Nar Just Teased Its 2026–2028 Plan. Here’s Why It Could Be The Group’s Make-or-break Moment

The 2025 National Association of Realtors (NAR) NXT event kicked off Thursday in Houston, Texas, with a few words from NAR’s 2025 president, Kevin Sears, and NAR CEO Nykia Wright. 

The pair addressed the crowd Thursday morning during a Leadership Scoop session, which primarily focused on teasing the trade group’s recently announced 2026-2028 Strategic Plan. 

When Sears hastily took the helm at NAR in early January 2024, a full year prior to when his term was supposed to begin, he told members he wanted to bring the organization back to basics, a mission he told members Thursday morning that he and the leadership team have remained focused on. 

“I had the honor of becoming your 117th president, and through that, Nykia gave me the opportunity to talk to our staff in Chicago and in D.C.,” Sears said. “We talked about how important it is for us to get back to our basics. We need to do everything we can to make our members more successful. I love the way that transitions us because that was the foundation for what you’re about to see here. We’ve gone back to basics, now it is time for us to get back to business.” 

According to Sears and Wright, in order for this to happen, NAR must implement and carry out its strategic plan. The NAR leaders told members that this plan didn’t come out of some think tank or closed-door leadership meeting. Instead, it is the product of countless hours of conversations, surveys and focus group meetings to figure out where the organization is lacking and what members want to see from it. 

“This is something that was crowd sourced from around the entire country based upon the feedback we have gotten from over 100,000 people. I’ve shown this to some of the largest CEOs of brokerage houses across the country, representing about 700,000 of our members, and I’ve socialized it with the 13 regions across the United States,” Wright said of the strategic plan. 

Through these conversations and other outreach efforts, Wright said some major themes became clear, including what NAR is going to do to help manage macroeconomic factors and how it can be a better partner to all industry participants. 

“I would argue that we over index on the traditional brokerages,” Wright said. “But you can open up any industry publication every single day and see that there’s a startup coming and there’s some businesses that aren’t able to sustain the business model that they sort of committed to, and so they’re being sunset. How are we managing all of those business models to make sure that, as Kevin said, we continue in the industry? We are going to do a much better job with that.” 

Wright acknowledged that a lot has changed within the industry over the past few years, and NAR needs to step it up if it wants to be part of those changes. 

“Tectonic plates have shifted, and everyone is booked and busy on trying to help define the future, and so we have to keep up with those conversations and then make sure that the ever-evolving industry technologies are something that we keep at the forefront,” Wright said. 

In crafting the strategic plan, NAR asked members for feedback on what the organization would need to do right to consider NAR somewhat or very valuable. Feedback included things like helping members thrive in their day-to-day business, protecting and advancing the legal interests of Realtors, building a proactive organization, recommitting to professionalism and cultivating trust in the Realtor brand. 

As it currently stands, NAR’s survey results show that just 49% of members are somewhat or very satisfied with the association, a metric Wright and Sears hope to see change with the implementation of the strategic plan. 

Looking ahead to the next year, Wright said NAR has 75 projects it plans to deliver over the next three years.

“People have considered this the largest turnaround in real estate history — 75 is manageable, don’t worry,” Wright said. “We are transforming this industry from the bottom up, ensuring that we are continuing to meet people’s needs.” 

As NAR works to implement this plan in 2026 and beyond, Wright stressed that she wants members to hold the organization accountable. 

Part of this effort will be for NAR to publish a quarterly report discussing what it has done for each of its initiatives. 

“We want to make sure that people are going to understand all of the incredible work that the committees came up with over the years,” Wright said. “We do know that people are demanding more from NAR. But at the end of the day, in exchange for $201, we’re going to prove that you’re getting thousands and thousands of dollars in return based on that. It’s our job to show you that. And since we haven’t shown you that, I can understand why people are saying ‘What is the value?’”

In putting out these reports, Wright and Sears said NAR is asking for accountability.

“We aren’t shying away from that,” Wright said. “Our implicit and explicit oath is that we are going to work as hard as you are, if not harder, in order to help you get to your next transaction,” Wright said. “I am not asking you to trust me, I’m asking you to just open your eyes and see, and when we are not, I know that you all are going to email me and tell me what we’re doing wrong, and we welcome that accountability. We hope that you are continuing to see that there are changes in the real estate family and that we’re going in the right direction, and we just ask for your patience as we continue to make more transformative changes.”