About Michael Lantrip

Forty-three years inside the exact machinery of the Section 1031 exchange.

Michael Lantrip is an attorney, accountant, and author who has spent his career inside the exact machinery of the Section 1031 exchange.

He is licensed to practice law in Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia, with a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and a B.B.A. in Finance, magna cum laude, from the University of Houston. A former IRS Tax Examiner and tax accountant for a Big 8 firm, he is a member of the National Society of Accountants. Over 43 years of law practice he built and ran his own title insurance company, served seven national underwriters as an approved title attorney, and closed more than 2,000 real estate transactions.

He is the author of How To Do A Section 1031 Like Kind Exchange and nine other books on real estate investing and tax. Named a Top Writer by Quora, his answers have been read more than 3,000,000 times.

The lawyer and the tax man

The 1031 exchange sits where real estate law and the tax code meet, and Michael Lantrip has worked both sides of that line. He earned a B.B.A. in Finance, magna cum laude, from the University of Houston in 1978, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law in 1981. He is admitted to practice in all courts in Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia, and before the United States Tax Court, the U.S. Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

On the tax side he is an accountant and a member of the National Society of Accountants, a former Tax Examiner for the IRS, and a former tax accountant for a Big 8 firm — three vantage points on the same code. For eight years he served as an elected County Attorney in Texas, prosecuting more than 1,500 criminal misdemeanor cases and acting as legal counsel to county government.

Title and closings

Between 1996 and 2014 he built the first computerized real estate abstract plant in East Texas, owned and operated his own title insurance company, and became an approved title attorney for seven national title insurance underwriters. He has handled more than 2,000 real estate closings — the practical schooling behind the books.

Before the law: intelligence and the airwaves

He is a veteran, having served four years in the U.S. Air Force Security Service Command as a Military Intelligence Analyst. He then spent years in journalism and broadcasting: a newspaper reporter for The Daily Progress in Charlottesville and a correspondent for The Richmond News Leader, writing more than 700 stories; a radio announcer across six stations with more than 8,000 hours on air — including WQTE in Detroit during the Motown era and KIKK in Houston the year Billboard named it Country Music Station of the Year — and a studio producer for the Houston Astros Radio Network while at KPRC, the NBC affiliate. At two television stations he worked as reporter, anchor, news director, and executive news producer, writing and producing more than 1,000 half-hour newscasts.

The author

He has written and published ten books on real estate investing and tax, anchored by How To Do A Section 1031 Like Kind Exchange. In 2018 Quora named him a Top Writer; his 378 answers have been viewed more than 3,000,000 times.

The man

He is a Lifetime Member of Mensa, and he collects and restores vintage audio equipment.

S1031Exchange.com exists to put that experience to work for you — plain answers to the Section 1031 questions that cost investors money when they get them wrong.

Draft About page — 6-23-26. Lead = approved Short Bio (verbatim). “The Full Monty” section is a working draft written from Michael’s identity record; replace with the canonical Full Monty file.