Meet Mark O. Haroldsen
Mark O. Haroldsen was born in Portland, Oregon. He attended high school for two plus years in the Middle East before moving back to the US where he graduated in 1962 from Ames High School in Iowa. Mark attended Utah State University on a basketball and track scholarship. His time on the bench, however, helped him decide to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Business in 1969. Rather than chase his dream of playing professional basketball, Mark furthered his education by performing post-graduate work at De Paul University in Chicago.
Mark began his career as a stockbroker with Goodbody & Company in 1969. He also worked as a stockbroker for Paine, Webber, Jackson & Curtis, and for Bosworth Sullivan – the latter for whom he managed an office in Salt Lake City, Utah from 1972 to 1974.
Mark ran for Utah State Treasurer in 1975. After Mark’s short political career (he lost), he started purchasing real estate, beginning with "dirt bag" properties, fixing them up, and making huge profits selling them. In just four short years, Mark made over a million dollars in his real estate. Mark then founded and successfully ran a real estate investing seminar company from 1978 to 1990 setting the standard for real estate investing seminars, conventions and retreats-his company presenting up to 50 seminars a week across the United States.
Not only is Mark an extremely successful real estate investor, he is also the author of four books on real estate investing – one of which, How To Wake Up The Financial Genius Inside You, has sold over two million copies. He also published the Financial Freedom Report, a real estate investing magazine, for over 20 years.
Mark’s involvement in the development side of real estate has been among his most profitable. He successfully completed a 77-unit condominium development in Bethlehem, PA ($2.7 million profit), followed by a 44-unit condo development in Mississippi (1.3 million dollar profit). Mark more recently completed a 13.3-acre commercial development in the south part of the Salt Lake valley with an approximate profit of $1.1 million. He is currently finishing up his latest project – the development of 68 condominiums on the beautiful North Shore of Kauai.
Today Mark divides his time between Salt Lake City, Utah, and his second home on the Island of Kauai, where he still can’t totally sit still. In addition to playing tennis as often as he can, Mark is currently the CEO of Bridge Loan Funding Corporation – a private lending group that makes short-term real estate loans nationwide.
Mark balances his life with his passions. His passion for travel is huge (he’s visited 66 countries), but his passion for tennis is even greater-which is surpassed only by his passion and devotion to his wonderful companion, Kimberly, and to his children and grandchildren.
