Broker Licensing: Eligibility, 720 Experience Points, Education and Duties to TREC

You already hold a license, so broker licensing questions ask how a sales agent qualifies as a broker under the 2026 rules and what every license holder keeps owing TREC.

Who must hold a license

A broker is a person who, for a commission or other valuable consideration, performs a brokerage act for another person: such as selling, buying, leasing, listing, auctioning or negotiating real estate, procuring a prospect, controlling the acceptance or deposit of rent from a resident of a single-family residential unit, or giving a written price opinion that is not called an appraisal.

• Without a license, a person may not act as or represent that the person is a broker or sales agent, or act as a residential rental locator.
• A business entity may not act as a broker unless the entity itself holds a license.
• A sales agent may engage in brokerage only while sponsored by a licensed broker and acting for that broker.

Exempt, among others: a Texas-licensed attorney, an attorney-in-fact for not more than three transactions a year, an on-site apartment manager, an owner or the owner's employee leasing the owner's property, and a person acting under a court order, a will or a written trust.

Broker eligibility: experience

• General: at least 18 at application, a U.S. citizen or lawfully admitted alien, and able to satisfy TREC as to honesty, trustworthiness and integrity.
• Four years of active experience as a licensed sales agent or broker during the 60 months before the application is filed. Inactive periods, for any reason, do not count.
• At least one transaction per year in at least four of the five years before filing.
• At least 720 points of qualifying experience on TREC No. BL-A, Supplement A. The minimum rose from 360 to 720 points; applications submitted on or after January 1, 2026, follow the new rule.

The point schedule (active licensed activity only)

• Residential (single family, condo, co-op unit, 1 to 4-unit multi-family, apartment unit leases): closed purchase or sale 30; executed lease 5; property management rent collection 2.5 per property per year; unimproved residential lot sale 30.
• Commercial (apartments of 5 units or more, office, retail, industrial and similar): closed purchase or sale 50; lease, renewal or extension 10 per year of the lease, up to a five year maximum per transaction; property management 15 per property per year.
• Farm and ranch and unimproved land: closed purchase or sale 30; executed lease 5; property management 5 per property per year.
• Delegated supervision: 3 per transaction.

Any false claim of experience is grounds to deny the application or to suspend or revoke the applicant's current license.

Broker eligibility: education

• 270 hours of qualifying courses, including the 30 hour Real Estate Brokerage course completed not more than two years before the application date. The mandatory list also includes Principles of Real Estate I and II, Law of Agency, Law of Contracts, Promulgated Contract Forms and Real Estate Finance.
• 630 classroom hours of related education: qualifying courses, TREC-approved continuing education, or college credit courses in accounting, advertising, architecture, business or management, construction, finance, investments, law, marketing or real estate.
• The six-hour Broker Responsibility Course, which every broker applicant must now attend. It can count toward the related hours.
• A bachelor's degree or higher is deemed to satisfy 300 classroom hours of the related education.
• Experience above the 720-point minimum earns credit of one classroom hour for every two points, for up to 300 classroom hours.

Application, background check and exam

• The application expires one year from the date it is filed, and every requirement must be met within that year.
• Fingerprints must be on file with the Texas Department of Public Safety; a license will not issue until the background check is passed.
• The exam has a National portion of eighty (80) scored items and a Texas Broker State portion of fifty (50) scored items. A broker applicant needs at least 75% on each portion, which is 60 and 38 correct answers. Sales agents need 70%.
• Each passed portion is valid for one year; retake only the failed portion. After three consecutive failures: 30 more hours of qualifying education for one failed part, 60 hours for both.
• The exam is waived for an applicant licensed as a Texas broker within two years before filing. The national portion may be waived for an applicant who holds an active license in another state equivalent to the license being applied for and passed a comparable accredited national exam.
• A broker licensed in another state with comparable requirements is exempt from the experience and education rules, but must show the continuing education a timely renewal would have required in the two years before filing. Texas has no reciprocity with any state.

Keeping the license: duties to TREC

• Continuing education: 18 hours per renewal, including Legal Update I (four hours), Legal Update II (four hours), three hours on contracts, and the six-hour Broker Responsibility Course for every broker and every delegated supervisor.
• Contact information: mailing address, business address, business phone number and business email, with changes reported not later than the 10th day after the change. An associated broker also reports the name of the broker it is associated with.
• Place of business: a resident broker keeps a fixed office in Texas, shown on the license, and applies for a new license not later than the 10th day after moving. A nonresident broker needs no place of business in Texas.
• Convictions: notify TREC not later than the 30th day after a final conviction of, or a guilty or nolo contendere plea to, a felony or a criminal offense involving fraud.

Associated broker

A broker who associates with and is paid through another broker in a continuing relationship, as an employee or independent contractor.

Active experience

Licensed time while the license is active; inactive periods never count toward the four years.

Broker Responsibility Course

The six-hour course every broker applicant, broker and supervising sales agent must take.

Where this shows up on the exam

Licensing is 4 of the 50 scored items on the Texas Broker State Law outline (effective April 15, 2020). Expect point math, the two-year Brokerage-course window, degree and surplus-point credit, and the 75% pass mark. The outline predates SB 1968, so answer under current law.

Sources

North Carolina law as published by the General Assembly and the Office of Administrative Hearings, checked 2026-11-05:

• Tex. Occ. Code §§1101.002, 1101.005, 1101.351, 1101.354, 1101.356, 1101.359, 1101.552, 1101.652(a)
• 22 TAC §§535.21, 535.56, 535.57, 535.92
• TREC, Become an Individual Real Estate Broker (retrieved 2026-11-08)
• TREC, What's Changed for Texas Brokers in 2026 (retrieved 2026-11-08)
• Pearson VUE Texas Real Estate Candidate Handbook #094400 (September 2026) and outline #094401