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Calls for transparency around spending at the National Association of Realtors are multiplying as the trade group prepares to dig deep into its coffers to cover nearly half of the $418 million commission payout when it comes due in February.
In the first quarter of 2025, NAR will be on the hook to pay $197 million toward the nationwide settlement of antitrust claims related to its commission rules. The remainder will come due over the next four years as the 1.5 million-member organization defends itself against allegations it showered staff and volunteer leaders with perks while funding partisan groups through one of its nonprofits.
Against that backdrop, all eyes will be trained on membership dues, which will remain unchanged in 2025 but could see increases in the future as NAR attempts to balance its budget under settlement obligations.
“NAR has a gargantuan spending problem,” Benchmark Realty founder Phillip Cantrell, a one-time member of his local Realtor association’s board of directors, wrote on LinkedIn last month. “What we should be educating ourselves on is the grotesque profligacy of the association leadership, which is born by individual members, many of whom are reeling under inflationary pressures with an average income of $56,400.”
In a statement to Inman, Cantrell said, “My gut tells me that as soon as the PR crisis dies down in a year or two they will begin raising dues.”
As the fallout over past scandals and policies like its so-called three-way agreement threatens to eat away at membership, a new analysis of nonprofit tax filings between 2004 and 2022 shows how dependent NAR has become on those dues, with much of that revenue earmarked for employee salaries and payments to volunteer leaders, consultants and other outside professionals.
In the clearest picture to date of how the association doles out its funds, the analysis by Inman of public documents released last year shows that:
- Employee salaries, including compensation for volunteer leaders, made up an average 27.2 percent of annual expenses from 2004 to 2022, with $73 million spent in 2022, up 12.5% from 2021.
- NAR paid $58.3 million for non-employee “fees for services” — or about 80 percent of what it spent on employee compensation.
- Of that sum, $26.8 million was for “consulting,” $17.7 million was for “affiliate professional fees” and $12.4 million was for “legal services.”
- Together, compensation and fees for services added up to 43 percent of NAR’s expenses in 2022, which clocked in at $305.7 million, a 23.4 percent annual increase.
In a statement to Inman, a NAR spokesperson said its policies on spending have changed dramatically since the latest financial filings were released in 2023.
“The National Association of Realtors is unequivocally committed to being a good steward of member dues,” the spokesperson said. “As recently as 2023, NAR reviewed its policies and procedures and strengthened protocols to include a transparent checks and balance system that is applied fairly and consistently.”
“This assessment included updates to ensure clearly articulated travel and expense policies and controls for managing compliance,” the spokesperson said. “At the end of Q3 2024, the Leadership Team was 46 percent below budget. Our priorities continue to include high engagement with members, including travel to the more than 120 associations NAR has visited this year, and our expenditures reflect that.”
“Further, at NXT in Boston, NAR passed a balanced budget for the next fiscal year,” the statement adds. “This includes tens of millions of dollars in reductions across a wide range of expenditures such as travel, facilities, meetings costs and consulting. This action was taken in part to anticipate future settlement payments, and we are also taking advantage of reimagining how NAR can deliver products and services with high quality while remaining budget conscious.”
Read below for a breakdown of how NAR has distributed its funds over the years and how those decisions may impact dues in the future, according to real estate executives and current NAR members who spoke to Inman.
Employee compensation
In 2022, NAR employed 379 individuals, up 6 percent from 2021, and its board was made up of 1,022 unpaid directors, according to tax filings from the year.
The trade organization also counted 2,200 volunteers among its ranks that year, though only those deemed “volunteer leaders” received compensation for their work — each to the tune of six figures, according to the filings.
Nykia Wright
NAR declined to divulge the current number of employees on its budget, though at its annual conference in November, NAR CEO Nykia Wright said NAR employed 300 staffers, a figure the organization would not confirm.
NAR’s eight-member leadership team consists of a CEO and seven volunteer leaders: the president, president-elect, first vice president, the past president, treasurer, vice president of association affairs and vice president of advocacy.
All of NAR’s volunteer leaders but the treasurer serve one-year terms, yet those elected as first vice president serve on the leadership team for four years as they climb the ranks to president-elect, president and immediate past president.
According to NAR, its “volunteer” leaders are not salaried but rather receive “administrative stipends” and “the value of reimbursed travel expenses is deemed taxable by the IRS.”
Compensation made up an average 27.2 percent of the association’s total annual expenses from 2004 through 2022, adding up to $73 million in 2022 — up 12.5 percent from 2021. This includes compensation of officers and directors (including from related organizations), other salaries and wages, pension plan contributions, other employee benefits and payroll taxes.
In addition, NAR paid non-employee professionals “fees for services” adding up to $58.3 million — or about 80 percent of what it spent on employee pay. Asked why NAR spent almost as much on fees for services as it did on total compensation and how much of those funds went toward handling the misconduct complaints NAR staffers made in 2022, NAR declined to comment.
Of that $58.3 million, $26.8 million was for “consulting,” $17.7 million was for “affiliate professional fees,” and $12.4 million was for “legal” services.
NAR declined to comment on what the consulting services and affiliate professional fees were for, and whether affiliate professional fees go to Realtor-affiliated entities such as other Realtor associations.
Together, employee compensation and fees for services added up to 43 percent of NAR’s total expenses in 2022, which came in at $305.7 million. That’s a 23.4 percent year-over-year increase in expenses. Asked for reasons behind the increase, NAR declined to comment.
Employee compensation and fees for services also ate up 40 percent of the revenue that NAR brought in that year. Asked why, NAR declined to comment. In 2022, the association brought in $328.4 million (about $1 million more than in 2021), of which 86.8 percent came from member dues.
Generous salaries for chief executive officers
Dale Stinton
NAR’s chief executive officer between 2005 and 2017 — Dale Stinton — raked in more than $24 million in his time as the trade organization’s CEO and in the years after, when NAR continued to pay him $250,000 per year for an average of 30 minutes of weekly work as a consultant, according to filings. The arrangement continued in 2022 and may be ongoing.
Bob Goldberg
In 2017, Bob Goldberg, who was already an NAR veteran, succeeded Stinton as CEO. Between 2008 and 2022, NAR paid Goldberg $19.9 million, of which $13.2 million was for his services as CEO. In 2022, Goldberg earned $2.65 million and worked an average of 50 hours per week.
The year was also, in hindsight, one in which the seeds of turmoil were being sown, with volunteer leaders, including embattled then-president Kenny Parcell — later to be publicly accused of misconduct —netting hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Victoria Gillespie
In June of that year, Victoria Gillespie, NAR’s chief marketing and communications officer at the time, authored an internal memo in which she detailed months of complaints from NAR employees about misconduct from volunteer leaders, including Parcell, who resigned following allegations of sexual harassment. NAR paid Parcell $430,525 in compensation in 2021 and 2022 combined.
A year later, in May, NAR’s board of directors voted to hike the trade group’s membership dues to $156 per year and, for the first time, allow dues increases to be tied to inflation. The 2022 tax form offers details on NAR’s spending at the time that were not available to rank-and-file members.
Kenny Parcell
During his tenure at NAR, which ended in November 2023 amid misconduct scandals and fallout from a jury verdict against the association, Goldberg made more than $20 million and may still be getting a check from NAR.
Asked whether NAR was continuing to pay Stinton as a consultant and whether Goldberg got a similar deal when he retired, NAR declined to comment, saying, “NAR does not comment on employee matters including any individual’s compensation.”
According to the 2022 tax filing, NAR used a compensation committee, independent compensation consultant, a compensation survey and approval by the board or compensation committee to establish the CEO’s compensation. CEOs undergo annual performance evaluations and the process for determining pay for its CEO was last undertaken in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to the 2022 filings.
NAR declined to comment on current NAR CEO Nykia Wright’s compensation and if she receives the same perks Goldberg did.
Executive travel and perks
NAR’s travel expenses more than doubled in 2022 compared to the previous year, to $10.1 million.
When Goldberg served as CEO of NAR, the trade group agreed to cover the cost of private clubs in Chicago and Washington, according to an investigation by The New York Times in November.
Along with up to $75,000 in initiation fees and dues at a country club near his home in Maryland, Goldberg was also allotted a $1,500 car allowance, $2,250 each month to help cover the costs of utilities and insurance at a residence he kept near NAR’s headquarters in Chicago and a pet sitter for his two dogs while he traveled, The Times reported.
Members of the leadership team, meanwhile, have received corporate credit cards that were used for dinners, golf outings and other perks, including tickets for themselves and family members to see plays on Broadway, according to The Times report.
According to NAR’s 2022 tax form, such perks are available to NAR’s “Officers, Directors, Trustees, Key Employees, and Highest Compensated Employees,” which include its leadership team and board of directors, among others. The filing doesn’t clarify which employees received the perks.
The organization also claims in tax filings that “extensive travel” for top executives can climb as high as six trips a month and, in some cases, in excess of 200 days out of the year. Some NAR officers were reimbursed for “minor personal expenses” deemed as taxable compensation while traveling for business purposes, the filings show.
“During 2022, NAR paid for tax or legal services for certain Senior Vice Presidents of the organization,” it states. “The related benefits were treated as taxable compensation to the recipients. Additionally, during 2022, NAR reimbursed the President for housing-related costs while traveling for company business.”
In a statement to Inman, a spokesperson suggested that as commission lawsuits coursed across U.S. courtrooms, travel expenses actually increased in 2024 and may do so again in 2025.
“The years of 2024 and 2025 will have increased travel and communication because NAR must ensure that members and consumers understand how to successfully navigate the post-settlement real estate market and transactions,” the spokesperson told Inman.
NAR declined to elaborate on who among its volunteer leaders and executives received such perks, whether they were available to all 1,022 board directors and how much they cost the organization. It also declined to comment on why NAR paid for tax or legal services for certain SVPs and which SVPs received this perk.
“For years, NAR has directed an outside, independent executive compensation and consulting firm to provide an objective review of NAR staff and executive compensation annually,” NAR’s spokesperson said.
“NAR compensation falls in line with market compensation.”
Calls for more transparency
Recent controversies at NAR, as well as intense media coverage, have made the organization’s spending a frequent topic of debate among real estate professionals, with many taking to online Realtor forums to express frustration.
Phillip Cantrell
Cantrell shared some of that frustration, describing NAR to Inman as having a “disjointed” culture and suffering from “an abject failure of leadership.” Cantrell also questioned the salary and perks Goldberg earned, as well as the hundreds of travel days for NAR’s president.
“I dare say that not a single president of any publicly-traded corporation travels more than 60-90 nights a year,” he said.
Cantrell went on to call for governance reform in order for NAR to become “an effective organization.”
He suggested that members of NAR’s board of directors should be voted on directly by the membership and that NAR’s governance meetings should be open to all members.
“Deliver quarterly reports on FACTS (not just talking points) to the members, just as a public company does, as well as an annual report on financial matters with FULL details, INCLUDING the assets held by SCV,” Cantrell said, referring to NAR’s for-profit investment subsidiary, Second Century Ventures.
Such calls for change have become increasingly common.
Kendall Bonner
For instance, Kendall Bonner — a broker, attorney and vice president of industry relations at eXp Realty — told Inman that in 2025, “NAR should consider reforming their policies and protections around conduct and spending controls” as well as potentially forming “a separate, unbiased body or council of leaders to review and approve these new protocols and enforce implementation.”
James Dwiggins, CEO of real estate franchisor NextHome, similarly told Inman that NAR has lacked transparency, and said the organization needs to “come out and explain all the things that they’re doing.”
However, despite calling for more information, Dwiggins also does not believe present tumult will doom NAR. In fact, he argued that organization will actually manage to limit spending and become more transparent.
James Dwiggins
“They’re not dumb,” Dwiggins said. “They understand that things need to change. Staff is under a way different directive. Expenses are being cut all over the place.”
Dwiggins went on to say that much of the coverage of NAR’s spending in recent media accounts is based on “things from the past that they’re cleaning up or have already cleaned up.”
“I think if the National Association of Realtors can get more transparent and show people what they’re doing and the changes that they’re making and can work on getting the confidence of their constituency back and articulate value differently than what they do today, I think NAR is here for the long term,” Dwiggins added.
“It may be smaller, but I think the organization does a tremendous amount of work.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with an additional comments from Phillip Cantrell and to correct that Cantrell was a director for his local Realtor association, not NAR.
Email Andrea V. Brambila.
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