The names themselves clearly signal intermediary roles—broker, agent—with the inevitable principal-agent problem. These administrators, bureaucrats, brokers, and agents, all of whom are non-technical, have built systems that reflect their limitations. Manual processes become non-linearly complex and expensive to operate as both regulation and data requirements increase.

MLS and GSE gatekeepers control data and enforce mandated transaction pathways with limited consumer choice. By controlling access to property listings and transaction infrastructure, they guarantee their position in every deal. A typical transaction involves seventeen separate counterparties, each maintaining partial, incompatible records. Each charges for their fragment of truth. None communicate effectively with others. The absence of interoperability isn't a technical limitation—it's a business model. Fragmentation ensures repeated work, repeated fees, and repeated opportunities for extraction.

Blocking open competition through licensing requirements, wasteful 99-hour continuing education mandates, "ethics" pledges enforced by the NAR, overtly signaled price collusion maintaining 6\% commissions, and overtly signaled competitive restriction as seen in battles between Rocket Mortgage and UWM—these mechanisms entrench the status quo. The system works exactly as designed, extracting maximum value while providing minimum service.