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n August, NAR CEO Nykia Wright spoke to the 2025 Leadership Summit audience, joined by Senior Vice President of Industry Relations Jarrod Grasso and President‑Elect Kevin Brown.
**Re‑imagining NAR**
As CEO, I pledge to steer NAR with transparency, accountability, discipline, and focus. This is more than a slogan; it underpins every effort to rebuild trust and reshape how we serve REALTORS® and help them close their next deal.
**Listening First: Building a Member‑Driven Strategic Plan**
Change begins with listening. Throughout 2025, we gathered input from over 100,000 members via forums, surveys, and focus groups. We met with leaders from large firms and regional brokerages, and empowered state and local associations to host their own broker summits. We will keep engaging members and industry leaders to share progress and refine our work. This inclusive process informs NAR’s 2026‑2028 Strategic Plan, which will guide modernization, operations, and member services. Our aim is clear: no surprises about NAR’s direction. Transparency is now the norm, not an exception.
**Setting the Standard: A New Value Proposition**
Every organization must define its purpose, especially amid change. Our transformation centers on member experience. The 2026‑2028 Strategic Plan introduces a Value Proposition focused on you:
> *NAR empowers REALTORS® to thrive by advocating for them, delivering market intelligence and research tools, offering professional development, upholding high standards, and elevating the REALTOR® brand. By supporting REALTORS®, NAR protects and advances the right of Americans to own real estate.*
This statement reminds us that all NAR activities must relentlessly support member success—through advocacy, tools, education, and data that make REALTORS® indispensable in every market.
**Key Projects in the Strategic Plan**
- Overhaul financial systems to improve processes, audit capabilities, and transparency.
- Strengthen legal risk management.
- Modernize legacy systems, leveraging AI across budgeting, contracting, operations, and member support.
- Elevate the REALTOR® brand via social media, national storytelling, and a refreshed consumer ad campaign.
- Refresh the member onboarding experience.
- Enhance dynamic dashboards with real‑time market insights, in partnership with RPR.
**Fiscal Transparency: The 2025 Annual Report**
For the first time, NAR will publish an Annual Report. It expands on our 2024 990 filing, details 2025 operations and priorities, and outlines 2026 goals. While not a corporate financial statement, it marks a new level of transparency, showing how we stay accountable to members, the industry, and consumers with rigorous financial diligence.
**Next Steps**
Transformation is ongoing and belongs to all of us. The annual report and strategic plan will provide unprecedented insight into our current state and future direction. We will share more once finalized. Equally important, we will keep listening to guide our actions and improve how we serve you. Listening and learning are now part of NAR’s new normal.
I look forward to hearing how NAR can enhance value for members, the industry, and consumers. Thank you to every REALTOR® who has shared ideas, feedback, and critiques. If you haven’t yet spoken up, we’re listening—reach out, participate, and be heard.
In my brief but intense tenure at NAR, I’ve learned that our greatest strength is our members. Together, we can build an association that reflects the professionalism, resilience, and leadership REALTORS® bring to communities.
Thank you,
Nykia Wright
