even very intelligent people tend to suck at estimating/weighting risks
homebuying is probably near a worst-case scenario for this because it's
1. one of the biggest purchases most people can ever make
2. loaded with emotion, cultural norms, and other things that make it very easy to make bad/risky choices
I know someone who lucked out because his wife was the daughter of a man whose whole family worked construction (including him), and she paid attention. When they went to buy their first home, he saw no issues with most of the properties, while she could see "Foundation's cracked here, that smell is untreated basement flooding... See back here where this retaining wall was built? Where do you figure the water goes after it hits that wall? That's a nice little creek behind this house; it's a shame you can see from the silt pattern that it's been walking south for awhile as that hill rolls down and will be under this house's foundation in five years."