HOUSTON — Nov. 16, 2025 — The National Association of Realtors has an uphill battle ahead, but on Sunday, it unveiled a framework that it said marks the start of a new era.
In a closed meeting, a group of 64 members of the NAR Executive Committee voted unanimously to approve a new Three-Year Strategic Plan. The plan revolves around modernizing tools and data, clarifying how that data is shared with members, being more transparent, and strengthening ethical standards for the industry.
The plan will be implemented as part of an ongoing process starting Jan. 1.
NAR CEO Nykia Wright said in a statement that the plan marks the beginning of the organization’s efforts to “embark upon the biggest transformation in real estate history.”
The approval comes as thousands of NAR members met in Houston in recent days to make new rules for the industry, network and enact a new plan. It also comes as fewer than half of NAR’s members told the nation’s largest trade group that they’ve been satisfied with what they’ve been getting from the organization recently, according to numbers shared at the gathering, known as NAR NXT.
Inman reported live from the event.
Turmoil from two years ago has also lingered over the 1.49-million-member organization, though after an overhaul of staff and leadership, NAR says it’s ready to move forward.
Nykia Wright at Inman Connect New York in 2025
The new 12-page plan includes 24 initiatives, many of which appear to be a continuation of what NAR has previously done. But there are also 75 projects that will take varying amounts of time to carry out.
“A shorter project would be how do you stand up a meeting with legal experts from around the country […] — some of them could be affiliated with the brokerage’s in-house counsel or their external counsel — to really begin to debate the X’s and O’s of how some people think that things are antitrust compliant, some people don’t,” Wright said during a media roundtable at NXT.
“Instead of sort of being at an impasse, you set up those meetings around the country to begin to bring those voices in and to collaborate around how people are thinking about continuing to de-risk the entire portfolio,” she added.
A longer project: NAR will move to a zero-based budget. A zero-based budget is an approach that requires all expenses to be justified and in which income minus expenses amounts to zero.
“A lot of companies do not do zero-based budgeting just because of how difficult it is,” Wright said.
What also isn’t new: NAR is leaning into its support of the three-way agreement that requires members to join the state, local and national associations.
But while everything NAR laid out isn’t necessarily new, the plan and the buildup to its release showed that NAR has been focused on making sure its members know that it is doing its best to listen to them and promising to improve.
Some in attendance described the ongoing work as trying to turn around a cargo ship. The release of the plan and the consistent sentiment expressed by NAR leaders throughout the conference show that NAR is on a listening tour.
“When we think about where we were a year ago compared to today, the amount of engagement that we have had with the brokerage community is unlike anything I’ve seen in a very long time,” said Kevin Sears, whose nearly two-year term as NAR president ends Monday.
Kevin Sears at ICSD.
Strategic Plan, in brief
In reaching out to hundreds of thousands of members over the past year, NAR compiled a list of top concerns — and ways the organization can help brokers and agents succeed.
Brokers told NAR their top concerns were lead generation, recruiting and technology.
“One of the things we heard from you is that we have to do a better job of bringing NAR education offerings, NAR tools, directly to you in the marketplaces that you serve,” said Nykea Pippion McGriff, NAR’s vice president of association engagement.
According to the plan, these are the high-level commitments from NAR:
- Modernizing real-time market reports for members
- Creating a new legal group to reduce legal risk for the industry
- Improving NAR’s budgeting process to add trust and transparency
- Maintaining the three-way agreement and aligning state, local and national Realtor organizations on the role of each
- Improving the Realtor brand through social media and national ad campaigns
NAR staffers who will implement the plan starting Jan. 1 will report to Wright every quarter.
While many elements of the plan appear to be in line with past commitments by NAR, incoming President Kevin Brown told Inman in an exclusive interview that it adds a new level of accountability.
“It’s a plan that holds our staff responsible for performance, and it’s really geared to modernize NAR and make sure that we’re an association operating in the 21st century,” Brown said.
Tailoring to broker-owners
Sherry Chris | Credit : AJ Canaria of MoxiWorks
NAR worked on the plan up until the time it was released, with late work focusing on how to better serve some of the biggest brokerages in the nation.
That work included a series of meetings with brokerages of all sizes in Chicago last month and late changes to the plan. And NAR now says it’s committed to providing tools and information that are tailored to large, medium, small and independent brokerages.
Sherry Chris, the former CEO of Anywhere Expansion Brands, who is serving as a special advisor to NAR, focused her efforts on the large brokerages that weren’t covered by NAR’s settlement of the Sitzer | Burnett commission lawsuit. Under that agreement, brokerages that transacted over $2 billion in sales in 2022 were left to negotiate their own settlements.
NAR already released a new website for brokers to use, but it said it’s going to roll out another new site tailored specifically to small brokers.
David Sartirana is the broker-owner of Northwest CT Realty in Connecticut. He said in Houston that he was “optimistic” about the future of the organization if it carries out the plan.
“In the past, I think many members felt disconnected from NAR’s work,” Sartirana said. “But recently, there’s been a noticeable effort to communicate more clearly, demonstrate value and rebuild trust. The renewed focus on transparency, leadership accountability and the rollout of the new strategic plan have all been encouraging.”
