[notacoward]

> All kinds of people could have claims on it.

That is not necessarily true. Often, one or more of the closing documents addresses this very issue, attesting that there are no such known claims and/or assigning any unknown ones to you as the new owner. Liability is part of ownership, after all, and all ownership is "just a legal filing" unless it's backed by force. While it's true that a real estate transaction is not the same as a transfer of a physical thing, dismissing such transactions as fictional is a bit sophist.