Where to take the 180-hour Texas course
Texas requires six 30-hour qualifying courses. All three national schools sell the full set — the real difference is what happens at renewal, when another 90 hours falls due.
AceableAgent
- Texas is its home market, and it names all six 30-hour TREC courses explicitly so you can see the full 180 is covered
- Its top tier is the only single purchase we found anywhere that bundles the 180 hours and the SAE hours you owe before first renewal — which is the difference between one bill and two
- Appears in TREC's own published provider pass-rate table, so its results are checkable against a state source rather than its own marketing
- ⚠️ Its SAE bundle is described as 98 hours of SAE. SAE proper is 90; the other 8 are Legal Update I and II, which are continuing education. The bundle covers both, but the label is loose
The CE Shop
- Four tiers from course-only upward covering all six qualifying courses
- Sells the 90-hour SAE package as a clearly separate post-licensing product, so there is no ambiguity about what stage you are buying
- Catalogues qualifying and post-licensing education under distinct paths, which makes it easy to see the two-stage structure Texas actually has
- Runs a free trial before you commit
Colibri Real Estate
- Four packages covering the 180 hours, and it names the six qualifying courses correctly
- Labels the SAE options more precisely than most: it sells a 90-hour first-renewal package and a 98-hour version that states the 8 hours of mandatory Legal Updates separately
- ⚠️ Its Texas licensing page never mentions that another 90 hours falls due before your first renewal — you would have to find the post-licence page separately to learn it exists
- Careful with naming: its Exam Preparation tiers are full qualifying-education packages with prep bundled
How to get your Texas licence
Five steps in TREC's own order — and note that the application comes first, which starts a one-year clock over everything else.
File the application and pay $205
Texas front-loads this. From the day you file you have one year to meet every other requirement. If you have any criminal history, unpaid judgments or prior licence discipline, request a Fitness Determination first — $52, about 30 days, and TREC is explicit that once you have submitted your application it is too late to ask.
Get fingerprinted through IdentoGO
Texas requires prints on file with the Department of Public Safety so the background check can run. TREC publishes no fee for this; the vendor sets it.
Complete 180 hours across six courses
Principles of Real Estate I and II, Law of Agency, Law of Contracts, Promulgated Contract Forms and Real Estate Finance, at 30 hours each. Each course ends in a final needing 70% — no longer closed book, no longer proctored.
Pass the Pearson VUE exam
Eighty-five national and 50 state questions in four hours, needing 56 and 28 correct respectively. The fee is $43 and you get three attempts. Fail one portion and you retake only that one — but fail three times and you owe 30 more qualifying hours, or 60 if you failed both parts.
Find a sponsoring broker
You will already have been issued a licence — an inactive one. You cannot work until an active Texas broker sponsors you. Then, before your first renewal, another 90 hours of SAE including the compulsory 30-hour Real Estate Brokerage course.
From the Texas Real Estate Commission, Texas Occupations Code §§ 1101.354, 1101.355 and 1101.358, 22 TAC §§ 535.55, 535.62, 535.65, 535.91 and 535.92, the Texas Register adopted rules of 29 August 2025, TREC's fee schedule and the Pearson VUE Texas candidate handbook (January 2026), verified August 2026. ⚠️ Be careful where you verify the proctoring rule — TREC still hosts an undated page reciting the pre-September-2025 requirement, and both Cornell and Justia were still serving the repealed text when we checked. The Texas Register is the reliable source. No fingerprint fee, course shelf life or high-school minimum appears here because no official source publishes one.
Texas FAQs
Do Texas course finals still have to be proctored?
No. The requirement that every qualifying course final be closed book and proctored was repealed effective 3 September 2025. What remains is a 70% unweighted passing score and an obligation on the provider to administer the exam "under conditions that ensure the student taking the examination is the student who registered for and took the course" — identity assurance, not supervision. TREC's own adoption preamble states that closed-book examinations are no longer required. Expect to see the old rule repeated widely for a long time yet: TREC has an undated page still reciting it, and the legal databases most people check had not caught up when we looked.
How many hours does Texas require in total?
One hundred and eighty to get licensed, and 270 cumulative before your first renewal — the original 180 plus 90 hours of SAE — with 8 hours of Legal Update I and II on top of that. Be precise about the labels, because merchants are not: SAE is 90 hours. The 8 Legal Update hours are continuing education under a different rule, pulled into the first renewal by a cross-reference. A package advertised as "98 hours of SAE" is describing 90 + 8 under one name.
Is the SAE 90 hours of anything I like?
No, and this changed in October 2023. A 30-hour Real Estate Brokerage course is compulsory inside the 90, so only 60 hours are genuinely elective. Guides written before that change describe the SAE as a free choice of 90 hours.
What does my first renewal actually require?
Less than most sites say. The rule governing first renewal invokes the Legal Update I and II courses and the broker responsibility course where applicable — but deliberately omits the three-hour contracts requirement that applies at every later renewal. So at first renewal you owe the 90 SAE hours plus 8 hours of Legal Update, not the full 18-hour CE package. From your second renewal onward it is 18 hours: 4 Legal Update I, 4 Legal Update II, 3 on contracts and 7 elective.
Does Texas require errors and omissions insurance?
Not for individual sales agents. Texas does have a real, statutory $1 million E&O requirement — but it attaches to business entity broker licences where the designated broker owns less than 10% of the entity. A site-wide search of TREC returns only business-entity pages for errors and omissions, and the sales agent renewal page does not mention it at all. Affiliate pages that strip the qualifier turn a narrow entity rule into a blanket claim.
What is a Fitness Determination and when do I need one?
It is a pre-application review of your honesty, trustworthiness and integrity, and it costs $52 with a decision in about 30 days. You would want one if you have any criminal offences, unpaid judgments, discipline against a professional licence, or a history of unlicensed activity. The timing is unforgiving: TREC states that if you have already submitted your licence application, it is too late to request one. So it is the very first thing to do, before you spend anything on coursework.