Becoming a Texas real estate broker is a strong step forward in your career. Not only does this advanced license look great on a resume, it also allows you to work independently, open real estate brokerage firms, and manage other agents within these firms.

Getting the Texas Real Estate Broker License is a fairly simple process, but it does require you to complete five steps, and have a few prerequisites before applying or taking the broker’s exam.

This guide covers all of these requirements in a simple, easy to understand way that will make it easier for you throughout this process.

Texas Real Estate Agent vs Real Estate Broker

Texas offers two different types of real estate license: Sales and Broker.

A sales agent’s license is the initial license that real estate agents get in order to sell real estate.

A broker’s license is an advanced license that allows the license holder to operate at a higher level within real estate businesses in Texas.

People often confuse sales agents and brokers. A simple way to look at the difference is that holders of the sales agent’s license are called real estate agents, while holders of the broker’s license are called real estate brokers.

Texas Real Estate Broker License Requirements

First, to be eligible for a real estate broker’s license, you must meet the prerequisites to become a real estate broker in Texas.

These prerequisites are:

• Be a Texas resident, unless you were licensed in Texas as sales agent or broker in the last two years, or are a licensed broker in another state
• Have at least four years of active experience as a licensed real estate agent or broker during the 60-month period before application
• Your experience must total 360 points and be reported on the Qualifying Experience Report for a Broker License. You must also include a transaction identification list for each transaction claimed on the experience report.

Texas has a point value system that measures your qualifying work experience. For example, a closed sale or purchase is worth 30 points per transaction. The total number of points required is 360. So, you need 12 successful transactions within four years to qualify for a broker license.

How to Become a Real Estate Broker in Texas

Once you meet all the requirements listed above, you can follow these five steps to easily help you get your real estate broker license in Texas.

Step 1: Complete a Texas Broker Pre-licensing Course

The first step to getting your real estate broker license in Texas is to take 900 classroom hours of qualifying real estate courses.

These real estate courses mostly cover the fundamentals of working in real estate and must be completed within two years of your broker’s license application. This requirement is divided into two sections:

The required 270 classroom hours of qualifying real estate courses, including the following mandatory courses are:

• Principles of Real Estate I (30 classroom hours)
• Principles of Real Estate II (30 classroom hours)
• Law of Agency (30 classroom hours)
• Law of Contracts (30 classroom hours)
• Promulgated Contract Forms (30 classroom hours)
• Real Estate Finance (30 classroom hours)
• Real Estate Brokerage (30 classroom hours)

As part of the 270-hour classroom requirement, you must also take the following subjects:

• Real Estate Marketing I: Building a Real Estate Practice (30 credit hours)
• Real Estate Property Management (30 credit hours)

Your broker pre-license courses don’t end here. To fully satisfy your course requirements, you must take additional 630 credit hours in related qualifying education courses acceptable to TREC or approved Continuing Education (CE) courses.

The approved courses include:

• Real Estate Appraisal
• Real Estate Law
• Real Estate Marketing
• Real Estate Math
• Property Management
• Real Estate Investments
• Residential Inspections for Real Estate Agents

Texas offers no reciprocity, so if you’re an agent (or broker) in a different state during the previous four years, your experience and those CE credit hours won’t count towards your prerequisites.

After completing the courses, you must also pass the final broker course exam. The minimum passing grade is 70%. The final pre-license exam is to be supervised by a proctor, whether on-site or online. This is not the same as the state broker exam.

After passing your broker course exam, your pre-license education provider will provide you with your course completion documents. TREC recommends submitting your completion documents via TREC’s Online Services or documents@trec.texas.gov.

Step 2: Submit a Texas Broker License Application

Once you meet the broker pre-licensing education requirements and pass the course exam, you can now apply for your license.

To submit your broker license application, you must use TREC’s MyLicense System. The application fee is $235. Use your registered username with TREC or Texas Appraiser Licensing and Application Board (TALCB) to login and submit your application.

If you don’t want to file online, you can also apply using a paper application form.

Make sure to include your Qualifying Experience Report for a Broker License on your application with a transaction identification list for each of your transactions. Your qualifying experience must total 360 points incurred per transaction within four years of active license.

Step 3: Get a Fingerprint-Based Background Check

After submitting your license application, you must have a fingerprint-based background check. You must submit your fingerprints via IdentoGO by IDEMIA.

To begin the fingerprinting process, enter your TREC ID into the TREC fingerprint page. This will give you your IdentoGO ID. Once you have your ID, follow the instructions to schedule your fingerprinting appointment. The fingerprinting fee is $38.25.

The fingerprints must be in the FBI’s required format and must be taken at an authorized Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) site. A license will not be issued if you do not submit to a background check.

You must also meet TREC’s requirements of honesty, trustworthiness, and integrity by requesting a Fitness Determination before applying for your license.

Step 4: Pass the Texas Real Estate Broker Exam

After completing the steps above, you must take the real estate broker licensing exam via Pearson VUE.

The fee for the broker exam is $39.

In Texas, brokers take the same National section as real estate agents which consists of 80 scored questions. The state-specific section of the broker’s exam consists of 50 scored questions. You must complete the Texas real estate broker exam within 240 minutes (4 hours total).

The passing rate is 80% for the Texas Real Estate Broker Exam: 60/85 on the National section and 38/60 on the state-specific section.

If you happen to fail the exam on your third attempt, you’ll need to complete additional hours of pre-license education courses. You must take 30 hours for failing either the national or state part of the exam or 60 hours for failing both parts of the exam.

For more information on the exam, Pearson VUE provides a Candidate Handbook containing the Texas Real Estate Broker Exam Content Outline.

Taking an exam prep course provides you helpful tools and materials, such as quizzes and specific state-only practice exams, to increase your chances of passing your broker license exam the first time.

Step 5: Application Review

After passing your broker exam, you will only need to wait for TREC to review and approve your application.

The process should take between 5 to 10 business days. After this, you should receive a notification from TREC (via MyLicense System account or email) with a copy of your broker license.

TREC updates the documents they are currently processing. If any additional information is required with your application, you will be contacted directly by TREC’s Enforcement Division. You can also use TREC’s Application Tracker to track your license application status.

Congratulations!

Now that you’ve successfully passed the broker licensing exam and obtained your license, there are a few things you need to do to keep your broker license active and updated.

Texas Real Estate Broker License Renewal and CE

In Texas, you must renew your real estate broker license every two years. TREC will send you a renewal notice within 90 days before your expiration date. The renewal process is not the same for the broker license and sales agent license.

To renew your license, you must use TREC’s MyLicense System or submit the Renewal Form for Real Estate Sales Agents and Brokers. The renewal fee is $217 ($72 renewal fee plus $5 online fee). TREC allows renewing your broker license up to six months after your expiration date.

As part of renewing your broker license, you must also complete the CE requirements that include 18 hours of TREC-approved courses and 6 hours of Broker Responsibility Course as part of the CE requirement.

TREC recommends completing your CE at least 10 days before your expiration date to make time for processing.

TREC – Texas Real Estate Commission

Mailing Address:

P.O. Box 12188
Austin, TX 78711-2188

Hours: Monday – Friday, 7:00am – 6:00pm

Phone: (512) 936-3000

Email: information@trec.texas.gov

Website: https://www.trec.texas.gov/