You’ve probably heard expressions like “explain it to me like I’m five” or “explain it in crayon.”
In real estate, conversations come with the territory. And when they get complicated (and they often do), it’s tempting to lean on industry jargon. Two seconds in, eyes are glazing over, and the client is nodding along without absorbing a word.
Enter the caveman.
Tennessee real estate agent Marie Lee posted an Instagram reel with this text overlay:
“Teaching a caveman on how to sell a home in 2026”
And just like it sounds, every sentence is stripped down to its essentials and delivered slowly and clearly by Marie, with plenty of hand gestures to drive the message home.
View this post on Instagram
And it works. Here’s why.
What’s Working & How Agents Can Apply It
Marie’s Reel hit Instagram on May 4 and quickly racked up over 2K likes and over 80 shares.
She opens with this:
“Housing price—highest ever been. Interest rate—still high.
“High house price plus high interest rate mean high monthly mortgage.
“High monthly mortgage mean buyer no want project. Buyer no have money for project.
“Buyer no want dirty carpet. Buyer no want kitchen remodel themself.
“Buyer want move-in ready home…”
So, here’s what’s working for this post:
- Marie is on camera, facing it and clearly enunciating every word while gesturing to reinforce each sentence in caveman-speak.
- The text overlay, “Teaching a Caveman on How to Sell a Home in 2026” remains at the top throughout, to eliminate any confusion for viewers who might not notice it right away.
- And for anyone scrolling with the sound off, that same overlay does something else: it gets them curious enough to turn the sound on.
The format works because it takes a conversation that can get complicated in a hurry and makes it as simple as possible. Buyers’ expectations, market conditions, pricing reality, all of it delivered in a way that’s actually fun to watch.
That’s what clients are really looking for: someone who can take a confusing market, clear away the doomer drama, and make it feel manageable.
You Don’t Have to Get on Camera to Do This
If showing up on camera isn’t your thing, mortgage lender Theoni Rapo shows there’s another way in.
Theoni, who goes by “Not Ur Daddy’s Lender,” created a carousel titled “Bank Statement Loans Explained by a Caveman,” with this as the caption:
“Write-offs hit different when you’re trying to buy a house.”
Theoni has plenty of close-up camera videos, but as she demonstrates with this post, the trend works beautifully across a set of slides, too.
View this post on Instagram
Here’s what’s working for it:
- The formatting on each slide keeps the eyes moving, capturing the main points, supporting details, and caveman asides in a way that’s easy to follow.
- Theoni’s humor in the slides is subtle but effective, and she paints a picture that any self-employed buyer will immediately recognize.
- Then she walks viewers straight to a clear and simple solution, all across eight slides, plus a ninth to introduce herself.
- Theoni’s final slide has a photo of her, next to a greeting, a quick line about what she does, and the final message, “Accepting clients in 2026.”
Theoni’s carousel shows the right format can make a trend work just as well off camera as on.
The caveman trend is having a moment right now because the market is genuinely confusing, and clients are hungry for someone to make it make sense.
Whether you take Marie’s approach and get on camera or follow Theoni’s lead with a carousel, the real move is the same: take one conversation you have over and over again with clients and strip it all the way down.
That’s your post.
