Over the last decade, the housing market in the United States has seen every end of the housing spectrum. Real estate market trends peaked more than ten years ago during the Great Recession. For the majority of this year, competition fueled what appeared to be the hottest housing market prices in the industry’s history. Buyers were forced to compete with multiple offers on each property, tipping the scales heavily in favor of sellers. Due to a supply and demand imbalance, homeowners were given an advantage.
On the contrary, real estate investors are often unconcerned about where to invest. Every local market has opportunities; every market has rental properties that can be purchased, and every market has homes that can be developed to generate income. Growth markets offer the opportunity for higher returns, but even stagnant markets require housing that can outperform stocks and bonds.
The average commitment rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is up 3.38 points year-over-year, hovering around 6.49% with 2023 just around the corner. The increase was intended to slow the housing sector’s rapid growth, and it succeeded. Mortgage applications have decreased as interest rates have risen, and buyers are less likely to purchase a home now that a recession is at its peak. Simultaneously, homeowners are hesitant to sell and trade their current mortgage rates for today’s inflated rates. In some ways, selling a home is almost prohibitively expensive for homeowners. Still, there exist numerous people unaware of the real estate marketing situation and in order to educate them, Mike Mostyn, became an American broker and Washington State real estate technology trainer.
Mostyn was born to Thomas and Miriam Mostyn in Concord, New Hampshire. He relocated to the Olympic Peninsula in 1958. He first settled in Grays Harbor, then Port Angeles, and later moved with his family to Portland, Oregon, where he finished high school and worked as a journeyman printer at Benson Polytechnic.
With a background in advertising and marketing and over a decade of experience listing Mason County waterfront, he harbored a unique combination of related experiences. Mostyn specialized in waterfront property because Olympic Peninsula waterfront owners face issues that the MLS was not designed to address. According to his expertise, waterfront brokers must now rely on digital and social advertising, as well as single-property websites, links, hashtags, blogs, and posts. This digital marketing strategy is known as micro-targeting, which was referred to as psychographics when Mostyn received his marketing degree.
Mostyn published his first website in early 1994 when the Internet was less than a year old; he’s been designing and building websites for nearly 30 years, and even broadcasted an early radio station, Grayponytail Radio, in 2002. He now works on websites that provide video content for his real estate clients. Mostyn spent over a decade negotiating million-dollar institutional projects with some of the country’s most difficult customers- government buyers. InData Networks, his company, is still present at Stafford Creek Correctional Facility and JBLM, Chief Leschi School, and Jackson Hole High Schools, to name a few spots.
In 2010, he founded his real estate firm, The South Sounder, where he publishes The South Sounder Newsletter annually. As a Washington State Broker, member of the National Association of Realtors, and leader at Windermere Peninsula Properties in Belfair, WA., he also became a Washington State real estate technology trainer and Certified Residential Specialist.
He also worked as an Apple Computer product manager, where Gantt charts were used to determine completion dates, manage tasks, and track risk assessments. Following that, he worked as a government contractor, coordinating several subcontractors to meet a contract deadline. In a real estate transaction, things happen that necessitate planning and problem-solving. For over 20 years, Mostyn has lived on Mason County saltwater and served on the Mason County Shoreline Act Advisory Board. He knows this place and the issues surrounding waterfront ownership better than most.
Following his passion, Mostyn possesses five National Association of Realtors certificates, 50 years of negotiation experience, and 40 years of computer experience. He takes his job seriously and can be trusted to help people sell one of their most valuable assets. Mostyn is committed to traditional realtor values, including listening to his clients and acting solely in their best interests. He believes that the source of his success are his clients; who know him as “their waterfront specialist.”