The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is backing a proposed federal rule that redefines if a worker is classified as an independent contractor or an employee.
In a letter to the Department of Labor, NAR 2026 President Kevin Brown voiced his support for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the “Employee or Independent Contractor Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
“Protecting and advancing independent contractor status is a key priority for NAR and its members,” wrote Brown, who observed that many people are attracted to the real estate industry “for its flexibility, autonomy, and predictability, including the ability to set their own schedules and manage client relationships. Most real estate professionals elect to operate as independent contractors that work with brokers who provide oversight and guidance, particularly for newer professionals. While classification decisions are made jointly, a professional’s success largely depends on their own business judgment, reflecting significant economic independence.”
Brown added, “NAR supports clear, consistent, and pragmatic regulations that provide predictability and ease compliance for the many real estate professionals who are small business owners. By contrast, overly broad or burdensome regulations create challenges for both businesses and consumers.”
However, Brown recommended a revision of how federal tax law views real estate professionals.
“The Internal Revenue Code recognizes the treatment of qualified real estate agents as non-employees,” he wrote. “The Department of Labor should consider providing an exemption for the treatment of real estate professionals in a final Independent Contractor rule.”
Brown noted that real estate professionals are viewed as “non-statutory non-employees” if they are licensed and if nearly all payments must either be directly tied to their sales or to other services performed “pursuant to an agreement that states the real estate agent will not be treated as an employee for federal tax purposes.” He called for “consistency for the treatment of real estate professionals across the tax code and labor regulation is essential, given the uniqueness of the real estate industry.”
Think the NAR has botched up enough matters that they should remain silent and simply spend our dues on anything but real estate subjects
💯💯💯 if I wasn’t held hostage by them and the MLS, I would be so out it’s not funny!! I believe this is highly illegal and have been questioning for over 30 years!!
All of our NAR dues were stolen by all these Multi Million Dollar lawsuits! Shameful.
please leave well enough alone. we are doing just fine under current definitions..quit screwing things up. you’ve done enough damage.
We’re has NAR been for the last 10 years or more that we have all been fighting revision to this. Don’t screw this up and propose anything without membership approval. Are you spending more “legal fees” on this. I would like to know who is responsible for making decisions to developing these proposals. Spend more time on reducing costs of NAR and removing previous special assessments .
Let’s leave things alone. These people who hold office and make decisions just don’t have enough to do so they make up something. We don’t need more changes or control of everything in our lives. Just because they get their wages from our dues , doesn’t mean they have to come up with a bunch of new stuff to make our lives more difficult. We already have to pay out too much money on dues and everything else related to real estate and attorney fees etc. for making more rules and changes is not in the best interest for real estate agents.
I feel that even changing our real estate forms are unnecessary. Realtors keep adding more pages to a contract and more items and it is getting way out of hand.
DROP THE PRICES! That’s all you need to do. Enough with the Covid inflation garbage selling to 60 and up 90% of the time.