NAR touts early progress on strategic plan ‘built for action’ 

The National Association of Realtors is making progress on several initiatives laid out in its three-year strategic plan — a bold roadmap aimed at modernizing the organization and transforming the member experience — according to a statement released on Tuesday.

NAR said it has already started tackling two-thirds of the roughly 75 projects in the plan, pointing to small wins around affordable housing, the Realtor brand and broker relationships.

"This plan was built for action," NAR CEO Nyia Wright said. "Rebuilding trust requires more than words — it requires visible progress. That's why we're committed to sharing clear, regular updates that show members how this work is making a real difference."

NAR President Kevin Brown added that the association's members are "actively shaping this work."

These are a few of the notable moves NAR highlighted in its Q1 report:

Affordable housing advocacy: In its progress update, NAR praised the Senate's passing of the 21st Century Road to Housing Act as a win for affordable housing, noting that the association's consumer sentiment research helped to move the bill forward.

During the first quarter, NAR also launched the Building Better Communities landing page to capture state and local Realtor association accomplishments related to zoning reform and more. NAR said this was achievable in part due to the association's three-way structure — something that has come under fire in recent years.

Elevating the Realtor brand: The association highlighted its recent efforts to revitalize the Realtor brand — one of the nine pillars laid out in the three-year plan — as well as the industry's reputation through a consumer ad campaign that showed Realtors as professionals who do "more than opening doors."

NAR noted that it launched an inter-departmental brand protection team during Q1 focused on preventing misuse and coordinating branding across platforms and audiences. The organization hired an intellectual property attorney last July to lead brand-preservation efforts. 

Strengthening brokerage relationships: In 2025, NAR focused on gathering feedback from the country's biggest brokerages — and in 2026, the association will apply those learnings as part of a yearlong broker engagement initiative with over 35 live events across 21 states and more than 7,000 in-person and virtual touchpoints across all types of firms. 

NAR also developed smallbroker.realtor in Q1, a website geared at smaller brokerages, and created resources like sales meeting playbooks and a broker AI template for firms of all sizes to access.

The moves align with a key tenet of NAR's Jan. 2026 annual report, which emphasized the central role brokers play in the industry, and build on the brokerage outreach efforts initiated last year by NAR Special Advisor Sherry Chris. 

Bolstering MLS collaboration: To strengthen ties with MLSs, NAR said it had relaunched and restructured the MLS Executive Advisory Group so that the association can get direct feedback from a tailored group of MLS executives. 

With the new advisory group, the association hopes to get more real-time feedback on how they can support MLSLs through policy decisions and advocacy efforts.

NAR also launched two new resources for MLSs and their participants as the conversation around pre-marketing continues to flow: an "assessing 'coming soon' listings checklist" and a "things to consider when assessing 'coming soon' listings FAQ."

Designing governance for the future: NAR highlighted "expertise"-focused changes to its committee application process, and noted that it had reviewed 95 of its committees, councils and advisory boards to better align with strategic priorities and reduce redundancies, resulting in the sunsetting of eight committees. 

On deck for Q2: In the next quarter, NAR said it will focus on improving education platforms, bolstering advocacy efforts and strengthening collaboration between state and local associations and MLSs even further to achieve "member-driven decisions."