On Oct. 2, more than a month after a New York Times investigation reported that the president of the National Association of Realtors, Kenny Parcell, had sexually harassed at least three women, Redfin announced it is cutting ties with the group.
In a scathing letter co-signed by CEO Glenn Kelman and Redfin’s leadership team, the brokerage said this had been a “long time coming,” and it had in fact already resigned its national board seat in June, before any allegations of sexual harassment surfaced. The NAR’s policies have long been an issue. “In the many marketplaces governed by its policies,” the letter reads, “NAR still blocks sellers from listing homes that don’t pay a commission to the buyer’s agent, and it blocks websites like Redfin.com from showing for-sale-by-owner listings alongside agent-listed homes. Removing these blocks would be easy, and it would make our industry more consumer-friendly and competitive.” That claim is echoed in two antitrust lawsuits, Moehrl v. National Association of Realtors and Burnett v. NAR, in which Anywhere Real Estate was named as a co-conspirator to NAR’s practices before settling.
