Michel Lautensack

My name is Mike Lautensack, and I began my career over 30 years ago in corporate finance but eventually became disenchanted by the long hours, high stress, travel, and constant separation from my family. So, I started looking for an alternative to the corporate world. In 1999, I started investing in real estate to generate passive income and long-term wealth. Despite numerous mistakes and learning experiences, by 2006, I began to have some real success and made the leap to a full-time real estate investor. The following year, I founded the residential property management company known as Del Val Realty & Property Management LLC (Del Val). Our mission was to assist real estate investors in and around Philadelphia with managing their tenants and investments. Through dedication and hard work, Del Val has grown into a full-service residential property management company and today serves over 650 clients with over 5,500 single-family, multi-family, and HOA units. In 2024, I sold Del Val to a large venture capital firm and will continue to run and grow it to even greater heights in the years to come. Since starting Del Val almost twenty years ago, I have managed over 7,500 rental units, signed over 12,000 leases, and collected over $50 million in rent payments. I have also worked with hundreds of real estate investors helping them grow their real estate businesses. But not everything has gone as planned. Yes, we have had many successes, but there have also been many mistakes and battles along the way. These successes, as well as the mistakes, lead me to write the book Landlord Secrets. Landlord Secrets: A Complete System for Managing Your Rental Properties for Maximum Profit will assist investors in dramatically shortening the learning curve for managing their rental properties. Whether you own one or fifty properties, Landlord Secrets offers invaluable tips and tools to help you become a professional landlord. From reducing your odds of being sued for violating leasing laws, avoiding nonpayment issues, and selecting better tenants, you will learn best practices to manage your properties for maximum profit. Now, I am pivoting to a coach/consulting role to assist real estate investors in transitioning from investors to business owners. Owning a few investment properties is only the first step along this journey. The real goal is building a real estate business that generates consistent and long-term cash flow.