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In 2024, the compensation packages of executives at the National Association of Realtors (NAR) came under scrutiny. Although nearly a year has passed since the initial New York Times expose, members of the Pro-Agent Restore Trust in NAR Working Group have not forgotten some of the lavish perks their membership dues help pay for. As the trade group makes a renewed effort to focus on transparency, the working group is demanding answers about NAR’s financial expenditures and balance sheet.
“When you look at their Form 990, on tax indemnification and gross-up payments, the box is checked. In other words, NAR is helping its leaders pay their taxes. Do brokers help their agents pay their taxes? No,” said Dan Duffy, the CEO of United Real Estate Group and the appointed spokesperson for the otherwise anonymous 15-member working group. “The compensation committee is worthless.”
The working group, which was first formed this past spring, is pushing for a variety of reforms within NAR, who, for its part, has made a public commitment to improve transparency. One major area of focus for the working group is NAR’s financial situation, and as part of these efforts, the working group has proposed new standards for reporting what monies NAR collects and how it is spent, including salaries, fringe benefits and programs like Second Century Ventures.
Where’s the money?
Central to the working group’s push for change is the fact that NAR has yet to publish its 2024 Form 990.
“Of the largest nonprofits, they are one of the few that have yet to file. They almost always file at the very last possible extension,” Duffy said. “It is embarrassing. No financial information is released to members about the prior year until 10 and a half months into the next year.”
In contrast, the Mortgage Bankers Association filed their 2024 Form 990 in August, and Feeding America, one of the nation’s largest nonprofits filed their 2024 financial disclosure back in April 2025.
NAR has told the working group that its 2025 From 990 will be filed by mid-November, and Duffy said he and the rest of the group are eagerly waiting for the form to show up on ProPublica, especially after 2024’s disclosure exposed many things working groups members were unhappy with.
Expensive leadership perks
Some of these items included perks received by NAR’s former CEO Bob Goldberg, who stepped down as CEO in November 2023. In addition to his $2.6 million salary, Goldberg’s contract entitled him to things like memberships to exclusive country clubs, first-class airfare for personal travel, expensive car allowances, money for his dog to travel with him and even tickets to “Hamilton” at the height of the musical’s popularity.
“Should we be paying severance to a former president that got let go for the wrong reasons?” Duffy asked, referencing the 2023 Form 990. “I don’t know.”
According to Duffy, by filing their form so late into the year, the trade group is setting itself up for a built-in excuse.
“They just say ‘Oh, you’re talking about old stuff. We’ve already fixed that. Don’t worry,’” Duffy said. “Becuase they file it so late, it is like you are always chasing a shadow.”
Need more info about the venture capital arm
One thing the group would love to see on the Form 990 is more information about Second Century Ventures, NAR’s venture capital arm.
“Where is the money?” Duffy asked. “There is no other organization of this many people or any venture firm that gives almost exclusive access to 1.5 million people to a portfolio of top-tech companies. It should be costing them tens of millions of dollars of marketing access fees or carried interest through warrants that would show up in the cash flow of the association.”
As Duffy sees it, income from the investments NAR makes into companies backed by Second Century Ventures should show up on NAR’s balance sheet either through the sale of the investment or in fees the start-ups pay to gain access to NAR members and their information. This is a change the working group is pushing for.
A need for independent directors
Similarly to many of the issues the working group currently has with NAR, Duffy said the organization’s financial transparency woes could be ameliorated by the inclusion of independent directors on the leadership team.
“The independent members would study compensation packages and look at how competitive and appropriate they are,” Duffy said. “The compensation committee is all made up of non-independent directors, who all got there by toeing the line. It is just a formality.”
In addition to the stricter review of compensation packages, the working group also hopes independent directors would help NAR slim down its balance sheet, which they say makes the organization a target for lawsuits. At the end of 2023, even after expenses incurred during the Stizer/Burnett trial, NAR’s Form 990 showed a total of over $363 million in net assets and a net income of over $39 million.
“That is a lot of money and it puts a target on them for class-action attorneys, especially since they’ve proven that they are not very good at defending themselves,” Duffy said. “If that number in net assets was $10 million, not a single class-action attorney would pick up a pencil and try to come after us.”
This isn’t an attack, says Duffy
While Duffy acknowledged that it does feel a bit like the working group is attacking NAR, he said that is not the case.
“We are here to be accretive to the process of making changes that are going to be uncomfortable and definitely be different than the way things were done in the past,” Duffy said. “That is why we are here.”
For its part, NAR said it has had “productive conversations with this group” and looks “forward to continuing [its] conversations in the future.”
“While NAR will respect the privacy and confidentiality of these conversations and correspondence, we appreciate that industry leaders are, as they said, genuinely interested in being positive contributors to the process that NAR and its leadership team are undertaking to restore trust in NAR,” a NAR spokesperson wrote in an email.
