NAR CEO Nikia Wright on Wednesday vowed that the 1.47 million member organization would maintain its status quo and not compete with brokerage firms, highlighting how the brand is working to rebuild trust in a new era.
Speaking on stage at Inman Connect New York on Wednesday, Wright repeatedly referred to NAR as a “base camp” for the real estate industry that is broker-agnostic and offers a myriad of benefits to its dues-paying members.
The comments came against a backdrop of years of criticism from members who had grown frustrated with various rules, policies and other structures the organization had put in place.
Wright said that fundamentally the NAR does not compete with its own members.
“We have to really understand where that edge is and stay in that water,” Wright said.
“When I read the listing statement, I realized that the annual report of a listed company [real estate] And I see them getting into the title and mortgage business, and I would argue… none of our local entities should be in that business,” Wright said.
Wright acknowledged that this had happened under past leaders, but she and the newly appointed leadership team agreed it should not happen in the future.
“That’s not what we’re designed to do,” she added. “We’re not designed to compete with our members. We’re here to support our members. We need to keep that lane clear.”
NAR’s role in the real estate “Bloomberg Terminal”
Among the existing and new benefits of NAR membership are tools created by NAR’s Real Estate Resources (RPR), Wright said.
Regarding calls for the industry to move to a central source of MLS data (compared to the Bloomberg Terminal widely used by traders), Wright suggested that NAR could remain at the center of such a database.
“If there’s going to be a Bloomberg Terminal version of MLS, then RPR, which is a Realtors product, is frankly at the forefront of being able to do that,” Wright said.
The comments came a day after Compass CEO Robert Refkin floated the idea of real estate brokerages sharing a national MLS equally, with agents relying on it. Also on Tuesday, CanopyMLS CEO Anne Marie DeCatsye suggested that a more appropriate number of MLSs could be closer to 25, up from the current 500-plus.
With approximately 500,000 members using RPR, Wright said NAR is positioned to play a role in future data sharing and presentation.
“A lot of companies are using it as an input into their data infrastructure to ensure the integrity of their transactions, to make sure that there’s alignment in how they use artificial intelligence, to make sure that they have things like CRM tools, to make sure that people are actually singing the same hymn,” she said. “We know that people are frustrated with data showing up like this on one platform and data showing up like that on another platform. Yeah, we have that unified piece, but that’s what real estate agents are investing in.”
tripartite agreement
At its annual event in Houston last November, NAR reiterated its call for support for tripartite membership agreements at the state, local, and national real estate agent levels.
Mr Wright continued his pledge of support for the establishment, which he said enabled real estate agents to maintain a strong network of extensive advocacy around real estate.
“It’s time for people to say, ‘Why is this on the president’s agenda?'” Wright said of the ongoing housing affordability crisis. “That’s because we set the stage for it to be on the table.”
“And let me be clear, when I say we, it’s us collectively, because this is your dues,” she added.
He said major media networks regularly utilize and cite NAR data to highlight issues related to the industry.
Wright also said that membership dues are used equally to support candidates who are “pro-real estate agent, pro-broker, pro-homeownership, pro-consumer.”
“Housing didn’t just happen to be part of the affordability conversation,” she says. “That was intentional.”
Changes in NAR
In his remarks, Wright likened NAR to Walmart, which on Tuesday became one of the few companies to be valued at more than $1 trillion. The retailer has 1.6 million employees in the United States. NAR had 1.47 million members at the end of last year, Wright said.
The three-year strategic plan and annual report were an attempt to unite a fragmented industry.
“It just took an industry that was going in so many different directions and didn’t have a lot of confidence in NAR at a fundamental level where everyone was on the same page,” she said.
After Wright spent three quick, uninterrupted minutes covering the work NAR has done in the last year to regain the trust and support of its members, the room erupted in laughter and the audience seemed to acknowledge that the organization is busy.
Wright also acknowledged that she has replaced 80 percent of the organization’s leadership since she became full-time CEO.
She said new leaders need time to come into their own.
“Some of the executives were just getting started,” she says. “Now that they’ve got it, I believe we’re ready to run.”
“There was a lack of leadership, and I think people across the country felt that in different ways,” Wright said.
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