NAR is ‘not in the business anymore of creating chaos,’ CEO says 

ORLANDO — The National Association of Realtors has made a lot of changes since Nykia Wright first stepped into the CEO role in late 2023 — but she knows there's plenty more to be done.

When she joined the organization, it was facing a wave of litigation, sexual misconduct allegations, resignations by top leaders and more. "We were superb at being an equal opportunity offender," Wright told real estate executives at the 2026 T3 Leadership Summit.

NAR has since made leadership and staffing transformations, rolled out a three-year strategic plan — which is "on pace" — and maintained a relatively steady membership count over the past year, with Wright on April 23 reporting 1.412 million members (down slightly from 1.491 million last fall).

"But that's just the beginning," Wright said of the turnaround. "We still have a long way to go."

NAR's derisking push: The commissions lawsuits that originated in the early 2020s, including Sitzer/Burnett and Moehrl, were "from an era of different leadership, of different partnership, of a different view of the world — a laziness that NAR brought to the conversation," Wright said.

But NAR is "not in the business anymore of creating chaos," Wright said. The association has brought in antitrust legal experts and is focusing on derisking — shifts aimed at preventing new waves of litigation from popping up.

"There are those who have assumed that because NAR is derisking, that automatically means that we are passing risk on to others — that is but one view," Wright said. "Another view is, a lot of people are sort of taking the bull by the horns to ensure that, in a partnership, that they are looking out for themselves."

The future of the three-way agreement: NAR has largely triumphed in litigation pertaining to rules requiring an agent to be a member of NAR as well as their local and state associations.

In the past, NAR wasn't "managing those relationships the way that we should have," Wright said, but looking ahead, she believes the three-way agreement "will be stronger than ever."

"When we really do our jobs, when everyone understands your line of demarcation and when communication flows, the three-way agreement really is one of the most important authoritative assets that we have."

What does NAR look like 2-3 years from now? After traveling the country in pursuit of member feedback — listening tours that "weren't easy" but were "important" — Wright said NAR is focused on improving transparency for members, embracing zero-based budgeting and sunsetting committees "that have outlived their useful life."

Though hopeful about NAR's future, Wright isn't downplaying the difficult journey she knows will be required to get there.

"I think we'll be a much stronger organization — but it will be because we took our lumps."