Commercial real estate investor Michael Eisenga draws on the experience of his first real estate investment story and his background as the former mayor of Columbus, WI.
Michael Eisenga is a successful real estate and business investor and a former mayor of Columbus, Wisconsin. While many people only aspire to become real estate investors, Michael has built a successful property management company from ground zero in his 20s.
Back in 1999, Eisenga was elected mayor of Columbus at the age of 28. At the same time, he started two companies — First American Properties, which he still operates today, and American Lending Solutions.
While he was getting his new companies off the ground, he was also running a multi-million-dollar municipality. As mayor, Eisenga was essentially Columbus’ Chief Executive Officer, overseeing all the city’s department heads.
He was responsible for putting together an executive budget every year and running the decision-making process and a Common Council with six council members.
His experience running a small city gave him experience in the public sector that would help him immensely in the private sector.
“Back when I was in my mid-20s, I wanted to get into investing and especially investing in real estate,” Eisenga said. “As a result, I found a fairly large apartment complex in Madison, Wisconsin. It was 88 units. I put together a deal and purchased it, and that is when First American Properties was founded. It was the limited liability corporation that owned that piece of property.”
“Then over the years, as I bought and sold other properties, First American Properties has been the umbrella company that owns all the other properties and investments that I have with regards to real estate.”
Since the founding of American Properties, Mike Eisenga has invested in numerous real estate deals and continues to do so today.
His focus over the last several years has been purchasing and managing senior assisted living facilities. Eisenga says these two purchases were some of his favorite mistakes from his career. While Michael initially was looking for a passive investment, he had to take over the management of the facilities himself due to circumstances.
“While it was, quite frankly, a bit scary and frustrating when that tenant was no longer able to follow through on their commitment, it caused me about a year or two of some losses with those facilities. But in the end, they became an excellent investment, and they’ve done very well for me in the long term, better than they would have if I had just maintained having a lease.”
About Michael Eisenga
Michael Eisenga is a successful commercial real estate investor with a banking and finance background and the former mayor of Columbus. As a President of both American Lending Solutions, a mortgage lending company (he founded and operated from 2000 to 2018), and First American Properties, he has a track record of creating and operating successful businesses. Mr. Eisenga is also devoted to property development and construction, primarily serving smaller local communities. Especially in the senior housing sector.
Contact Information:
Michael S. Eisenga
meisenga@fapcousa.com
First American Properties
N4365 Hwy 73 Columbus, WI 53925
920-350-6001