A Complete Guide to Getting Your Real Estate Broker License in Texas

You’ve been licensed in Texas for a few years. You’ve hit your sales goals every year, mastered the 6 traits all great agents have, done countless transactions, and now you’re the expert agent at your broker company. What’s next? Put on your boots and hat and try to rope the big bull at the nearest Stock Show and Rodeo? 

Of course not! It would be much easier to get your Broker license. Whether you want to start your own broker company and have agents work for you, or whether you want to be a branch broker for one of the big guys, the next step is getting your Texas Real Estate Broker License! This blog will give you a complete understanding of everything you need to do to get your broker license.

Age

According to the Texas statutes, you only have to be 18 to qualify for a broker license. The same information is written on the Texas Real Estate Commission website. However, you need to have at least 4 years of experience in real estate before you can become a broker in Texas. At a minimum, you would need to be at least 22 years old, and even then, depending on your experience and education, you may be licensed later. 

Experience

The general rule for meeting the experience and education requirements for Texas is that you have experience of full-time real estate practice for at least 4 years, complete at least 360 experience points for transactions, and you must complete the broker pre-license education hour requirement. That seems like a lot, but it can be manageable. So, what do these numbers really mean?

The 4-year full-time requirement is simple, you must have been actively licensed as a sales agent for at least 4 years in the preceding 5-year period. Being licensed as a sales agent actively for 2 years, then taking a year off, and then being active for another 2 years will qualify you towards the time requirement. You also need to complete transactions towards 360 experience points.

The way Texas calculates credit towards these 360 points is different depending on the type of transaction. A sales agent earns 30 points for closing a residential transaction for improved, unimproved, or ranch/farm transaction. A sales agent earns 50 points for closing a commercial transaction of improved or unimproved commercial property. A sales agent can also earn 2.5 to 15 points for acting as a leasing agent or property manager depending on whether the property is residential, farm/ranch, or commercial. Lastly, a sales agent can earn up to 12 points per year if they are a designated supervisor and such designation is reported to the Commission. 

One important note, transaction points are only counted for the past 5 years. A transaction that closed 6 years ago does not count towards your experience points. If you’ve been a designated supervisor for 5 years (that’s 60 points), you only need to complete 10 residential transactions (300 points) in those 5 years to obtain your broker license.

Education

The Texas Real Estate Commission requires a lot of education, more than most states to become a real estate broker. You will need to complete 270 hours of qualifying education courses and 630 additional hours of real-estate-related education. You can do it and we are here to explain how.

 Qualifying Education refers to the courses approved by the Commission to count towards the qualifying education requirement. Texas requires you to complete 270 hours of qualifying education, or nine 30-hour courses, within 2 years of applying to the Commission for your broker license.  30 hours must be a real estate brokerage course. Also, each course has a proctored course final exam, i.e. someone watches you take the course final exam; that’s 9 course finals! Luckily for you, we offer the full 270-hour package with real estate brokerage course and remote proctoring service so you can take your course finals at home!

You may notice that these courses are the same as your sales agent pre-license and post-license courses. That is okay and Texas wants you to repeat these courses to prepare you to study for the broker licensing exam. The Commission publishes outlines for fourteen 30-hour qualifying education courses.  You will have to repeat some of them to obtain your broker qualifying education.

There are 4 ways to obtain additional education hours required by the Commission.  A bachelor’s degree or higher from an accredited college or university will satisfy the 630-hour requirement so long as you provide a copy of your college transcripts. You can also take any additional qualifying education courses or continuing education courses approved by the Commission. The last option is to take courses for credit from an accredited college or university in any of the following areas: accounting, advertising, architecture, business or management, construction, finance, investments, law, marketing, or real estate.

If you do each qualifying education course (150 hours) and the bare minimum of continuing education (36 hours), that leaves you with 444 classroom hours of additional education to cover. Your only options are more continuing education courses or taking courses for credit from an accredited college or university.

Exam

Texas offers its real estate licensing exams through Pearson Vue. There is a fee of $39 for taking the broker exam. The format is identical to the sales agent exam; you will take the test in a testing center and there will be a national portion and a state portion. You will have 4 hours to answer 145 questions and obtain a score of 75% on both portions of the exam. For brokers, you need to answer 60 questions correctly on the National examination and 38 questions correctly on the State examination to pass the examination. For more information, make sure you read the candidate booklet and content outlines.

Fees and Forms

You will first complete your education and experience requirements. Then you will apply on the Commission website. When the application requirements are met, TREC will send candidates an eligibility letter which includes an ID number that candidates will need to register to take the examination. There is also an application fee and a background check fee. You will also need to send in any qualifying education course completion certificates and any academic transcripts with your application.

Broker Reciprocity

If you are already licensed in another state, your requirements to get a broker license can be a little different. Texas is a unique state in that it does not have reciprocal licensing agreements with other states. However, a broker from Ohio, Wisconsin, or another state can still apply for a Texas Broker License so long as they have been licensed as a broker for at least 2 years in another state. Brokers from other states must still meet the education, experience, and examination requirements. If approved, the TREC may waive all or part of these requirements to become a Texas Broker.

Now stop listening to those podcasts and get started on your broker license! If you have any questions about getting your Texas Broker license, do not hesitate to call, text, live-chat, or email me at 859-525-0303 and john@perryrealestatecollege.com!