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With the deadline for the business practice changes outlined in National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) nationwide commission lawsuit settlement agreement just days away, the trade group’s interim CEO sat down for a conversation with James Dwiggins and Keith Robinson, the CEO and CSO of NextHome, on the duo’s podcast Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered podcast.
While the conversation was wide-ranging, the commission lawsuits and NAR’s settlement was a central theme, as it has been for Wright’s first seven months at NAR.
In discussing NAR’s decision to settle the commission lawsuits after a jury found NAR, Keller Williams and HomeServices of America liable for colluding to artificially inflate agent commissions, Wright said it was “unequivocally” the right decision.
“We have to understand what we were faced with. It’s not like we had an entire option set. Of the options that we were given, this was the path that made the most sense for us. Now, that said, we are not resting on our laurels,” Wright said.
She also acknowledged that some members are upset by the terms of the settlement, especially those who were excluded from its protections as it only protects firms who did under $2 billion in sales volume in 2022. As a result of this, Wright said she and the rest of NAR’s leadership team are aware that some professionals have left the trade group.
“Some people will take a while and some people may never come back,” Wright said, “but we are not going to count the day before evening and assume that that’s true.”
Wright said a primary focus of the trade association has been working to try and win back some of these members.
“There’s a saying, ‘listen to the whispers so you don’t have to hear the screams,’” Wright said. “So the whispers of people wanting to leave is where we put our head on a swivel, get out there and start figuring out how we can bring those people back into the fold.”
Part of this effort has been working on how NAR communicates its value proposition and finding ways it can better serve the variety of professionals and companies who make up the industry.
“We do have a list of items, but it really depends upon where you are in your member journey to really understand what the value proposition means to you. I’ve argued that someone that is just entering the industry could look at a list of benefits and see some economic factors and understand that as you move and get more sophisticated in your business model the value proposition really becomes, ‘How can I find the white space in this body of rules to help me compete against my competitors and really show my shareholders value?’” Wright said. “And so that escalation, that spectrum, is how we are beginning to segment the market so that when we are talking to specific audiences, it’s not always here’s our list of things that we offer but it really is where they are in their journey.”
Long-term Wright said she would like to see NAR as the “preeminent trade organization across the world,” not based on the number of members it has, but on how the group shows up for those members. However, she feels the trade group will not be able to effectively show up for its membership if industry professionals don’t “lean in” and engage with the trade group ensuring that their voices and concerns heard in this pivotal moment.
“When people are leaning out right now, it concerns me a little bit because their voice is not part of a future solution,” Wright said. “Being in business for yourself but not by yourself, when you leave the association, I consider [leaning out] going into the ‘by yourself’ type of box. And I think that we are truly stronger together, and we just have to continue to prove that.”
“I understand that people are frustrated with things, but bring those frustrations in-house so that we can be the best organization that we can be,” Wright said. “Because we’re confusing consumers, we’re confusing plaintiffs’ attorneys, we’re confusing the Department of Justice, we’re confusing all of these people based on how many followers we have and how many users we have.”
By hearing more member concerns, NAR would be better able to serve its role as an advocate for the real estate industry in Washington.
“Our people in Congress are human,” Wright said. “They are experts in some things and not experts in others. It is our job to educate them on behalf of Realtors and the American consumer. And so when you think about the consistent changes that are occurring in the market, it’s super important that we are informing people to help them understand what it would mean to really disrupt this model.”
Although Wright does not have a background as a real estate professional, she believes she is uniquely qualified to lead NAR in the present moment.
“I probably was not built for yesterday and who knows what I’m built for in the future,” Wright said. “But right now, it makes sense based upon my background.”
Originally from Atlanta, Wright studied finance at Carnegie Mellon University. Upon graduation she moved to Europe to study international business at the University of Cambridge before returning to the U.S. and getting her MBA degree at Dartmouth.
According to Wright, her work as a consultant for private and public companies, including some real estate firms she did not name, which she described as being a “business doctor,” and her five-year tenure at the Chicago Sun Times, gave her experience guiding firms in industries experiencing frequent disruption.
“The last consulting firm that I was part of, there was a sign at the front door; it was six feet tall by about three feet wide,” Wright said. “The sign said, ‘While you are reading this, your business model is being disrupted.’ That helped us understand and develop a discipline for when we were helping our clients.”
Wright has faced criticism from some over her lack of direct experience in the real estate industry, however she believes that her skills and business background make her a complementary leadership partner to President Kevin Sears, who comes from family of a real estate professionals.
“One additional person having a real estate background is not going to move the needle,” Wright said. “But if you’ve got someone with decades of real estate experience and someone with decades of experience … outside of the real estate industry but having adjacent experience, that is a really, really powerful thing.”
Wright was named as interim CEO after long-time CEO Bob Goldberg retired over a year earlier than planned. She did not confirm if she would stay on at the trade group after her contract ran out at the end of the year.
“I will say that I will not change anything as it relates to how my life has been designed,” Wright said. “I bloom where I’ve been planted, and I let the universe take care of the rest of the details.”
