Realtors president alleges blackmail
Tracy Kasper, in the post since last year, steps down after notifying police of threat, she says
The president of the National Association of Realtors, Tracy Kasper, announced Monday she would step down, alleging blackmail, according to a statement from the association.
Kasper has led the nation's largest professional trade organization, with 1.5 million members, since August, when she took over for the former president who resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment.
She told the association's leadership team that she recently received a threat to disclose a past personal, nonfinancial matter unless she compromised her position in the group, the statement said.
Kasper refused to do so and instead reported the threat to law enforcement and decided it was best for the organization that she step down, according to the association.
“As president and a long-time member of NAR, I always have put the interests of NAR first,” Kasper said in a statement. “As a result of the recent threat and given the significance of this moment for myself, my family and the organization, it is again time for me to put the interests of NAR first. So, it is with a mix of gratitude and a heavy heart that I submit my resignation as your president effective immediately.”
President-elect Kevin Sears, who is also a broker and partner at Sears Real Estate in Springfield, Massachusetts, is stepping into the role immediately.
In November, the organization's chief executive stepped down nearly two months before his planned retirement, just two days after the trade group was dealt a punishing judgment in federal court over its guidelines on real estate agent commissions.
Bob Goldberg, who spent 30 years with the association, was replaced by Nykia Wright, the former CEO of the Chicago SunTimes, beginning Nov. 20.
In late October, a federal jury in Kansas City, Missouri, ordered the trade association and some of the nation's biggest real estate brokerages to pay almost $1.8 billion in damages after finding they artificially inflated commissions paid to real estate agents.
The lawsuit was against the association and companies Keller Williams and Berkshire Hathaway's HomeServices of America.
The class-action suit was filed in 2019 on behalf of 500,000 homesellers in Missouri and some border towns. The jury found that the defendants “conspired to require
“As a result of the recent threat and given the significance of this moment for myself, my family and the organization ... it is with a mix of gratitude and a heavy heart that I submit my resignation as your president effective immediately.”
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homesellers to pay the broker representing the buyer of their homes in violation of federal antitrust law.”
The Missouri case was the smaller of two lawsuits concerning brokerage commission practices. In a third matter, the Justice Department is focused on a commission-sharing system that typically puts homesellers on the hook for a 5% to 6% cut of the sale, split between their agent and the buyer's agent.
The association and the other defendants could be on the hook for more than $5 billion if the court decides to award the plaintiffs treble damages, which allow plaintiffs to potentially receive up to three times actual or compensatory damages. The association said it plans to appeal.
Kenny Parcell, the association's president last summer, resigned three days after a New York Times investigation in August exposed allegations of sexual misconduct by the leader of real estate's most powerful trade group.
Three women who worked at the Chicago-based nonprofit said they were sexually harassed by Parcell, who was installed as the association's president for 2023. They and others at the associations described a pattern of behavior that included improper touching and lewd photos and texts.
The Times' expose recounted complaints from 29 employees and former leaders who told the newspaper that even after years of complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination and retribution by Parcell and other leaders, little changed.