FOMO is out. FOOP is in.

Buyers have gone from fear of missing out to fear of overpaying. They do the building and pest, get a valuation, and still don't offer, because they want proof that other buyers are interested first.

LockedOn CEO Aaron Shiner has a name for it: FOOP, the fear of overpaying. And he's seeing it everywhere he coaches.

"In every market I coach, up the East Coast, into New Zealand, into WA, there's buyers there," Aaron says. "But buyers want to see that other buyers are interested before they're interested."

The good news? The buyers haven't gone anywhere. They're waiting for a reason to feel confident. Here's what that means for agents, and how to give them that reason.

What FOOP looks like in the real world

You've probably met this buyer already. They love the property. They come back for a second look. They spend money on due diligence. Then they go quiet.

"A buyer does a pest inspection, a building inspection and valuation and still doesn't make an offer because they want to know that there's somebody else," Aaron explains.

It's easy to read that silence as a lack of interest. It isn't. A buyer who pays for a building and pest report is interested. What they're missing is confidence.

Why buyers are holding back

FOOP is about psychology, not price. Buyers aren't hunting for the cheapest property on the street. They want to know they're not the only one who thinks it's worth the money.

"Basically the psychology behind it is they want to know that they're making a good decision and that they're not going to be paying too much for the property," Aaron says. "And the way that they get that is by social proof and by confidence in the market."

In a rising market, both came for free. Packed open homes, multiple offers and headlines telling everyone to hurry up did the convincing for you. Now inspections are quieter, and every empty open home leaves the buyer who did turn up wondering why nobody else wants it.

The agent's job has changed

When the market did the heavy lifting, a well-run campaign was often enough. Not anymore.

"Everybody's got FOOP at the moment, which is the fear of overpaying," Aaron says. "And an agent's job is to now overcome that. That's our new job. We are swimming against the tide and now we've actually got to be salespeople again."

That means guiding buyers to a decision, rather than waiting for one to arrive.

It's not software. It's perspective.

So how do you overcome it? Coming from the CEO of a real estate CRM, Aaron's answer might surprise you.

"It's not software. It's in that face-to-face, and you know what it is? It's called the law of contrast. It's all about perspective."

His example is simple. "Where we are right now is roughly where the property market sat 12 months ago," he says. Twelve months ago, the media was calling it the best time ever to buy and telling buyers to hurry. Prices went up, then came back down. Now the same headlines are telling buyers it's a terrible time.

"The only thing that's changed ... in the 12 months is what the media is telling you to feel," Aaron says. "The media is telling you to feel something differently now, but the hard data is pricing is still where it was roughly this time, 12 months ago."

That contrast gives agents a calm, honest way to reframe the conversation. In Aaron's words:

"Look, I get it, markets go up and go down, but the market is still where it was this time 12 months ago, and last time I checked, 12 months ago the media was saying it was the best market ever."

It lands best when you back it with evidence. Bring the comparable sales from your area, then and now, so buyers can see the numbers for themselves.

Don't wait for the bottom

Plenty of hesitant buyers are trying to time the market. Aaron's advice to them is blunt.

"Real estate acts like a bouncing ball. The ball falls, hits the bottom and then rebounds," he says. "It goes up a lot faster than it goes down."

The catch is that nobody can see the bottom while they're standing on it. "Don't wait for the ball to hit the bottom because you don't know when the bottom is," Aaron says. "You only know it's the bottom once it rebounds."

There's an irony worth sharing with buyers here. Waiting for the perfect moment is meant to protect them from overpaying. But if they're still waiting when the market turns, they could end up paying more than they would today.

Turning hesitation into offers

Perspective opens the door. These habits help buyers walk through it.

• Share real interest, and only real interest: Buyers need to know others are looking, but Aaron is clear on the line: "It has to be true. Never invent interest, and never manufacture bids."
• Ask what they want to know: Ask a hesitant buyer whether they'd like to hear if another party comes back for a second inspection or is ready to make an offer. A yes tells you there's genuine interest, and that FOOP is what's holding them back.
• Give them space: Pressure makes cautious buyers shut down. Offer three clear options: walk away, take more time, or move forward.
• Get due diligence done early: Finance approval, contract review and building and pest inspections done up front mean fewer unanswered questions, and fewer deals falling over at the last minute.
• Know your buyers: Aaron recommends keeping a hot list of your top 30 active buyers and calling them every single week.

The agents who win in a FOOP market

FOMO made buyers move fast. FOOP makes them stop and check. Neither lasts forever, but while buyers are cautious, the agents who build trust, share honest perspective and stay in touch will be the ones writing contracts.

As Aaron puts it, "The more time you spend with a buyer, the less they'll see you as a real estate agent, and the more they'll see you as part of their team."

LockedOn keeps your buyer follow-up running on autopilot, so you can spend more of your week where it counts: face-to-face with the buyers on your hot list.