Haber, ARA Team Launch Political Advocacy Group In NYC
Jason Haber is launching a nonprofit political advocacy group in New York City.
Haber, a Compass agent and industry activist, with the team behind the American Real Estate Association — the trade group he co-founded with the Agency’s Mauricio Umansky — are setting up a 501(c)(4) organization called Built for New York.
The organization’s aim is to unite real estate professionals across the five boroughs and mobilize them to vote in what Haber described as a “year-long effort, agnostic to who is on the ballot.”
“We as an industry, as an election approaches, we panic and rush in with money in the last 30 days, and we lose,” Haber said. “We are going to invert that whole process.”
While ARA’s leaders are spearheading the organization’s founding, Built for New York is a separate entity. Haber described its launch as a “rolling start,” which began last week, when he announced Built for New York’s creation to agents. The next step is to hire a political director and other staff.
Haber said Built for New York is “very well-funded coming out of the gate,” telling the New York Times that the group had about $500,000 pledged. As a 501(c)(4), the organization is not legally required to disclose the names of its donors, though it will have to report other details of its finances.
In addition to agents, the group plans to target condos and co-op boards, homeowners, tenants and NYCHA leaders. Its other directives include hosting educational events, registering agents to vote and maintaining an active database to target voters. It also plans to appoint “office captains,” similar to block or precinct captains in other political organizing efforts, in every real estate office in the city.
Built for New York will begin its advocacy efforts by pushing the city to adopt an open primary voting system, which would allow voters of any political party to vote in the primary election. The group’s goal is to bring the issue to voters as a ballot referendum in 2027.
“Oftentimes, when we encourage people to vote in the June primary, do you know what they say? They can’t because they’re registered independents,” Haber said. He added that New York City has a “history of forward thinking with our elections,” but on this issue, “we’re behind.”
Haber and Umansky founded ARA in January 2024, as the nation’s leading trade group, the National Association of Realtors, was in the midst of battling an onslaught of antitrust litigation, leadership turmoil and sexual harassment allegations against one of its former leaders.
In 2025, the group added its first local chapter when it joined with the New York Residential Agent Continuum, a local organization founded by a group of residential agents. Later that year, ARA bolstered its membership rolls significantly when Douglas Elliman joined, paving the way for its 6,600 agents to enroll.
Earlier this year, ARA added Compass International Holdings to its network, which at the time included roughly 30,000 members. In July, Haber said he expected that total to jump to 100,000 by the end of the year.
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