the home of the WKND community and not only publishes the magazine but also other books. The most recent one was the Spanky’s Stonehearth cookbook 1st edition which was designed and created by Matz & Greiff.

Minnesota is a unique place and has brought up many products and ideas for many other people. Maybe it’s in the water. The water sure changed the lives of both Jack and Dirk. What Jack started was brought to the next level after Dirk took the brand and swam with it. Moving from the outside, to the lake, was the beginning of a personal and business transformation. Rather than approaching real estate in the traditional way, he realized lake life is a lifestyle product. His experiences have come full circle. Furthering the concept, he defined a vision by creating the WKND magazine that you hold in your hands. The need to communicate this community was paramount to the success of Jack Chivers Realty. For today, and the future.

Dirk is very grateful for the many people who have helped him along the way. There are friends, neighbors, mentors, and most importantly the people that trusted him to join the group. Without the skilled and passionate individuals that work with him, he would have not been able to grow the company and build something so unique. Dirk is proud to have attracted such sales talent who live lake life and serve people in the area looking for it. The company has grown to a size, bigger than ever before, and is still growing. In its 40 year history, the brokerage has not yet seen so many consecutive years of growth year after year. Thanks to the team and dedication of each member in sales, marketing, and administration, the brand could not be in a better position to serve its clients. There are plans for more growth to the lake life companies already.

Are you ready for the wknd yet?