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At the outset of the pandemic realtors quit selling houses and started selling FOMO, much to their advantage and skillset, since most realtors have little to no understanding of basic construction, maintenance and condition concepts of houses.

Their clientele grew up in a consumer culture with no economic understanding, no sense of comparative value, loads of entitlement and unprecedented access to other people’s money.

In that environment it didn’t take much for an agent to convince a less-than-astute buyer to bid thousands over list, waive contingencies and inspections, blindly go along with the agent’s preferred lenders and sign on the dotted lines without reading so much as a paragraph of contracts and lending agreements. And about as much attention was paid to personal due diligence throughout the process.

Now the FOMO buyers are coming out of their stupor after the fact and have discovered the meaning of “caveat emptor” just like they’re about to discover the meaning of “negative equity”.

Last year I stopped by a new development to have a look around. I wasnt looking to buy; was just curious, so I went into the model home office to see what features they were offering in the plans. I had to wait while the seller was talking to a very young couple that had California plates on their car. The new bride seemed extremely anxious because they were being told there was a waiting list. All their questions were about how they could move up this waiting list. Could they get a higher priority if they came in with more cash? I was wandering around, looking at the tile samples and cabinet finishes while they were talking and she finally sent them to a corner to fill out paperwork and the seller turned to me.

“I’m just curious,” I said, “Can’t you smell the landfill that’s right over there?” I pointed towards the west, where I had seen the signs for the landfill. The couples’ heads swiveled around to look at me.

The seller pasted on a fake smile. “I’ve never smelled anything.”

“Oh. I’m wondering if it will start to smell when it reaches 110 degrees outside. These are beautiful homes though.” And I walked out laughing.