Mike Lautensack

Michael E. Lautensack began his business career very similar to many people working his way up through the corporate world and quickly realized that this was not the path to real wealth.

He started investing part time real estate in 1999 as a way to generate additional sources of passive income. He realized he enjoyed being involved in real estate and wanted to pursue his new passion on a full time basis.

Mike's initial objective was to own and manage 5 houses, which he exceeded very quickly. Shortly thereafter, he became a full time real estate investor as well as started a growing and prosperous property management company called MVL Property Management, LLC.

The best advice that Mike has to offer is for the small investor is to focus on a small geographic area (less than 5 miles square) and get to know prices and rents in that area better than anyone so you are the "expert" in that area - he explains that his business suffered until he focused on two small towns and started to know them better than the sellers so he knew when he had a good deal. Mike believes that a combination of real world experience and reading material from investment experts are important parts of gaining knowledge in real estate investing.

People skills are an essential quality that real estate investors should possess, according to Mike. When you are dealing with buyers, sellers, renters and banks, you need perseverance and a long term positive outlook. Mike believes that investors should not think about getting rich quick because it usually does not happen that way.

Mike Lautensack has a BS Degree in Finance and MBA Degree from Penn State University. He was a management turnaround consultant for over 20 years advising large and small corporations on ways to improve their profitability. He is also a Member of the National Association of Residential Property Managers.He has purchased and sold over 75 investment properties with over 200 individual units.