The headlines might suggest so National Association of Real Estate Agents (NAR) members struggle to reach agreement on many issues. But at Monday morning’s NAR Board of Directors meeting, there was no sign of division.
According to NAR President Kevin Sears, 886 directors attended the meeting at NAR NXT annual conference in person, with another 100 directors attending virtually.
While Sears has already acknowledged that 2025 could be a financially challenging year for NAR, the trade association should be in good financial shape in the long term if the settlement of the provision case is approved later this month, NAR Treasurer Greg Hrabcak said.
He said the 2025 budget will maintain NAR’s current reserve level, and no contribution increases are planned for this year.
“The cuts included in the other proposal will have minimal impact on our products, services and advocacy,” Hrabcak said. “Nearly all areas of NAR have contributed to the reductions, with no area experiencing a disproportionate impact. The 2025 budget moves NAR forward on the path to settlement fulfillment in a highly disciplined and responsible manner.”
The positive news about NAR’s budget stems from the fact that the expected large decline in the membership of the trade association did not occur; at the end of October the association had 1.526 million members, the fourth highest number ever. NAR predicts 1.4 million members by 2025, an 8% decline, but not nearly as steep as many outside observers expected.
All three budget proposals presented by Hrabcak were passed easily and without discussion.
NAR’s board also heard and voted on proposals from the trade group’s recently formed Culture Transformation Commission (CTC), which was led by Ryan Davis and Christina Pappas.
The CTC submitted one item to the Board of Directors for a vote, which was a new requirement for NAR volunteer members and employees to complete annual training on all policies and procedures related to accountability. The requirement would go into effect in 2026 and would ensure that NAR leaders and staff “understand” how to properly handle and process sexual harassment complaints, among other things. The Council approved lines 858 through 47.
Other voices:
- The board voted to amend the application for NAR’s elected and appointed office to include a question about whether the candidate has undergone a professional audit of his or her social media in the past three years. In addition, candidates will be required to agree to the NAR leader’s social media guidelines and all elected and appointed officials will be subject to at least an annual audit of their social media. Candidates running for president-elect, first vice president and treasurer will be subject to a “media audit.”
- In addition to this recommendation, the board also approved a measure to extend the application filing period for NAR elected officials from Jan. 1 to April 1, beginning in 2026. Commission Chair Leslie Rouda-Smith said this change would allow create a trade group to properly research potential candidates.
- The final measure presented to the board was an item presented by the leadership team to enable decision-making Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) a non-voting member of NAR’s leadership team. According to NAR leadership, CREA has offered NAR a similar seat on its leadership team. Although the Board of Directors did not vote on the issue, as it was sent for further discussion and voting with the delegate body, the measure was controversial. Despite the objections, the Council voted 754 to 131 to return the motion to the leadership team for further discussion.
