People always approach this problem from the seller's side, presumably because the seller is more aware of how much money goes to the agent. But the real issue is that people use an agent to buy their home, and agents won't show private sales. The MLS only matters because realtors exclusively show homes in the MLS. If private sellers had access to the MLS, realtors would probably find another way to avoid showing those homes and preserve their monopoly.
To attack the realtors, you need to do two things. First, sellers have to be willing to share the savings with unagented buyers. There's no incentive for buyers to tackle the process alone if they're stuck paying market price. Second, there needs to be a fixed price service for home buyers. There are plenty of fixed price agencies for sellers, but nothing for buyers.
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People always approach this problem from the seller's side, presumably because the seller is more aware of how much money goes to the agent. But the real issue is that people use an agent to buy their home, and agents won't show private sales. The MLS only matters because realtors exclusively show homes in the MLS. If private sellers had access to the MLS, realtors would probably find another way to avoid showing those homes and preserve their monopoly.
To attack the realtors, you need to do two things. First, sellers have to be willing to share the savings with unagented buyers. There's no incentive for buyers to tackle the process alone if they're stuck paying market price. Second, there needs to be a fixed price service for home buyers. There are plenty of fixed price agencies for sellers, but nothing for buyers.