Turns out, the view from the top of the National Association of Realtors isn’t too shabby.
After taking up their posts, executives and high-ranking leaders at the nation’s largest trade group snagged a suite of perks, including tickets to Broadway shows, first-class flights and lavish dinners with $300 bottles of wine, according to an investigation by the New York Times.
The report, based on interviews with employees along with tax documents and internal records, details a pattern of what experts described as excessive spending that has long raised eyebrows among nonprofit watchdogs. Experts told the outlet the group’s spending could potentially violate tax laws barring nonprofit employees and leaders from using funds for their own benefit.
“It is highly unusual — I would even say virtually unheard-of — for volunteer leaders and officers to receive compensation at those levels,” nonprofit lawyer Jeff Tenenbaum told the outlet. “Many of us who practice association antitrust law have always wondered, How can they get away with this?”
When former CEO Bob Goldberg took over in 2017, his new post came with a $1.2 million salary, $1,500 monthly car allowance and $2,250 a month to pay for utilities at his Chicago pied-a-terre. NAR also agreed to pay membership dues for private clubs in Chicago and Washington and a pet sitter for his dogs while he traveled.
Elected leadership roles, classified by the group as volunteer positions, came with annual six-figure payments and corporate cards and travel expenses that included costly dinners, golf outings and spa treatments. The organization’s most recent tax records show the president received more than $400,000 in 2022, while the president-elect took home $265,000.
Mantill Williams, a spokesperson for NAR, defended the group’s spending to the Times, stating that the payments to elected officers were designed to offset the commissions they may have earned had they not been occupied by their leadership role.
Officers “raise their hands to serve the industry,” Williams said and added that the position “requires a substantial time commitment, personal sacrifice and significant travel.”
Two former employees told the Times they recalled just one instance where the organization tried to crack down on spending. When the Broadway hit “Hamilton” opened in 2015, NAR leaders in town for a conference bought so many tickets for themselves and their families that the organization upped its expense monitoring and pushed back against spending on relatives.
News of NAR’s compensation policies comes as the 1.5 million-member organization is battling a crisis of confidence following sexual harassment allegations against former leaders, executive turnover and a mountain of antitrust lawsuits over its commission-sharing practices.
Earlier this year, the organization agreed to pay $418 million to settle the lawsuits, in addition to implementing rule changes preventing members from offering commissions to buyers agents on multiple listing services and requiring agents to obtain signed contracts from buyers before touring homes.
The group is also facing three lawsuits challenging its rule requiring members to belong to its local, state and national chapters. The complaints, filed in Michigan, Pennsylvania and California, include similar arguments, including that the association is using “forced membership” to violate antitrust laws.
Williams, NAR’s spokesperson, told the Times that the three-tiered membership structure allows members “access to localized resources like trainings and detailed market research while also benefiting from a national voice, a unified advocacy platform and, most importantly, a single code of ethics.”
— Sheridan Wall
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