2021 Guide - How to Get Your Texas Real Estate License
How to Earn Your Real Estate License in Texas
Thinking about your future career is just the first step in your career journey, and one can go back and forth many times before deciding on what is best for them. So, after some time and consideration you have decided you wanted to become a REALTOR or Real Estate Sales Agent. Now you have to ask yourself, what is needed to obtain my Real Estate License in Texas so I can work as a Sales Agent or REALTOR?
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Prerequisites:
Before we jump into the heavy stuff lets discuss the four prerequisites one needs before starting their journey on becoming a sales agent.
- You need to be 18 years of age or older
- You must be an American citizen or a lawfully admitted alien which is essentially someone who holds a green card.
- Meet TRECs qualifications for honesty, trustworthiness and integrity.
- Consider requesting a Fitness Determination before applying for the license.
View the easiest and quickest online courses to get your Texas Real Estate license.
TREC
What does TREC stand for? TREC is the Texas Real Estate Commission. The agency has several divisions to help them operate effectively and two of those divisions include the Education and Examination Divisions and a Licensing Division. The Education and Examination Division oversees the applications coming in and ensures statutory and agency standards are met. Whereas the Licensing Division ensures that the education and experience requirements are being met for the different licenses. The members of the licensing division will verify that the
qualifications have been met before issuing a new license or registration.
Fitness Determination
A fitness determination is a process to which an agency will decide if an individual does or does not have the required level of character and conduct. In this case they would be deciding if the person applying has the level of character and conduct required to act as a Sales Agent in the state of Texas.
If you arent sure if you need a Fitness Determination to meet the TRECS qualifications for honesty, trustworthiness and integrity you just need to ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you have any criminal offenses?
- Do you have any unpaid judgements?
- Discipline taken against a professional or occupational license?
- Have you performed any unlicensed activity?
If you have answered yes to any of the above questions it might be best to consider requesting an FD application and the cost to do so is 50.
Complete Your Real Estate License Course Hours
Now that you have made sure you have the four prerequisites you can start your journey to becoming a licensed sales agent in Texas. You need to start by completing 180 hours of approved Pre-Licensing education. This includes 180 hours that gets broken down into 6, 30-hour courses. These courses include:
- Principles of Real Estate I
- Principles of Real Estate II
- Law of Agency
- Law of Contracts
- Promulgated Contract Forms
- Real Estate Finance
- Get discounts on TX real estate courses
Pass Your Exams
Once you have completed your class, you will have a final exam. You will need to pass each final exam in order to pass and move on to the next step in earning your Real Estate License. Passing each exam requires you to receive a mark of 70% or higher and will need to take place in the presence of a proctor.
Preparing for The Final Exams
After having completed your course and are ready for an exam you will want to make sure you are prepared and ready for your proctor and test. You will want to do the following to ensure smooth sailing:
- Set up your online proctor account
- Confirm that you meet the minimum technical requirements and download the secure proctoring browser
- Schedule your exam
- Prepare for your exam
- Take your exam
- You will then review your exam and receive your certificate of completion through email.
Complete Your License Application
You have now completed all six courses and exams. You should be proud of yourself for coming this far and not to worry because you are almost done. For now, you will need to complete a licensing application using the TREC online services.
Fingerprints
You will need to have a background check conducted and provide your fingerprints to Morphotrust in order to move on to your Texas Real Estate Salesperson Exam.
Texas Real Estate Salesperson Exam
Youre almost done; the second last step needed to earn your Real Estate license. Once you have done all the above steps you will apply to take your salesperson exam. Once approved you will receive instructions on how to schedule your exam and obtain a copy of the Candidate Handbook. The Salesperson exam will have two parts, the National portion and the State portion. The State portion consists of 40 questions and the student will be allowed 90 minutes to complete this portion of the salesperson exam. For the National portion of the exam, the student will have 85 questions with 150 minutes allotted to finish.
Sponsoring Broker
Once you have passed your final Salesperson Exam you need to find a current and active sponsor broker to sponsor you. You will want to find a sponsor broker that you connect with and works with a brokerage that is well known and give you many opportunities to grow and network.
Some things you may want to ask yourself while looking:
- What is their reputation, both nationally and locally?
- What kind of agents are they looking for specifically?
- Is this sponsor broker technically advanced and up to date with the latest systems?
- How will they support you as a new sales agent with your education and training?
- What does their commission structure look like?
- Do they offer benefits?
- Will they provide you with leads and marketing materials?
- Is there room for you to grow within the brokerage?
- Does the real estate brokerage have the same values and interests as you? What is their market niche?
- Do you want a National chain, or a Boutique Firm?
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A National chain may provide more opportunities and resources (and probably higher fees!), but a boutique firm is more personalized attention and mentorship. It is important to think about what you want as a mentee to help you decide which option will be best for you. I own a Houston Real Estate agency called Brombacher & Co. and I would be happy to help you with a business plan, goals, and strategy.
Now that the hard work is done, it is time to get started on the rewarding journey of a sales agent in Texas; the opportunities are endless!
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