A Peace Offering? nar Releases Financial Roadmap Amid Member Tension

The National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) financials and budgeting have caught the ire of members in recent years. As the trade association looks to regroup after a turbulent few years, it has promised members an increase in financial transparency. 

The association’s first step toward this goal came earlier this week when it published its first ever Annual Report, outlining what was accomplished in 2025 and what NAR is focusing on in 2026. 

However, not all brokers think the document does what it says. “What NAR released was so far from a true Annual Report that to call it such is an insult to accountants everywhere. This was a very slickly produced public relations piece that contained miniscule amounts of real information,” Phillip Cantrell, the CEO of Benchmark Realty, wrote in an email. “Clearly, it was nothing more than a compilation of the PR blitz they’ve been engaged in for the past year.” 

In addition, the report did not mention membership numbers, which are key to understanding the health of the organization.

NAR under fire

NAR’s finances have been a source of contention within its membership. In 2024, the compensation packages of executives at the association came under scrutiny and in 2025, members of the Pro-Agent Restore Trust in NAR Working Group demanded that NAR answer questions about its balance sheet. While NAR’s 2024 Form 990, filed in mid-November 2025, did show leaders and executives enjoying fewer lavish perks than the year prior, three executives, including CEO Nykia Wright made over $1 million in 2024, and travel expenses for association leaders came in at $8 million for the year. 

The broker working group has yet to publicly comment on NAR’s 2024 Form 990 or the financial information disclosed in the Annual Report. However, brokerage leaders who spoke with HousingWire had mixed feelings about the report and what it disclosed.

Although the report mentioned various cuts and reductions, Cantrell lamented the lack of specific information.

“Tell us WHAT you have done, and STOP telling us what you are GOING to do,” he wrote.

Among the questions Cantrell wishes the report answered are: “Why the top five people were paid $6,951,739 in 2024? What were those same paid in 2025? And why is NAR invested in their own venture capital firm called Second Century Ventures?”

“As a 43-year business owner in multiple industries, every true Annual Report is an accounting document. Every one I have ever received detailed factual specifics, presented in proper accounting (GAAP) format, and allowed the reader to judge the veracity of the information. That is definitely not what this document is. But then, NAR has never done that in any communication, always preferring instead to rely on platitudes and promises,” Cantrell wrote. “The trust cup is empty here.”

While other brokerage leaders HousingWire spoke with agreed that the report was not enough to restore their trust in the association, some had a softer take on the situation.

“I think the wounds of the big brokers from the abandonment by NAR in the settlement are still not healed, and I think for many that clouds the lens that they are viewing this report with. I think trying to rebuild that trust must be a very difficult task to undertake,” Mike Pappas, the CEO of The Keyes Company/Illustrated Properties, said.  

Pappas’ firm, which posted a transaction volume of $7.55 billion in 2022, according to data from RealTrends Verified, was one of the many large brokerages cut out of NAR’s commission lawsuit settlement agreement.

Like Pappas, Michele Harrington’s company, First Team Real Estate, was also left out of NAR’s settlement, but she shared a much more optimistic view of the NAR and its report.

“I’m glad to hear [2026 NAR president] Kevin Brown say NAR is getting back to business, because for too many years the organization has been focused on feel-good initiatives instead of the actual business of real estate,” Harrington wrote in an email. “Getting ‘back to business’ means hard, uncomfortable conversations. It means using our money and political power to the fullest, not funding candidates because they’re incumbents, but because they are willing to act, not just talk. If someone votes against housing, they shouldn’t get a dollar from us.”

In Harrington’s view, NAR and the industry have a great opportunity right now to advocate for pro-housing policies and candidates but she wrote that she hopes to see NAR act and spend wisely when it comes to these issues.

“I hope when Kevin talks about ‘back to business,’  this is what he means, and if so, I’m 100% in,” she wrote.

Here’s a summary of what was in the report.

Modernizing to serve member needs

When it comes to finances, NAR highlighted a few major milestones for 2025, including marking the second consecutive year of having a balanced budget, recording a roughly $50 million or 14% annual reduction in budgeted expenses and a 14% reduction in headcount, which NAR said was part of its disciplined approach to resource management.

As NAR looks to modernize and find ways to better serve member needs, the association created its 2026-2028 Strategic Plan, in which it outlines three initiatives focused on helping it become a proactive organization. These initiatives focus on things like streamlining organization governance and enhancing effectiveness, building processes that allow for the timely and transparent flow of information with members and promoting financial transparency by overhauling budgeting and resourcing strategies. 

According to the annual report, in 2025, NAR completed a variety of tasks as it looks to tackle these initiatives. Some of these tasks included enhancing training for leaders and staff executives, clarifying roles to improve coordination within the association, finding ways to strengthen communication and better align governance structure with member needs, hiring a new chief data officer to help identify ways for the association to operate more efficiently, appointing a new chief financial officer, reviewing its financial workflows to find ways to save costs and creating a balanced budget with an annual expense reduction. 

What about 2026?

As for 2026, NAR outlined a variety of goals focused on these initiatives in the report. Some of the things NAR has promised members it will do in the coming year are to further refine its governance process potentially through things like identifying overlap among committees or enhancing virtual collaboration within the association; use the data insights it gains to better understand how resources are being used and where new opportunities or needs are emerging across the Realtor community; and the association said it will more to a zero-based budgeting practice. 

“Under this approach, every budget starts at zero with cost justification required for each expense. Each department is accountable for aligning each line item to the organization’s mission. Further, NAR Finance will establish consistent budgeting guardrails that empower budget holders across NAR staff and committees to be accountable and agile,” the Annual Report states. 

The trade group has also promised members it will work toward provide the member Finance Committee with “timely, reliable insights” into the organization’s financial performance each month.