Texas Real Estate Sales Agent Exam Guide (2026)

• At least 18 years old.
• A U.S. citizen or lawfully admitted alien.
• Able to satisfy TREC as to your honesty, trustworthiness, and integrity.
• Fingerprinted for a criminal history check through the Department of Public Safety and the FBI (scheduled through IdentoGO, using the TREC ID from your eligibility letter).
• Completed 12 semester hours of qualifying courses: Principles of Real Estate I and II (four semester hours of principles), plus Law of Agency, Law of Contracts, Promulgated Contract Forms, and Real Estate Finance (two semester hours each).

1. Finish your qualifying courses and apply to TREC.
2. Get your eligibility letter and TREC ID, then complete fingerprinting.
3. Schedule with Pearson VUE (now branded Pearson Professional Assessments). The sales exam fee is $58 (handbook rev. 08/2026). TREC's own application fee is separate—check TREC for the current amount.
4. Pass both portions. Your eligibility lasts one year from the date your application was filed.
5. Have a sponsoring broker. Without one, your license is inactive and you can't practice.

Both passing standards work out to 70%. You can't tell pretest questions from scored ones, so give every item full effort. Pace yourself at about 1.8 minutes per question on each portion.

Retakes: you get three attempts to pass both portions within one year of your application, and you retake only the portion you failed ($58 each time). Fail a portion three times and you'll need 30 more hours of qualifying education—or 60 if you failed both portions—before you can test again or reapply.

Test day: bring two forms of current signature ID in English; the primary must be government-issued with a photo. Calculators aren't required but are recommended; financial calculators are fine as long as they have no alpha characters, and the test center won't provide one. You'll learn pass or fail before you leave.

These counts add up to 50, the total number of state-portion questions including unscored pretest items. For the national portion's eight areas, see the real estate exam guide.

• IABS. Give the Information About Brokerage Services notice at the first substantive communication with a party about specific property. Exceptions: a residential lease for less than one year with no sale being considered; meeting a party you know is represented by another license holder; and (since January 1, 2026) a conversation at a property held open for prospective buyers or tenants that concerns that property. Business websites need a home-page link with TREC's required label.
• Written buyer agreements (since January 1, 2026). A license holder who does any brokerage for a prospective buyer of residential property must sign a written agreement with the buyer before showing any property (or before presenting an offer if nothing is shown). It must state the services, a termination date, whether it's exclusive, whether you represent the buyer, and the compensation amount or rate—plus a conspicuous statement that broker compensation isn't set by law and is fully negotiable. A showing-only agreement can't be exclusive and can't run more than 14 days.
• Intermediary, not dual agency. A broker who represents both sides must act as an intermediary with each party's written consent stating the source of any expected compensation, and must stay fair and impartial. If the consent authorizes it, the broker can appoint a different associate to each party (with written notice), and appointed associates can give opinions and advice.
• What an intermediary can't disclose: that the seller will take less than the asking price or the buyer will pay more than the offer (without written authorization), or other confidential information unless authorized, required by law, or material to the property's condition.
• Minimum duties. A broker representing a party must pass along material information and, at a minimum, answer the party's questions and present any offer.
• Forms and the law. Use TREC-approved forms for the transaction; don't practice law or give legal advice. When the buyer signs an offer, advise in writing to have the abstract examined by an attorney or get a title policy—skip it and you can't collect a commission.
• Money. Sales agents take compensation only through their sponsoring broker, and a commission agreement must be in writing and signed to be enforceable in court. The Recovery Trust Account pays up to $125,000 per transaction and $250,000 per license holder.
• Disclosures and property law. A late Seller's Disclosure Notice gives the buyer 7 days to terminate for any reason. Homestead limits: 10 acres urban; 200 acres rural for a family, 100 for a single adult. Texas is a community property state.

Broker Dana lists the Nguyens' house. A buyer, Chris, meets agent Maria at the open house and later asks Dana's firm to represent him on that house.

1. Buyer agreement. Before Maria shows Chris any property, Chris signs a written buyer representation agreement with Dana's firm.
2. Consent. Dana gets written consent from the Nguyens and Chris to act as intermediary and to make appointments, stating the source of the expected compensation.
3. Appointments. With written notice to both, Dana appoints agent Maria to Chris and agent Luis to the Nguyens. Now Maria can advise Chris on what to offer, and Luis can advise the Nguyens on how to respond.
4. Confidentiality. The house is listed at $389,000, and the Nguyens told Luis in writing they'd take $375,000. Nobody at the firm can pass that to Chris without the Nguyens' written instruction.
5. Dana stays neutral. As the intermediary broker, Dana treats both parties fairly and impartially; the advice comes from the appointed associates.

Exam questions love to ask which of these steps someone skipped. Our Texas-style practice test includes a case study built exactly like this.

Texas licenses are issued for 24 months. For your first renewal, the License Act requires 18 semester hours of qualifying courses in total, including required legal topics—this post-license coursework is called Sales Agent Apprentice Education (SAE). Check TREC for the current SAE course list and deadline details. After that, you'll complete continuing education each renewal.

Remember that your license stays inactive until a broker sponsors you, and if you leave your sponsor, TREC places the license on inactive status until a new broker takes you on.

1. Week 1: Take our national and Texas practice tests in exam mode to find your weak areas.
2. Week 2: National portion—contracts and agency first (16 of 80 scored items), then valuation and property characteristics. Daily math sets.
3. Week 3: State portion—agency and brokerage, standards of conduct, and contracts. Know the IABS rules, intermediary steps, and the promulgated forms inside out.
4. Week 4: Timed practice for both portions at real pacing. Because you retake only the portion you fail, make sure neither one is borderline before you test.