NAR Hit with Another Blow After Shocking “Donation” Discovery w/NYT’s Debra Kamin

On The Market

BiggerPockets

News, Investing, Business, Education

4.8 • 820 Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2024

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this episode and written below are solely opinions of the hosts, guests, and writers and do not reflect the views of BiggerPockets. Is it about to get even worse for NAR (National Association of Realtors)? After a ground-breaking agent commission lawsuit settlement forced the organization to pay out hundreds of millions, NAR has been on thin ice. They had just come off of a massive change in leadership, with some executives facing sexual harassment accusations, only to have the spotlight put on them once again. But it’s not over. A new investigative piece from The New York Times reporter Debra Kamin uncovers a web of hidden donations to political groups that many NAR members aren’t aware of. NAR, the largest lobbyist group in the country, is well-known for donating to political causes that benefit their industry. However, it seems those donations heavily lean to one side of the political spectrum. So, is this a problem? Could it even be illegal? Debra reveals that many of these donations go to groups unrelated to real estate, leaving some members frustrated with how their dues are being spent. Could this be the final blow to NAR, paving the way for more competition among real estate agent organizations? Debra is on to break the story. In This Episode We Cover The new investigation on where NAR “donations” and member dues are going NAR’s recent turmoil with massive lawsuits, sexual harassment accusations, and more What do realtors think of their dues being spent on fringe political causes? The future of NAR and whether they’ll recover from their recent internal challenges A new DOJ (department of justice) investigation into NAR and whether members will leave And So Much More! Links from the Show Read the Full Article Join the Future of Real Estate Investing with Fundrise Join BiggerPockets for FREE Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area Dave's BiggerPockets Profile On the Market 197 - NAR Finally Faces Competition: Is the Agent “Monopoly” Over? w/Jason Haber and Mauricio Umansky On the Market 201 - Breaking: NAR Settles for $418M, Buying and Selling Homes Could Change Forever w/The New York Times’ Debra Kamin Grab the Book “SOLD: Every Real Estate Agent’s Guide” Jump to topic: 00:00 Intro 01:30 NAR Turmoil 03:46 The Largest Lobbyist Group 08:53 Quietly Funding Political Causes 14:17 Is This Illegal? 17:29 What Realtors Think 20:40 The Future of NAR 26:58 Read the Full Story Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/on-the-market-277 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	That's the million dollar question, or as I would say, the 1.5 million member question, is any of this illegal?
0:05.9	The National Association of Realtors, or NAR, has been under intense scrutiny over the course of the last few years between a lawsuit around commission rates and allegations of sexual harassment.
0:18.2	Now, new investigative reporting from the New York Times reveals some
0:22.3	details about NAR's finances. And this new story has made me curious about what all of this
0:28.8	news means for NAR. It's the biggest trade organization in our industry, and they're going
0:34.1	through a lot of change and a lot of scrutiny. Is NAR doing anything illegal?
0:39.4	Is this impacting investors, agents, and homebuyers?
0:42.7	Here today to illuminate how NAR spending has shaped the housing market
0:46.7	and what this new news means for the future of NAR
0:50.9	is the reporter behind that story, Deborah Kamen of the New York Times.
1:00.0	Hey, everyone, it's Dave. Welcome to On the Market. We're bringing this conversation to you just a few days after the story broke. Now, it's important to note that at this point, because it's so new, NAR has not issued
1:12.9	a formal response.
1:14.0	We don't know if they will, but they haven't yet to this point.
1:16.9	NAR, though, impacts our industry in all sorts of ways.
1:20.2	And so we at on the market want to bring you the facts that have emerged so far so you can
1:25.8	stay on top of the latest news. So with that,
1:28.8	let's bring on Deborah Kamen.
1:35.5	Deborah, welcome back to the show. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Dave. It's always so
1:39.6	nice to be here chatting with you. Yeah. If you all don't remember, Deborah was last here back in March
1:45.4	talking about the NAR Commission's lawsuit settlement. Maybe before we jump into the more
1:52.5	breaking news right now, can you just give us a summary of sort of the last year, year and a half
1:58.3	that NAR has had? Because they've been in the news quite a lot.
	...

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