In the lead-up to the month of love, we asked our community to share stories of enduring love. One couple—new to The Woodlands!—came to the fore: Nicole and Doug Freer. As committed to their covenant of marriage as they are to excellence in real estate, the Freers’ started from humble, and unexpected, beginnings. And after years of dedication and commitment, they built a long-lasting legacy worth celebrating.
TWCL: How did you first meet?
NF: Doug and I met working out at the gym at this hole-in-the-wall gym in Mission Bend, and I noticed him immediately. I thought he was super cute and started arranging my schedule to make sure I was there during the time that he was. And finally one day, I got the nerve to go up and start talking to him. I gave him my number and said, “Well, if you ever want to go see a movie sometime, give me a call.” I didn’t know that he had found out I was still in high school, so he was not interested. It took him a few days to finally break down and give me a call, but he did. We went for evening coffee at Starbucks, and the rest is history.
TWCL: You have been married for 26 years and business partners for 11. How has your marriage and professional dynamic grown in that time?
NF: After Doug and I met at the gym, we dated for a year, and after that, we understood that things were going to end. I was going to start my senior year of school, and he was going to go away to college.
I was on summer vacation with my family when I figured out that I was pregnant. And so, at 17 and 20, we got married, and after our son was five months old, [Doug] was able to accomplish his dream of playing college basketball. But there was still a gap that we had to make up financially for him to be able to go to school. So, on top of him going to school full-time and basketball practices and traveling for games, he would also knock doors in the evening selling home security alarm systems and Dish network TV. We were also responsible for bringing home the basketball teams’ practice and game uniforms and washing them in our apartment. All of these things just helped us be able to afford living in our apartment and paying for school. But we still had to be on government assistance those first couple of years.
We grew up together. It was very unique; going through all of those struggles at a very young age together really laid what I believe was this unshakable foundation in our marriage that from that moment, God just continued to build on.
TWCL: What initially inspired you to partner together in real estate?
NF: After Doug graduated college, we came back to the Houston area and he got a job at a bank. He was doing extremely well there when one day, out of the blue, he lost his job. And he came to me and said, “I’ve made a lot of connections. I have a really good resume, I can go get a job at any other bank, or I can start my own business.” And at that time, I encouraged him to start his own business. And he started a very successful loan brokerage business. Through that is when he learned about buying and flipping homes. Over the course of a few years, he had bought and flipped about 15 properties. At that time, he was just googling “Top Real Estate Agent” in whatever neighborhood his flip was in and having that agent list his home. But after doing so many, he came to me. At the time, I was staying home, and he asked me if I would get my real estate license to save him the 3% listing commission. And so that was the sole purpose and intention of me getting my real estate license. And God obviously had other plans because after I had gotten my license, I had closed 20 deals my first year in real estate. My second year, I closed 50, and after that, I went to Doug and told him, “I’m going to have to start turning business away because I can’t handle all this business.” I was sending out emails and searches in the middle of the night. And he said, “Well, let’s not do that. How about I’ll leave my business, I’ll get my real estate license, and we’ll start a real estate team.” That decision completely changed the course of our lives.
It’s just been incredible doing this alongside him, and we say it all the time: we would never have grown so large and so quickly in this industry without each other.
TWCL: How have you gone about keeping your priorities straight?
For us, it’s about our relationship—our walk—with Christ. Always keeping that priority first and foremost. It’s our relationship with Christ, our marriage, our children, then our business.
TWCL: Both of your parents are immigrants. How do your Cuban and Costa Rican heritages complement one another in marriage?
Doug and I both come from extremely, extremely hardworking parents. There was never getting tired, there was never sleeping in, there was never “no.” It was day-in and day-out, you get up and you go to work, and you work hard. That is something that both Doug and I inherited.
TWCL: What is a lesson about love that you learned the hard way (and are now grateful for)?
It is hard to have a peaceful marriage relationship if you don’t have a peaceful relationship, and it is difficult to have a peaceful relationship with yourself if you don’t first have the peace that comes from God. Throughout our 26 years of marriage, there have been times where I put God first and times when I didn’t. And when I reflect on those years, the seasons that I didn’t were a lot less peaceful in my personal life and my marriage than the times that I did.
TWCL: What qualities do you most appreciate in each other, both as spouses and business partners?
I think if you look at a lot of successful relationships, each person is the complete opposite of the other. I’m more outgoing than Doug is. I like to put myself out there. I’m creative, and I make decisions with my gut. Doug is very logical and analytical, so we’re very different. However, we complement each other extremely well, and when we’re in a situation or a conversation, we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses to where we can step up and fill a gap when there’s a need. After this long, I think we do it pretty seamlessly. But what I think I most appreciate about Doug—he’s got such a sensitive, tender heart.
TWCL: What is your favorite way to enjoy downtime together?
Because we are both in leadership in the service industry and serving people all day long, our favorite thing to do at the end of the day is to go sit down at a nice restaurant or DoorDash some yummy food and get in bed and put the TV on, but we’ll always eat dinner together.
A little bit more exotic than that would be going to our place in Cozumel, Mexico that we just got in January, our slice of heaven.
TWCL: What is the best marriage advice you’ve received?
“Put your husband first, your marriage first, before anything. Before kids, before friendships. Because there’s going to be a day when your kids grow up and leave the house, and it’s just going to be the two of you.”
TWCL: You have two grown children and a granddaughter. How would they describe your relationship?
I would hope they would describe it as steadfast, predictable, inspiring…resilient.
TWCL: What’s one thing people would be surprised to learn about your relationship?
I think the perception is that I’m a very strong, hardheaded, determined female, and while that is true in a lot of areas of my life when it comes to achieving my goals—when it comes to my relationship with my husband, at the end of the day, I may give him a hard time, but I desire and enjoy being submissive to my husband. I love being a woman that has the incredible blessing of being married to a husband who likes to be in charge, take care of her, protect her in every area of our lives, year after year, and—bless his heart—has not gotten tired of me yet.