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By the time his term ends, Kevin Sears will have been the longest-serving president of the National Association of Realtors in more than a century.
His term started under the cloud of a jury verdict that upended the real estate industry, as well as other turmoil that engulfed the 1.5-million-member organization itself. And when he took the reins in January 2024, NAR was negotiating the terms of a settlement agreement that would cost the group $418 million and lead to practice changes that would divide the industry.
Still, Sears made inroads with a U.S. Department of Justice that some in the industry believed had grown more hostile toward real estate during President Joe Biden’s administration. He met twice with the DOJ to try and reach a mutual agreement on changes the regulator might want to see for real estate. And he delivered the message to agents and brokers that the DOJ wanted agents to be loudly pro-consumer.
It’s been a tightrope to walk. NAR is both seeking more meetings with the DOJ, and has tried fighting the feds all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sears’ nearly two-year term won’t end until Kevin Brown becomes president in January. Until then, Sears says he’s got more work to do. Some of the biggest players in the industry remain divided against each other and against NAR itself. NAR is still looking for clarity from the DOJ. Lawsuits are being filed all the time.
Sears spoke with Inman about some of the biggest issues that have arisen through his term, and ahead of his scheduled appearance at Inman Connect San Diego later this month.
Below is a transcript of the conversation, edited for clarity and brevity.
Inman: Compass said that they’re not going to view any national NAR policy as binding for them, which followed Howard Hanna saying basically the same thing a couple months ago. What do you make of this statement from Compass that the Clear Cooperation Policy isn’t binding?
Kevin Sears: Yeah, so this is nothing new or shocking from Robert Reffkin. He’s been talking a lot about CCP for as long as I’ve been president. I’ll just put it to you that way.
This does follow Howard Hanna as well. I know you’ve been going around the country meeting with brokers and trying to hear about their concerns. Are there any potential changes that might come out of, I guess, both those brokerages’ responses?
The beauty of our governance structure is that both of those brokerages have members that actively volunteer with the National Association of Realtors. And if there’s going to be changes to policy, then it’s the membership that can effectuate that change. So we have processes in place that can be utilized.
The only other thing I’ll say is that we have closely looked at and monitored the policies, especially in light of everything that’s happened with our association over the last few years with litigation — including the fact that last summer, early fall, [NAR CEO] Nykia [Wright] and our general counsel engaged outside counsel to review all of our policies, rules, our Code of Ethics, our constitution, our bylaws and say, ‘OK, where are areas of concern or potential litigation? And what do we need to do in order to mitigate that risk?’
So, we’ve got the structure in place. We’re doing a full and thorough analysis and, in fact, making changes as we need to through the process.
How do you feel about the final updated Clear Cooperation Policy? Were you happy with where that ended up?
With the policy, am I happy with it? I’m happy that we were able to meet with the various stakeholder groups, have the conversation and come up with a policy that gives options to the selling consumer. Ultimately, what we need to do is look and say, ‘What’s best for the consumer?’ And the policy should follow that.
NAR President Kevin Sears speaks at Inman Connect Las Vegas in 2024. Photo by AJ Canaria Creative Services.
Zillow then came up with its own policy that, in some ways, maybe moved it more toward being like a national MLS. Zillow is saying, ‘If you want to be on Zillow, you have to put it into the MLS and therefore on our site.’ What did you make of their update to their listing policy?
With regard to portals — and you said one specifically, I won’t — the portals and decisions they’re making, that’s just showing that this is a free market and that businesses get to decide what they want to do or how they want to operate. It’s just the market forces doing what they’re supposed to do.
And ultimately, I’ll go back to the consumer. What’s best for the consumer? What’s best for the consumer is to have full access to the most accurate data that’s out there. I always think that with that and the consumer being fully informed, then that’s a good thing.
I saw an update from NAR midyear that you met with the DOJ. There were some apparently pretty big meetings with DOJ attorneys. At the time, you hadn’t met with [DOJ antitrust chief Jonathan] Kanter’s replacement, Gail Slater. Any update on that? Have you had further meetings or conversations with the DOJ?
No, not that I’m aware of. Now, remember, Taylor, I told you I was out of the country. So I don’t know if our attorneys have had any conversation since we were in Washington, D.C., with the Department of Justice.
But I do know that before Gail Slater was put in position and confirmed for the job, we had reached out. I believe shortly after she was confirmed, we reached out. But as far as I know, we have not gotten anything back concrete to be able to to open up the dialogue with the new folks in there.
But as I said at midyear, and as I said before that, I do look forward to the opportunity to continue the conversation because ultimately, if we can come to a meeting of the minds and get some quote-unquote world peace, when it comes to real estate, I think that would be a good thing for everyone involved.
If you get Gail on the line and you’re able to tell her how the past year was between the DOJ and NAR or the industry at large, what would you tell her? And what do you expect, at least in terms of the tone or tenor of the new administration and the DOJ?
I’m not sure that I would go in talking about what had happened, because if we want to move forward, we need to look forward. If there were questions that were asked, I would certainly answer them. But what we need to do is say, what does the administration want the real estate industry [and] real estate market to look like? And how can we work and strive towards that together? That’s it for me.
I just want our members to not have to worry about a cloud over their shoulder. Let’s give them a little breathing room, a little clarity, let them go out and do their job and serve the consumer like they have been for as long as I’ve been involved.
Just to close out that topic. Do you feel like you have any clarity at this point from the DOJ or from the administration? Like, whether there are any other rules you feel like should be changed or they want to be changed so that you can remove that cloud — or so the industry could remove the cloud for itself?
So not having any conversation or in-depth conversation at this point, the short answer is no. But if you look at what’s happened in the first six months of the administration, the Department of Justice in the Nosalek case, the PIN case in Boston, apparently seemed to be satisfied with the settlement. And the terms of the settlement pretty much mirrored the Sitzer | Burnett case.
And I do know that the [Civil Investigative Demands or CIDs] have been lifted off of some of the MLSs that received them over the past year to 18 months about the commingling rules. So are we getting a little more clarity? Is there going to be a change in approach and priorities? Maybe. But until we actually meet and have conversations, I’m not one to speculate on what that would be or what that would look like.
I will just say I’m cautiously optimistic and I do look forward to the opportunity to be able to have those conversations if permitted.
You’re the longest serving NAR president in at least 100 years. How would you rate your term so far?
In college undergrad, I was a history major. What I’ll tell you based on what I learned there, me judging my tenure as president is irrelevant. There are others that can do that.
You know, history will be able to show what was accomplished in 2024 and in 2025. With that said, I’ll just tell you, it’s been an honor to be able to serve the association, and to do the hard work that needed to be done and to help NAR position itself and chart the course for the next 100 years.
Any highlights from this year and a half that come to mind that you’re most proud of?
Several highlights for sure. Being able to represent our 1.4 million to 1.5 million Realtor members, not once but twice with the Department of Justice. That’s certainly the highlight because, at least in the past decade or 15 years, we haven’t had sitting leadership meet with the Department of Justice. And we had several members of the leadership team there. So that was a highlight.
Having Nykia agree to stay on as our permanent CEO was certainly a highlight. Being able to work with our finance committee and budget committee, being able to provide to the directors two years in a row a balanced budget, that’s a highlight.
There’s a very simple question that I ask myself and sometimes say it out loud for the people that have to vote on something: Is this the best thing for the members? And I can honestly say that the hard decisions become easy when you realize it’s the best thing for the members. I think that we’ve done well by the vast majority of the membership over the past year and a half.
