So as to not talk past each other I'm specifically talking about present and future vanilla residential real estate transactions. For example w2 income with history, deed in your name, <10k sqft lot sfh or condo/townhome in a city.
For these things I struggle to imagine a future where the government does not have a clear view as to who owns and can transfer property (property taxes, IRS filings, Fannie/Freddie, recorded deeds, etc). They are backstopping the mortgage, they should understand what they are lending against.
I think overall, what a lot of this entire discussion misses is that 90, maybe 99% of transactions are pretty straightforward, but the 1% where things go haywire, might cost 10, even 100x as much in wasted time, money, etc. Real estate brokerage is a regulated professional service which means by law, there's a minimum standard of care owed to anyone who uses these peoples' services. This costs money to provide which ultimately means a lot of the costs of the problem cases end up socialized/spread out, over everyone.
This feels quite unfair if you've got your act together and everything goes smoothly, but it seems hard to know upfront which ones will be the hard cases, or not.
The bigger issue that I think almost everyone can agree on is the standardized percentage thing. Being an agent should be a flat negotiated fee or billed like the trades per hour / cost+. The good ones charge more, you pay for what you need, etc...
One other thing. I'm not usually for more government intervention but at least in the USA, the government backstops the vast majority of mortgages (Fannie and Freddie), and collects rent in perpetuity through property taxes. They are so integral to the housing market that they should be providing the standardized forms and checklists that would cover most residential real estate transactions. Not Redfin/Zillow and definitely not NAR/MLS.