Why NAR's President Says Pocket Listings Are a Step Backward

“You cannot tell me pre-selecting a group of buyers for a seller is more valuable, is better than putting the property on the market and giving it full exposure.”

That’s Kevin Brown, the 2026 President of the National Association of REALTORS®, sitting across from Dave Richards and me. When we got to private listing networks, Kevin stopped sounding like a president and started sounding like an agent who grew up in this business.

I ran into Kevin in a hotel lobby in Manhattan back in January, right as his term was starting. He handed me his card on the spot. It took eight months to line up, and it was worth the wait. If you’ve been wondering where NAR stands, what’s coming for pocket listings, and whether this business is going to be okay for the everyday agent, this one’s for you.

Watch or Listen to the Full Episode

Pocket Listings and Fair Housing: “It Feels Like Redlining”

Here’s where I stand, and I told Kevin to correct me if I was wrong.

Every listing is private until it’s not. If I’m the only one who knows a house is about to come up, it’s private.

The problem shows up when someone puts a gate on the listing. If I control access, and Dave wants to see that home, and the only way he can see it is through me, we’ve got a fair housing problem. I said it on the show and I’ll say it here: it feels like redlining in the 1960s all over again.

Kevin didn’t hedge. He said there are members right now who are being misled about this. “The wool is being pulled over their eyes,” he said. “It’s a real concern.”

He also told a story about a friend who bought a home in an exclusive area in California. The house had just come on with a brokerage, and the agent called the next day saying ten people from their office were about to make offers before it ever hit the open market. Make an offer now or lose it. His friend went all in and got the house.

Here’s how Kevin put it: “That’s the kind of thing that precludes the rest of the marketplace, whether it be minorities or other buyers or whomever from even seeing or knowing that that house came on the market.”

That’s the part I hope you hear. A pocket listing doesn’t just limit buyers. It decides which buyers. And it only takes one family saying, “You didn’t show that home to me, and here’s why,” to land all of us right back in a courtroom.

His Parents Had to Get Creative Just to Buy a Home

When I brought up redlining, Kevin got personal.

“My parents went through redlining. My parents went through CC&Rs and so they had to really get creative in order to buy their first house.”

They found a lot in an area with CC&Rs that prohibited Black families and other minorities from buying there. The lot was in foreclosure. They did the deal quietly, nobody opposed the sale, and they built their own house on it. That’s how the Brown family got into the market.

Then he said the line that’s stuck with me since we recorded:

“It really does seem like we’re moving backwards. We’re not moving forwards. And I think that people need to pay attention to this.”

The man running the largest trade association in the country is one generation removed from a family that had to work around discriminatory rules to own a home. When he says open marketing matters, he’s not talking theory.

Kevin made the bigger point too. “We’ve created this incredible, incredible marketplace that has worked for everybody that is based on cooperation.” Lose the cooperation, and you lose the transparency that makes the whole system work.

The Bill That Could Unlock Inventory

Most of us aren’t short on effort right now. We’re short on inventory.

Kevin explained why. A lot of homeowners are locked in. In his words, they “either have a low interest rate or they either can’t pay or don’t want to pay the capital gains tax.”

That’s where the More Homes on the Market Act comes in. NAR is backing it, it’s bipartisan, and Kevin said it has real movement in Congress. Here’s what it does:

• Single filers: doubles the capital gains exclusion from $250,000 to $500,000.
• Married couples filing jointly: doubles it from $500,000 to $1 million.

“We think that’s going to be the trigger that will put a tremendous amount of inventory on the market,” Kevin said.

Think about your own database. How many of your past clients bought 20 or 30 years ago and are sitting on a mountain of equity they don’t want to hand over in taxes? That’s not a lead problem. That’s a policy problem, and policy can change.

So here’s my ask. If you have the ability to meet with or write to your lawmakers, do it. And talk about it with your clients and on your social channels. When the consumer hears this from us instead of from the news, we’re all pulling in the same direction.

Kevin also shared how hard this stuff is to move. The housing bill NAR helped pass recently took two and a half years and over 10,000 meetings with Congress. “It is a real grind,” he said. We’re not the only ones grinding.

A Different NAR: Listening, Transparency, and a New Legal Strategy

A lot of agents I talk to have felt disconnected from NAR. Kevin owned that.

“One of the things that we kind of forgot about years ago is listening to our members and especially listening to brokers.”

So they went and listened. They needed about 20,000 responses for their member survey and got 150,000. They met with 40 of the biggest brokers in the country, representing about 750,000 agents. Out of that came a strategic plan with two pillars: rebuilding member experience and modernizing the association. And they now report progress back to members every quarter.

Dave asked Kevin what surprised him most through all that listening. His answer: a lot of members and brokers don’t understand what NAR actually does. “A lot of our members think lobbying is like writing a letter to Congress. That’s not what lobbying is.”

The legal side changed too. When Kevin stepped into leadership, NAR was involved in 24 lawsuits. With a new chief legal counsel, three more attorneys, and a new legal strategy, they either won or had 11 of those dismissed last year, and another four this year. It also means they’re not paying a $1,500-an-hour attorney every time a complaint comes in.

When I asked Kevin what the next NAR president should go all in on, he didn’t hesitate. “We’re listening to the members now.” “This is a member centric organization. It hasn’t always been, but it is now.”

“Data Is Not Knowledge”

Dave asked the question I wanted every agent to hear answered: if Kevin sat down for coffee with an agent doing four to ten deals a year, what would he tell them to stop wasting time on?

First, the focus. Kevin said agents need to embrace what’s changing with data and AI, because the public is going to have access to more information than ever. But there’s a catch.

“Data is not knowledge.”

The knowledge comes when you mix that data with an agent who is a skilled negotiator, a facilitator, a counselor, an advisor. Someone who can put it into perspective. That’s always been the job.

Kevin was clear that you can’t automate your way out of it. “This is a people business.” For most consumers, this is the largest financial transaction they’ll make in their lifetime. They need someone they trust sitting next to them.

Now, the time wasters. “I think some agents are wasting their time on social media listening to certain people trying to influence them to go a certain direction.” His advice instead: go to facts.realtor and learn the actual facts.

He said what keeps him up at night is how members are being influenced. “I hope that our members are taking a broad look at everything instead of just a myopic look at just a few things that are happening within the industry.”

That’s Focus. The 13% don’t chase every loud voice in their feed. They find out what’s true and get back to work.

To the Agent Doing Fewer Deals: “It Is Going to Be Okay”

I had to ask this one. NAR’s own data shows a lot of agents doing very few transactions right now, or none at all. Rates, inventory, all the stuff you can’t control. So what does the president of NAR say to that agent?

“Yeah, it is going to be okay.”

Then he backed it up: more inventory is the goal, the capital gains push is the next big piece, and NAR is tackling what keeps agents from their next transaction, like finance, insurance, zoning, and affordability.

And here’s something I loved. Even as NAR President, Kevin still does around five deals this year, mostly for existing clients.

He also shared the first piece of advice his father gave him on day one in the family business: “You can earn a tremendous career in real estate, but you’re going to retire off your investments.” Kevin listened, teamed up with his brother, and bought investment property before he even bought his own home.

That’s the long game. Production fluctuates. Standards should not. A slow year doesn’t mean you picked the wrong career. It means you’ve got a season to sharpen your knowledge, protect your relationships, and build toward something bigger than the next closing.

Your Next Move

You can’t control the market. You can’t control Congress. But you can control what you know and who hears it from you.

So here’s one thing to do today: pull up your database and find five past clients who bought more than ten years ago. Call them. Not to sell anything. Just check in, ask how they’re doing, and let them know there’s legislation in motion that could change their situation if they’ve been thinking about moving. Be the person they hear it from first.

If you want a system for building that kind of consistency week after week, grab the free 13% Cheat Sheet. It gives you one 10-minute move for each FIRE burner, so you can get a win today. And if you haven’t read the book yet, grab The 13% here.

Catch my full conversation with Kevin and Dave on The 13% Podcast YouTube channel.

It’s going to be okay. Keep grinding.

Lance