Ready to level up your license? Here’s what you need to do.
First, Get Your Sales Associate License
This may seem obvious, but part of the education requirement for a broker license starts before you even get your sales associate license. You have to complete 180 hours of pre-licensing education, broken into six, 30-hour courses:
Principles of Real Estate I
Principles of Real Estate II
Law of Agency
Law of Contracts
Promulgated Contract Forms
Real Estate Finance
Then, of course, you have to apply, pass a background check, and pass the state exam. Already done that? Great, you’re on your way to becoming a broker!
Complete Two Years of Continuing Education
Before you can apply for a broker license, you have to have had at least four years of experience as an active sales agent or a broker in another state in the preceding 60 months. Not sure if you qualify? TREC’s Qualifying Experience form will help you sort it out.
As part of those renewals, you will have had to complete 98 hours of Sales Agent Education (SAE) before your first renewal, including TREC’s Legal Update I and Legal Update II.
For the next renewal, you will have had to do 18 hours of continuing education (CE), including the eight-hour Legal Update I and II course.
Broker Pre-Licensing Education
Why do I keep bringing up old stuff? Well, because of those hours of education count toward your broker education hours. Yes, all that SAE was not done in vain!
Brokers need a total of 900 hours of qualifying real estate courses before they can take the broker exam. Yes, nine HUNDRED. Nobody said becoming a broker was going to be easy!
The good news is that the 900-hour requirement is a lifetime total. Your pre-licensing education, SAE, and any CE hours count toward it.
Mandated Courses
TREC mandates that all brokers take the six 30-hour pre-licensing education courses listed above. If you are applying as a Texas sales agent, you’ve already done that. You don’t have to take them again (whew). But if you’re applying as an out-of-state broker, you do indeed have to complete all six courses.
In addition, you have to take one more 30-hour course called Real Estate Brokerage. You have to finish this course within two years of taking the broker exam, so if you’re taking your time with your education, don’t do this one too early!
So okay, that’s 270 hours from your sales agent pre-licensing and your Real Estate Brokerage course. The remaining 630 can come from any approved CE course, including the SAE and CE hours you’ve already done.
Electives
Elective topics can include:
Real Estate Appraisal
Real Estate Law
Real Estate Marketing
Real Estate Math
Property Management
Real Estate Investments
Residential Inspections for Real Estate Agents
Or any other TREC-approved CE course.
College Kids Get to Skip the Line
If you completed a bachelor’s degree at an accredited college or university, it counts as 630 hours of your education requirement. So, you would still have to take the seven mandatory 30-hour courses, but that’s it.
Even if you didn’t complete your bachelor’s degree, you may be able to count college courses toward your education hours if they were in the following subjects:
Accounting
Advertising
Architecture
Business or Management
Construction
Finance
Investments Law
Marketing
Real Estate
And Then You Have to Pass the Exam
That’s just the education requirement! Texas is serious about ensuring licensed brokers are qualified. After you complete your education requirement and your experience requirement, you will still need to:
Complete an application
Submit fingerprints
Pass a background check
Pass the broker exam
Want to learn more about getting your broker’s license? Here’s a step-by-step guide.