January 12, 2024

Many of you are aware of ― and concerned ― about the resignation of NAR President Tracy Kasper and the circumstances which led to her resignation. This news is extremely upsetting to all of us as a community, and we too are learning about all this at the same time as you are.

NAR’s Leadership Team is deeply concerned about any attempt to undermine its governance and is taking steps to protect the integrity of the organization. As we have always maintained, we are keeping you informed as we have information.

I want to let you know that C.A.R. has strong policies and bylaws in place to address concerns for improper behavior and maintain our high ethical standards, particularly for leadership. For many years, our directors have been asked to commit to our policies on conflicts of interest, appropriate conduct, and harassment, and they are required to sign this commitment annually. In addition, we expect all REALTORS® ― particularly those in leadership at both the state and local levels ― to have high professional and ethical standards as well as good governance of our associations. 

To reinforce this commitment, we are further implementing processes to remove or suspend any REALTOR® in our governance structure who behaves inappropriately, whether at the Directors meetings, at the local governance level, or in their professional life. Conduct ― whether at a meeting or during professional activities ― makes a difference. We must lead by example. We hope we never have to use these processes, but we will not hesitate if necessary to uphold our reputation, and high ethical and professional standards. 

On the legal front, as you are no doubt hearing, many class actions continue to be filed on claims we believe are groundless, particularly in California. Just recently, NAR and others have sought to revisit the rulings in the Midwest by requesting a new trial in these cases, and the courts take a long time to resolve cases of this sort.

We are mindful of copycat lawsuits with spurious claims that NAR’s Code of Ethics and MLS rules harm the public. We disagree, but we will always seek to improve where there is room to do so. As to the plaintiff’s claim they didn’t know about shared compensation, for more than two decades in California, listing contracts have included a prompt that explains how much is being paid to the cooperating broker.

The buyer representation agreement continues to make clear the options regarding compensation terms and the scope of representation to the buyer when the forms are used. While we believe the unilateral offer of compensation is lawful, and fully negotiated, we will continue to make sure that consumers ― buyers and sellers ― get the best service we can give, and they fully understand the options they have for all fees, commissions and financial structures in their real estate transactions.

We will fight for our reputations as required, and we will continue to demonstrate our value as a trade association committed to fostering the highest ethics and standards of practice for all our members, and in the public’s best interests. We will fight for housing and more supply. We will fight to eliminate what makes homeownership less possible. We will unapologetically serve our clients with the professional advice that has long made us the trusted advisors we have been, and always will be, for consumers.

This is my commitment to you as your President, and to the industry I love.

Thank you,

Melanie Barker
C.A.R. President