I wish more Americans overall understood how real estate works. I see people get screwed all the time because of bad information. Here's an example: several times a year I will talk with a member of the public who will say something like "we want to work with the listing agent because then we won't have to pay as much commission" not understanding that in fact they are (assuming a traditional two sided commission offered by the seller) actually just giving that listing agent both sides of the deal.
Or, similarly, they will say things like "we want to work with the listing agent because it's their listing so they will know the most about the property" again, not realizing that depending on your state, the rules for dual agency may not give you as a buyer the same representation as getting your own separate buyer's agent. In fact in some states, you may not actually be getting any representation at all, IE: they fill out the paperwork on your behalf but actually represent the seller.
Those are just some trivial examples, but it's dumbfounding how many bad ideas the public has about real estate. So much of my job is hours of educating my clients apart from anything related to the actual transaction.