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Accountability and genuine transparency are still missing from NAR’s communications, coach Darryl Davis writes, and Realtors deserve better.

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I’ll admit it: I had high hopes when NAR released its 2025 Annual Report. After everything our industry has been through — the lawsuits, the settlements, the public scrutiny, the leadership turnover — I thought this might finally be the moment where the organization stepped up and showed members exactly where their money is going.

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Forty pages later, I’m still waiting.

Let’s start with what they got right

Credit where it’s due: The report is beautifully produced. The design is clean, the photography is professional and CEO Nykia Wright’s letter strikes the right tone about transformation and accountability.

There’s clear evidence that leadership is listening to members — 79 percent of surveyed Realtors said they want NAR to help them thrive in their day-to-day business, and the organization appears to be restructuring around that feedback.

We’re told they’ve achieved consecutive balanced budgets. They’ve cut $50 million (14 percent) from expenses. They’ve reduced staff headcount by 14 percent. Reserves are projected to be $50 million above budget by year-end.

Sounds impressive, right?

Here’s the problem: Cut from what?

Every one of those numbers is meaningless without context.

If I told you I cut my household budget by 14 percent, your first question would be: “What were you spending before?” Was I going from reckless to reasonable? Excessive to efficient? Necessary to bare-bones? Without the baseline, the percentage tells you nothing.

NAR’s report gives us percentages and projections, but nowhere — not in 40 pages — do we find audited financial statements. No detailed revenue breakdown. No expense categories. No executive compensation disclosures. No clear accounting of where dues dollars actually go.

This isn’t an annual report. It’s a press release with better graphics.

What a real annual report looks like

I’ve run a business for decades. I know what accountability looks like. When a membership organization publishes an annual report, members should expect to see:

Audited financial statements showing exactly where revenue comes from and where it goes
Executive compensation so they can evaluate whether leadership costs align with member value
Membership numbers and trends, so agents know if their colleagues are staying or leaving
Full legal costs, including settlement expenses and litigation defense
An honest assessment of mistakes, not just highlights.

NAR’s report contains none of this.

The elephant they barely acknowledge

Perhaps most telling is what’s almost entirely absent: any substantive discussion of the Sitzer-Burnett settlement. The legal action that fundamentally changed how buyer agents get compensated. The case that required NAR to pay substantial damages and alter industry practices nationwide.

It’s mentioned exactly once, in passing, as something NAR is “in compliance with.”

That’s it. No discussion of impact on members. No disclosure of costs. No acknowledgment of how we got here. For an organization that claims to prioritize transparency, this silence is deafening.

What the report is really doing

Reading between the lines, this document serves three purposes — none of which involve genuine accountability.

It’s justifying NAR’s existence: The report repeatedly emphasizes the organization’s “value proposition” and cites survey data showing members find NAR’s priorities valuable. Here’s a truth about organizations: when you have to commission surveys to prove you’re valuable, you’ve already lost the argument. Organizations that deliver obvious value don’t need to prove it.
It’s managing expectations: Notice how 2025 is framed as “foundation building” while actual deliverables are pushed to 2026 and beyond. Every section follows the same pattern: strategic initiative, 2025 progress (planning), 2026 priorities (results). That’s organizational cover — take credit for intentions now, defer accountability for outcomes later.
It’s trying to reclaim the narrative: The report proudly announces that NAR now communicates with members before issuing press releases to the public. The fact that this is presented as an achievement tells you how badly they’d lost the “first voice” battle. An organization confident in its member relationships wouldn’t trumpet basic communication sequencing as a strategic win.

What transparency would actually look like

I’m not asking for anything radical. I’m asking for what every legitimate membership organization provides its stakeholders.

Show us the complete financials. If the fiscal position is strong, prove it with numbers. Let members see exactly where their dues go — not just that you “cut expenses,” but what you were spending and what you’re spending now.

Disclose executive compensation. If leadership believes their pay is justified, let members evaluate that for themselves.

Publish membership trends. Are agents staying? Leaving? Growing? Let us see the data.

Detail legal costs. The settlements, the litigation defense, the ongoing legal exposure — members deserve to know.

Own the mistakes. Talk about what went wrong, not just what’s going right. That’s how trust gets rebuilt.

How trust is built

Every Realtor in America pays dues to this organization. We have a right to know exactly how that money is spent, who makes the decisions and what we’re getting in return.

This report doesn’t answer those questions. It doesn’t even attempt to.

CEO Wright writes about standing “at the threshold of a new era, one defined by transparency, innovation and unwavering service.” President Kevin Brown asks members to help “get NAR back to business.”

I believe them. I believe they want to rebuild trust. I believe the organization is trying to turn the ship.

But trust isn’t built through strategic communications. It’s built through transparency — especially when transparency is uncomfortable.

NAR can do better. We deserve better. And until the organization opens the books and treats members like stakeholders who deserve the truth — not audiences who need to be managed — all the talk about transformation rings hollow.

That’s what real accountability looks like. Everything else is just a brochure.

Darryl Davis is the CEO of Darryl Davis Seminars. Connect with him on Facebook or YouTube.

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