Members of the REALTORS® Land Institute, including RLI's Executive Team, traveled to Houston, TX to represent the interests of land professionals and landowners at NAR's NXT convention on November 14-16, 2025.

RLI held a member meeting on Saturday, November 15 to give updates on key issues impacting land real estate and landownership, as well share progress at the association.

The meeting was an opportunity to celebrate the growth of the organization:

• RLI has experienced a 30% growth in membership over the last five years
• There are 763 ALCs and 1,187 non-designated members (as of 10/31/25)
• 229 new members joined in 2025 (as of 10/31/25)

CEO Aubrie Kobernus shared updates on RLI events, Chapters, new initiatives, and enhancements to the LANDU education program:

• The 2025 National Land Conference in Tucson was the fourth consecutive largest conference ever!
• The 8th Annual APEX Production Awards, sponsored by the Land Report, was celebrated in Tucson. The 255 applicants had over $8.9B in land volume production and sold over 1M acres of land.
• RLI recognized its first Chapter Achievement Awardees at NLC25 as well. The new program gives the 20 Chapters inspiration and ideas to serve their membership, in addition to recognizing the Chapter’s accomplishments throughout the year.
• RLI is working with Hiveologie to revise every course in the LANDU curriculum to increase relevance and rigor.
• LANDU Education Bootcamp will change format in 2026 and beyond. Bootcamps will offer only the three Core Courses for the ALC designation, so Chapters have more opportunities to host the ALC Specialty/Elective Courses.
• In March, RLI launched Land Line – a member-only online community where members can connect and collaborate beyond in-person events.

Russell Riggs, NAR Advocacy Liaison, updated the group on the significant progress being made by RLI’s Government Affairs Committee. For the first time, RLI now has an official Advocacy Policy which includes positions on 15 areas of land-related policy.

In March, the RLI Government Affairs Committee and Board of Directors approved two new policy statements related to public lands management and financial incentives for land conservation. This summer, selected RLI members joined a sub-committee on NAR’s Land Use, Property Rights and Environment Committee to refine the policy statements and move them through a process to gain NAR’s support.

During NXT, the policies were approved for support by NAR’s Land Use, Property Rights and Environment Committee, Public Policy Coordinating Committee, and finally the NAR Executive Committee. The policies are as follows:

1.That the National Association of REALTORS supports the management, protection, and sustainable use of public lands by promoting laws, regulations, policies, guidance and practices.

NAR encourages protection of property rights, sustainable resource use, long-term conservation and ecosystem protection, public access and recreation, science-based management, and local input and decision-making.

Rationale: NAR has never had a comprehensive policy addressing the management of public lands, which has a significant impact on the economy and real estate markets of adjacent communities that rely on public lands for robust economic development through tourism, natural resource utilization, etc. This policy will provide guidance for NAR’s advocacy efforts to fulfill the multi-use promise of these lands by encouraging sustainable resource use and protection while protecting private property rights and public access.

2. That the National Association of REALTORS supports financial and other incentives for voluntary private land conservation.

Rationale: This policy supports voluntary options and incentives to preserve landowners’ private property rights. Conservation Easements can help landowners to preserve ownership of land, preventing it from being sold and converted to other uses. Land with conservation easements can stay in private ownership and can continue to be sold and used subject to terms of the easement. Lands protected by conservation easements can support ongoing productive land use and preservation of wildlife habitat and natural buffers.

Finally, the highlight of NXT was the inauguration of RLI’s 2026 President Geoff Hurdle, ALC and the 2026 Board of Directors. RLI 2025 President Dan Murphy, ALC installed Geoff as the 2026 President (photo on left) while RLI CEO Aubrie Kobernus installed the remaining leaders (in photo from left to right) Koby Rickertsen, ALC (2026 Future Leaders Committee Chair), Matt Davis, ALC (2026 President-Elect), Abe Mills (2026 Vice President), Bob Turner (NAR Executive Committee Representative), Tim Kellogg (2026 Government Affairs Chair), and At-Large Director Megan Turnipseed, ALC (2026). 

Kobernus also took a moment to recognize Dan Murphy, ALC for his leadership and dedication to RLI as President throughout the past year. Dan will continue to serve on the Executive Leadership Team as 2026 Immediate Past President.

Members, staff, and leaders from local and state REALTOR® associations across the country attended the reception to celebrate RLI’s new leadership. Thank you to the reception sponsors Greater Chattanooga REALTORS® and Tennessee REALTORS®.

RLI members continue to show up when it matters to make an impact for land professionals and landowners. Thank you to everyone who made the NAR NXT convention a success!