Kevin Sears won’t grade his term. That’s for others to decide.
His term as the longest-serving president of the nation’s biggest trade organization comes to a close in a week, when he’ll hand the reins to Kevin Brown as the incoming president of the National Association of Realtors.
Sears helped lead NAR during what he called “one of the biggest issues and threats that we have faced in —.”
He paused, deciding not to define how long.
In 2024, Sears became the third NAR president in four months as the organization lumbered through internal struggles, a jury verdict that upended the real estate industry, and negotiations leading to a settlement that would cost the group $418 million.
Sears’ term will end after the upcoming NAR NXT real estate conference in Houston. He opened up in an exclusive interview with Inman this week about living on the road and making in-roads with the Department of Justice. And he responded to questions about major policy changes that took place during his term.
What follows is a version of Inman’s conversation with Sears that has been edited for length and clarity.
There was a report recently pointing out that there’s no apparent enforcement mechanism for buyer representation agreements to be signed before agents give tours with prospective clients. And I know that firsthand. Is that a gap that you guys have seen, and is there something that needs to be done about it?
Well, the enforcement mechanism is through the MLSs.
How do they track that?
It’s the same thing if I have a listing. If I put a listing on the MLS, I’m supposed to have a contract.
But how do they follow if you’re the buyer agent? I mean, I guess they can track through the lockbox, maybe, who’s touring properties?
It’s not an enforcement thing for the National Association of Realtors, Taylor. That’s not what part of the agreement was.
So it’s on the MLSs to figure out how to track whether that’s being followed?
Listen, I know my MLS. At different times, they’ll audit you for different documents, and that would just be a similar type thing if they’re going to do that. But you talked about you going in to see a property. Did you go in with the listing agent? If you go in with the listing agent, you don’t have to sign a buyer rep agreement.
Which has been handy. I’ve done that. And then I’ve done it with buyer agents as well from various brokerages. I’m shopping for houses. I’m not doing a gotcha thing.
Then the other question is, I don’t know what market that you’re looking at. You could be working with a licensee who’s not a Realtor. And this is part of the problem as well, is that out of the 1.475 million Realtor members, there’s almost the same number of real estate licensees across the country. So what we need is we need state laws.
Half of the states that don’t have buyer rep agreements as part of the law, statute or regulation, they need to catch up with that so that all licensees will be required to do it, and the consumer will then experience that across the way, whether you’re working with a real estate licensee, a practitioner, or a Realtor. So I haven’t witnessed that happening, Taylor.
I’m not going to say it doesn’t. I’ve only heard one anecdote about that. And it’s being dealt with at the state level.
Has there been any progress on the DOJ, with the Trump administration, any change in the weather in how they’re approaching the industry?
The short answer is, no. There’s a little bit of a longer answer.
Shannon McGann and her staff have been meeting with all sorts of different elected officials and regulatory officials. But I have not heard anything from our general counsel about a meeting, proposed or otherwise, with the Department of Justice.
There’s a little bit of being cautiously optimistic with the Department of Justice. The reality is that the last settlement that we had with the Department of Justice was under Trump’s first administration.
The reason that I’m cautiously optimistic is when you look at just two facts about what’s happened this year. The first is the Nosalek MLS PIN case in Boston, which mirrored the Sitzer | Burnett case, which the previous administrative Department of Justice had some issues with. This Department of Justice was fine with it, right?
So maybe we’re on the right track. And then the second thing is with the civil investigative demands, the CIDs that were sent out over the commingling rule. Those have been, for the most part, withdrawn from the locals and the MLSs that received them.
At the end of the day, what we need to make sure we do is show everybody that we as Realtors are pro-consumer, that we want to protect the consumer, that we are going to be a trusted advisor. And we’re going to show them the value and the expertise that we bring. We’re going to be pro-consumer.
I was talking to somebody last week about just how much of a powerhouse NAR is in Congress. Can you talk about some of the recent wins during your term?
Absolutely. Last year, part of the settlement agreement was that Realtors would have buyers sign written representative agreements that would have hurt VA buyers because veterans, if they’re taking advantage of their VA benefit, wouldn’t be able to. And we were able to get the administration to make the change so that veterans could have buyer representation.
Really the biggest thing was the tax bill that was signed into law on July 4. There are approximately 20 items in there that were of importance to Realtors or property owners. And our top five tax issues were part of that bill. You know, with the preservation of a 1031 lifetime exchange and mortgage interest deduction, the 199A business deduction.
Keeping the tax rate at the lower amount for personal income.
One area we’re still working on is we’re trying to increase the capital gains exemption on primary residence. That exemption was put in place in 1997, where at that point, I would guess 99.999% of people would have been protected by that. And so, you know, we’re currently looking to see if we can get us to $500,000 and $1 million.
Trump tweeted this weekend about the 50-year mortgage. Do you have any thoughts on the idea of creating a 50-year mortgage?
On behalf of the National Association of Realtors, I don’t. As a practitioner I’d say it’s a band-aid on the wound.
What we need is more inventory. More inventory will make housing more affordable. Lower interest rates will make housing more affordable.
But if this is a tool in the toolbox, fine. But it’s not going to be the end-all, be-all. It’s not going to solve the problem.
Kevin, I was going to finish with a softie for you. I want to know, after two years — you’re the longest serving NAR president in over a century — how do you think your term is going to be remembered?
That’s not for me to determine. That’s for others to determine. I look at it this way. There’s a job to do. I’m going to do the job, until I’m told that I’m done, which will be at noon on Nov. 18.
But, you know, I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done over the last almost two years, guiding the association through, you know, what could be one of the biggest issues and threats that we have faced in, I don’t know, however long.
But then just being able to, with [NAR CEO Nykia Wright’s] help, with her becoming the permanent CEO, just offer a little bit of calm and stability to the industry, to the association, for our members. I’m very, very proud of being able to have been part of the team to help do that, because at the end of the day, what we recognize is that a strong NAR is good for American consumers.
What are you going to do now? It seems like you’re like entering retirement in a way. What are you going to do with your time? Are you just going back to selling houses or what?
I’ll still be on the leadership team next year. So there will still be a certain amount of travel that’s expected and required. But yeah, I’m definitely going to take a few weeks off after NXT and decompress, work on losing a few pounds.
