How to Become a Realtor in Texas: Education, Exam, and Costs

To become a Realtor in Texas, you first become a licensed real estate sales agent through the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC): complete 180 hours of approved coursework, pass a background check, pass a two-part licensing exam administered by Pearson VUE, pay about $206 in application fees, and get a sponsoring broker to activate your license. The “Realtor” title itself is separate. It belongs to members of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), and you earn the right to use it by joining your local association after you’re licensed.

Plan on three to six months from your first class to your first showing, and budget realistically. The license fee is the small part of the bill.

Who Qualifies to Apply

Texas Occupations Code § 1101.354 sets the baseline. You must be at least 18, a U.S. citizen or lawfully admitted alien, and able to show TREC the honesty, trustworthiness, and integrity the statute requires.¹ TREC runs a criminal background check on every applicant and reviews any history of professional discipline.

A record doesn’t automatically disqualify you, but it should change your order of operations. If you have convictions, unpaid judgments, or discipline on another professional license, TREC recommends requesting a Fitness Determination before you spend money on classes.² The preliminary review runs around $50 and tells you whether your background is likely to block the license. Finding out after you’ve paid for 180 hours of coursework is the expensive way to learn.

The 180-Hour Education Requirement

Before you can sit for the exam, you need 180 classroom hours of qualifying real estate courses from a TREC-approved provider. TREC splits those hours into six 30-hour courses:¹

Principles of Real Estate I
Principles of Real Estate II
Law of Agency
Law of Contracts
Promulgated Contract Forms
Real Estate Finance

You can take the courses online or in a classroom, but the provider must be TREC-approved. Most people finish in two to six months depending on how much time they can give it each week. Save every certificate of completion. You’ll upload them with your application, and TREC will cross-reference them against the records your provider submits electronically. Mismatched provider names or dates slow processing.

Fingerprints and Background Check

Every applicant submits fingerprints so TREC can run checks through the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI. The vendor is IDEMIA, and the fee is $37.³ You first obtain a FAST Fingerprint Pass from TREC, which acts as your appointment ticket, then schedule your fingerprinting session with IDEMIA.⁴

Start this early. Background checks can take weeks, and unreadable prints occasionally need a redo. A fingerprinting delay is the kind of thing that pushes an exam date back a month for no good reason.

Filing the Application With TREC

Once your coursework is done and your prints are submitted, you file your sales agent application through TREC’s REALM Portal.⁵ The application collects your personal and contact information, your Social Security number, and your education history.

The total fee is $206, paid at submission.³ Once TREC processes payment and verifies your education and background check, it issues an eligibility letter that lets you schedule the exam.

Passing the Licensing Exam

Pearson VUE administers the Texas real estate sales agent exam at testing centers across the state. It has two sections: 85 national questions and 40 Texas-specific questions, for a total of 125. Some items are unscored pretest questions, but you won’t be told which. To pass, you need at least 56 correct on the national section and at least 28 correct on the state section.⁶

Each attempt costs $43, whether you take one section or both.⁶ If you fail one section and pass the other, you only retake the one you failed. Scores come back immediately.

Two time limits matter. You must pass the exam within one year of filing your application. And if you fail three times in a row within that window, you can’t test again or file a new application until you complete additional education prescribed by TREC.¹

Activating the License With a Sponsoring Broker

Passing the exam does not put you in business. TREC issues your license as inactive. To activate it, you need a sponsoring broker, meaning a licensed Texas real estate broker who agrees to supervise your work. Sales agents in Texas cannot operate independently; every transaction has to flow through your sponsoring broker.

Sponsorship is set up through the REALM Portal: you submit the request, your broker accepts it online, and your status flips to active.⁵

Which broker you choose is one of the biggest early-career decisions you’ll make. Commission splits with new agents vary a lot. A 50/50 split is common for brand-new agents, with more favorable splits like 70/30 or 80/20 available as you gain experience or at brokerages with different fee models. Some brokerages charge desk fees or technology fees instead of taking a larger split. Talk to several before signing.

Joining NAR to Use the Realtor Title

A TREC license makes you a licensed real estate sales agent in Texas. It does not make you a Realtor. “Realtor” is a trademarked title reserved for members of the National Association of Realtors.⁷ You join through your local association of Realtors, which automatically enrolls you at the state and national levels.

NAR dues for 2026 are $156, plus a $45 special assessment for consumer advertising, so $201 at the national level alone.⁸ Local and state dues come on top of that and vary by market. Membership also binds you to NAR’s Code of Ethics and a training requirement of at least two hours and 30 minutes every three years; letting that lapse leads to suspension and eventual termination.⁹

Most practicing Texas agents join, largely because MLS access in most markets runs through the local Realtor board. It is a real recurring cost, and it is entirely separate from what you pay TREC.

Keeping the License Active After You Get It

The first renewal is the one that catches new agents off guard. Texas licenses renew on a two-year cycle, and before your first renewal you must have completed a total of 270 qualifying course hours. Since the initial license took 180, that leaves 90 additional hours of Sales Apprentice Education (SAE) to earn in your first two years.¹⁰ Those 90 hours must include a 30-hour Real Estate Brokerage course and both Legal Update I and Legal Update II (four hours each). The hours have to be done before the renewal date, not after. Miss it and your license can’t be renewed until you catch up, which puts you out of practice in the meantime.

After the first renewal, each subsequent two-year cycle requires 18 hours of continuing education, with Legal Update I and Legal Update II (four hours each) required every cycle, plus three hours of contract-related coursework and seven elective hours.¹¹ Working on a lapsed license is a violation that can bring disciplinary action, so most agents finish CE well before the deadline.

What the First Year Really Costs

The application fee is a small slice of what you’ll spend before your first commission check. A realistic first-year picture:

Pre-licensing education (180 hours): $300 to $1,000, depending on provider and format
TREC application fee: $206³
Fingerprinting through IDEMIA: $37³
Pearson VUE exam: $43 per attempt⁶
NAR dues: $201 at the national level, plus local and state dues that vary by market
MLS access: varies by local board, often several hundred dollars per year
Errors and omissions insurance: included at some brokerages, carried individually at others

Add business cards, a lockbox subscription, marketing, and the SAE courses you’ll owe before first renewal, and the total first-year investment easily reaches $2,000 to $4,000 before you earn anything. Most Texas agents are paid only on commission, so a financial cushion during ramp-up matters more than new licensees expect.

1
State of Texas. Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1101 – Real Estate Brokers and Sales Agents
2
Texas Real Estate Commission. Request a Fitness Determination
3
Texas Real Estate Commission. Fee Schedule Effective December 15, 2025
4
Texas Real Estate Commission. Fingerprint Requirements and Fast Fingerprint Pass
5
Texas Real Estate Commission. REALM Portal Updates and FAQs – Application and Renewal
6
Pearson VUE. Texas Real Estate Candidate Handbook
7
NAR.realtor. NAR Membership Guide 2026
8
NAR.realtor. REALTORS Membership Dues Information
9
National Association of REALTORS. Code of Ethics Training Requirements – Existing Members
10
Texas Real Estate Commission. Renewing Your Sales Agent License for the First Time
11
Texas Real Estate Commission. Renew Your Sales Agent License