NAR hate speech policy poised for disruption under Texas Senate bill

by | Apr 29, 2025 | Industry, News Feed

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A bill currently under consideration in the Texas Senate may threaten the existence of the National Association of Realtors’ speech code in the state.

Senate Bill 2713, first introduced to the Texas Senate on March 13, 2025 by Senator Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston), proposes that trade organizations within the state be prohibited from denying anyone membership in their organization due to race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status or national origin, or “because of the person’s exercise of the person’s freedom of speech or assembly, notwithstanding any provision of the association’s or organization’s bylaws.”

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SB 2713 also states that someone who is aggrieved by a violation of the bill may bring action against the trade organization for damages, which might include court costs and attorney fees.

The bill is currently pending with the Senate committee.

A committee hearing to discuss the bill that took place on Monday showed legislators responding positively to the bill. Likewise, Texas Association of Realtors Director of Public Policy Julia Parenteau and Chief Operating Officer David Jones said during the hearing that the association is neutral to the bill’s proposal.

Individuals who testified in favor of the bill during the hearing included current or former real estate professionals Brian Talley, Brandon Huber, Chad DeVries, Wilson Fauber and Jamie Haynes — all of whom had received complaints in the past in relation to their expression of free speech and its alleged violation of the Realtor Code of Ethics, and who said their careers had been negatively impacted by those complaints.

“Across Texas, individuals are being potentially shut out of their own professional communities for nothing more than expressing their views on social media or in public forums,” Sen. Middleton said during the hearing.

“Senate Bill 2713 ensures that no Texan will be denied membership or access in professional or trade associations because of their race, religion, sex or disability, which is already law, but also because of their constitutional protected right to speak and freely assemble. In other words, this bill reaffirms that your ability to work and practice your trade in Texas does not depend on your political or religious beliefs or who you associate with.

“This bill closes the door on ideological discrimination by trade organizations. It remembers the first amendment does not end when you clock in, and yet too many Texans today find themselves faced by adverse action and forced to choose between staying silent or risking expulsion from their trade industry.”

If passed, the new law would take effect on Sept. 1, 2025, and would impact the execution of NAR’s Standard of Practice 10-5 in the state, as well as other similar guidelines laid out by other professional associations in different industries in Texas. The bill does not mention NAR or any other professional organization by name, but just mentions “professional or trade association[s] or organization[s]” more generally.

NAR and the Texas Association of Realtors did not immediately provide a comment for this story.

NAR’s speech code under Article 10 of the Code of Ethics stipulates that Realtors “must not use harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.”

In order to qualify as a violation of the code, an individual’s speech must first be determined to be “harassing, hate speech, epithets, or slurs,” and secondly, must be speech based on one of the protected designations mentioned. In updated guidelines released in Nov. 2020, NAR explained that the standard of practice was intended to “not deny equal professional services or be parties to a plan to discriminate.”

“Specifically, bias against protected classes revealed through the public posting of hate speech could result in Realtors not taking clients from certain protected classes or not treating them equally, which would lead to violations of the Fair Housing Act due to overt discrimination or disparate impact,” NAR’s guidance elaborates.

Real estate blogger Rob Hahn listened to the committee hearing on Monday and distilled his takeaways in a post on his blog, NotoriousROB.

“From what I saw during that committee hearing, this bill will sail through Committee,” Hahn wrote. “The Texas Senate is 20 Republicans and 11 Democrats; it will pass there. The Texas House is 88 Republicans and 62 Democrats; it will pass there. There is little likelihood that Greg Abbott will not sign it into law.

“What’s more, the Texas Association of Realtors got on the record saying that they would not oppose it.

“The deal is done, y’all. NAR’s Speech Code will die a well-deserved death, and not soon enough.”

In 2022, NAR contributed $10,000 to Sen. Middleton’s political campaign, according to political funding tracker OpenSecrets.

NAR has been dragged into legal battles before because of the Article 10 speech code. In 2022, Realtor and pastor Brandon Huber (who testified on Monday) sued NAR and his local association, the Missoula Organization of Realtors, for unlawfully terminating his membership after he stopped his church’s donations to the Missoula Food Bank because of their support of LGBTQ Pride Month, and for sharing anti-LGBTQ sentiments.

Huber’s lawsuit against NAR and MOR ultimately fell flat, and MOR’s Board of Ethics found him guilty of violating Article 10 of the Code of Ethics, but said he could keep his membership if he paid a $5,000 fine and completed sensitivity training. Instead, Huber declined the offer and opted to end his real estate career.

Recognizing a disconnect between political candidates in Texas that NAR supports and the association’s own speech code, the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance launched a campaign in the state in 2023 to try and hold Realtor associations accountable and not fund those who violate the speech code.

“Texas Realtors is therefore holding its members to a higher standard than those politicians [Texas Association of Realtors Political Action Committee] supports,” then-Alliance CEO Ryan Weyandt said in a statement at the time. “We are asking all Realtor associations around the nation, including Texas Realtors, to recognize that those who discriminate should not receive funding even if they support legislation favorable to our industry. Article 10 should be a uniting force for all of us. It is a common-sense consideration.”

Email Lillian Dickerson

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Trump’s 1st 100 days in office and its impact on real estate

by | Apr 29, 2025 | Industry, News Feed

Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the Inman Community and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!

As we pass President Trump’s first 100 days in office, let’s face it — It’s been one heck of a ride. No matter what side of the aisle you are on, many hoped 2025 would be the year the real estate market started to come back. Perhaps not roaring like 2021, but there was hope for lower interest rates and promises of making things more affordable, from gas to groceries to homes. 

What we have seen has been anything but. If we thought the market slowdown was tough during 2023-2024 as interest rates started to rise, coupled with the collision of inflation and high prices coming off the pandemic real estate boom, we hadn’t seen anything yet.

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Flash forward to 2025, which started with optimism for an active market, has turned out to be anything but in many areas across the country. Here’s a recap of Trump’s 100 days from the real estate practitioner’s point of view. 

Return to office and DOGE

The beginning of the year started with cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the slashing of jobs left and right. Whatever your opinion on those jobs, the point is that everyone has to live somewhere, so incomes were slashed, which affected those who lost their jobs with respect to housing, whether that was renting or buying.

Buying plans were pushed back or canceled, and in some cases, people needed to sell their property to free up cash, uncertain when they would find a job again. 

Ask anyone who has been in the job market, and no matter how talented or well-connected you are, finding a job is beyond a full-time job in and of itself, with tons of applicants vying for the same position to the point where recruiters only look at the first handful of resumes. Others lived on pins and needles, waiting to hear their fate and couldn’t plan for the future.

Return-to-office mandates also affected the real estate market, as some people had to move from the locations they had fled to during the COVID pandemic. This meant they had to sell their home, and buying at the height of the market doesn’t leave a lot of room for profit.

In addition, DOGE cuts impacted the commercial office market, which has already been struggling post-COVID. The federal government was looking to downsize a large portfolio of thousands of leases that could impact numerous cities, including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Arlington, Virginia.

CFPB funding slashed

Speaking of DOGE, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) funding was slashed in the blink of an eye. What was long known as a trusted institution consumers could go to for assistance with resolving financial matters, like credit cards, checking and savings accounts, auto loans, mortgages, etc., was upended. While a federal judge has blocked some attempts to completely shut down CFBP, the future of this agency remains uncertain, placing consumer protection at risk. 

 HUD Overhaul

DOGE continued on, making cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, laying off thousands of employees — nearly half of its workforce. HUD addresses issues with regard to fair housing, housing assistance and community development.

Scott Turner was nominated to be the secretary of this agency, and though his nomination was not without controversy, he was confirmed in a relatively low-drama vote, 55-44. Turner said he would expand the Opportunity Zones Program, loosen zoning regulations and fees, and reduce the size of the Section 8 housing voucher program.

His confirmation hearing left more questions than answers, with few concrete plans or solutions to address serious questions about various topics, including affordable housing, illegal immigration and its relation to housing and insurance, as well as numerous critical issues.

As of this writing, I don’t think we have a good idea of what is going on with HUD since Turner was confirmed, and its impact on a myriad of housing issues remains to be seen. 

Pulte at the helm of Fannie and Freddie

Bill Pulte, the grandson of the homebuilder and founder of the Pulte Group, was confirmed as head of the Federal Housing Finance Corporation, which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Pulte has shaken things up and purged 14 board members. He claims he is going to work to make buying a home more affordable and cut unnecessary fraud and waste. One of Pulte’s first cuts was gutting Fannie and Freddie minority homeownership programs.  

In addition, there is talk about privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but how that would be handled is tricky. Privatizing these institutions could result in higher mortgage rates, which we are already dealing with. 

More to be determined on how Pulte will make housing more affordable in light of all of this disruption. While privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may sound like a good idea, in reality, it will be far more difficult than it appears. 

Tarrifs

When President Trump announced the implementation of tariffs, all started to go haywire with the stock market, treasury bonds and interest rates, which ultimately rolled to the real estate market. The uncertainty of tariffs and what would be implemented wreaked havoc on consumer confidence.

Homebuilders were concerned about the impact of costs on building materials and how that would ultimately cause increased prices for consumers. Consumers whose livelihoods could be impacted by tariffs were concerned about job stability and security, not to mention general concern over prices for everyday goods and possible shortages due to countries perhaps scaling back doing business with the United States, which supplied those goods. 

There has been a different narrative every week with respect to tariffs, with threats and then delays, followed by more threats, scaled-back tariff amounts and then delays. Interest rates have been see-sawing depending on what the stock market was doing. The verbal football between President Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell did not help. 

Mortgage lenders shared they were going through multiple price changes during a single day, and it was difficult to counsel buyers who had just gone under contract on a home as to when to lock in a rate. 

Some buyers who were under contract to buy a home cancelled due to the uncertainty of how all of this would affect them. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to buy that second home if they could lose their job or their business would be impacted. Showings have been paused on properties in many parts of the country.

I experienced this on a listing I had in Florida that had great activity before the tariff talk started. Then things began to freeze with little to no activity. Others with listings in the same community reported the same.

On the West Coast, while working with a couple of different buyers who were actively writing offers, we were one of only two offers on properties.

This was very different from March, where in one case, my buyer was one of 13 offers on a property in a hot price point of under $1.4 million. The impact of the tariffs on the real estate market was somewhat mitigated, allowing both of my buyers to open escrow successfully. However, the stock market’s volatility was not comforting to my first-time homebuyer clients, as they watched their down payment money fluctuate daily. 

The bottom line is that markets, businesses and consumers don’t like uncertainty. It can be hard to plan through the unknown when the only certainty is uncertainty. 

The first four months of 2025 have been a wild ride. Real estate markets in many areas of the country were already struggling against challenges from high home prices, inflation and insurance in a post-pandemic world. Now, some of these markets are seeing sellers who bought during the pandemic at high prices sell their homes. 

Some of these properties have been lingering on the market due to being overpriced in the first place, and many properties are undergoing price adjustments to find the sweet spot at which buyers will respond. Anything overpriced relative to condition continues to sit on the market as more buyers seek turnkey and move-in-ready homes.

No one seems to have the bandwidth to take on things that need a lot of work, and sometimes it’s about price and avoiding the hassle. So, turnkey homes that are well priced will still command a premium in many markets and see multiple offers, though the offers may not be comparable to the crazy $100,000-plus amounts during the early 2020s.

Sellers are having to readjust expectations after having little showing activity or fewer offers than anticipated. Some buyers are bowing out during the counteroffer process. Consumer sentiment is fragile right now, and buyers can find many reasons not to move forward. Sellers who don’t have to sell are frustrated, and some are taking their homes off the market or opting to rent them out instead.

Will there be any winners?

New construction has been the winner through all of this, as builders have been adjusting to a different market reality over the past few years and aggressively offering interest rate buydowns and other incentives to reduce the price and credit toward closing costs, that made it nearly impossible for a buyer to resist buying a brand new home. Those sellers with homes trying to compete against these kinds of communities are facing a challenging road ahead. 

What the rest of this year will look like under Trump 2.0 with regard to real estate is anyone’s guess. While cutting waste, fraud and abuse and leveling the playing field with respect to tariffs all sound like great talking points, the reality is: Decisions have consequences. You can’t pull one lever or two or three without them affecting something else.

No one really knows which way the wind blows, and watching how the tariffs shake out is likely to impact a lot of what happens next in our industry. For some, opportunity will be created, but for others, they may be sidelined due to a lack of affordability and high interest rates. Stay tuned. 

Cara Ameer is a bi-coastal agent licensed in California and Florida with Coldwell Banker. You can follow her on Facebook or on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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Inman announces the 2025 Inman Connect San Diego Ambassadors

by | Apr 29, 2025 | Industry, News Feed

This accomplished group of real estate professionals will provide timely insights, capture key takeaways from the stage and offer a front-row perspective on the most impactful moments unfolding at Inman Connect San Diego on July 30 – Aug. 1.

Inman, the leading voice in real estate news and events, is proud to announce the Inman Ambassadors for Inman Connect San Diego, taking place July 30–Aug. 1, 2025, at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.

As the real estate landscape continues to evolve at breakneck speed, the value of trusted relationships, shared insights and strategic alliances has never been more critical. That’s where the Inman Ambassadors come in. Led by this year’s Head Ambassador Matt Richling, team lead at New Purveyors, brokered by RE/MAX Hallmark, this standout group of industry leaders plays a vital role in making Inman Connect the definitive gathering place for real estate professionals to grow, adapt, and thrive.

These ambassadors are handpicked for their influence, professional excellence and ability to create meaningful connections that elevate the industry. Their presence helps shape the energy and experience of Inman Connect, both on-site and year-round, by driving engagement, fostering collaboration and creating continuity across the Inman community.

Whether you’re navigating market uncertainty, exploring new tech or scaling your business, the 2025 Ambassadors will be your connection points — ready to welcome you, guide you and introduce you to the right people at the right time.

Meet the 2025 Ambassadors:

  • Matt Richling, New Purveyors Brokered by RE/MAX Hallmark + Inman Head Ambassador
  • Liz Alarcon, eXp Realty
  • Elias Astuto, #TeamFAST by eXp Realty
  • Brandon Blankenship, Keller Williams
  • Toni Carone, Long & Foster Real Estate WV/VA/MD/DC
  • Brad Cook, REAL Brokerage
  • Heather Cook, REAL Brokerage
  • Susan Culverhouse, Sotheby’s International Realty
  • Michael DeVita, Mackey Realty
  • Nikki Taylor Friedman, Douglas Elliman
  • Thalina Garcia, Nan and Company Properties
  • Gabrielle Gilbert, SERHANT.
  • Jeff Goodman, Brown Harris Stevens
  • Alex Guckenberger, Compass
  • Tiare Kabazawa, Coldwell Banker Realty
  • Emilie Levecque, Portside Real Estate Group
  • Kristine Milkovich, The Milkovich Team
  • Crystal Miller, JMG Real Estate
  • Joe Oz Ossichak, Oz Group — eXp Realty
  • Audrey Rozier, Keller Williams
  • Lindsey Schmidt, Fathom Realty
  • Zak Shellhammer, Marketing coach
  • Scott Steadman, Windermere
  • Karen Stone, REAL Brokerage
  • Jasmine Sunkara, eXp Realty
  • Dina Williams, Ladera Realty Group
  • Vernon Williams III, #TeamFAST by eXp Realty

Set against the vibrant backdrop of San Diego, Inman Connect’s premier event promises visionary speakers, unmatched networking moments and strategic opportunities that spark real growth. From transformative insights to connections that last well beyond the event, this is where the next chapter of your real estate journey begins.

Secure your spot at Inman Connect San Diego today and join the leaders and innovators redefining the future of real estate.

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Vrbo slapped over Super Bowl ad after Airbnb complaint

by | Apr 29, 2025 | Industry, News Feed

Airbnb challenged the commercial, along with ads that included a “desperate” and “confused” billboard near Airbnb’s headquarters in San Francisco.

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Airbnb earned a win in a spat with its much smaller short-term rental rival Vrbo on Tuesday when the National Advertising Division recommended Vrbo stop or change some of its advertising claims that seem to poke at Airbnb.

The BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division found that Vrbo was making claims in advertising that conveyed “the unsupported message that Airbnb properties always have hosts that cohabitate with guests during their stay.”

The win highlighted the companies’ focus on marketing techniques to win traveler attention from competing short-term rental companies and the broader hotel industry.

The complaint is what is known as a “Fast-Track SWIFT” challenge, or one that is made to the BBB National Programs, an independent nonprofit organization that monitors disputes among companies.

Airbnb’s challenge highlighted a Vrbo Super Bowl commercial that featured former college and professional football coach Nick Saban, along with two billboard ads.