Real estate sales agents in the state of Texas must complete specific education courses, as required by Texas law. If you are applying to renew your Texas Sales Apprentice license for the first time, you must complete Sales Apprentice Education (SAE) courses. If you are a licensed sales agent, you must complete 18 hours of continuing education (CE) courses every two years to renew your license.
Texas Sales Apprentice Education (SAE) Requirements
First-time Sales Apprentices in the state of Texas are required by law to take a total of 98 hours of qualifying Texas SAE courses. These classes will provide you with the knowledge needed to sell real estate in the state of Texas. These courses only need to be taken when renewing your license for the first time.
Required courses include:
Four hours of TREC Legal Update I.
Four hours of TREC Legal Update II.
In addition to the required eight hours of TREC Legal Update, new Sales Apprentices must also take an additional 90 credit hours in topics such as:
Principles of Real Estate: This course covers licensing, ethics, titles, legal descriptions, deeds encumbrance, liens, distinctions between personal and real property, appraisals, closing procedures, and a minimum of three hours on laws related to housing and credit discrimination.
Law of Agency: Agency courses cover topics such as agent authority, termination of agent authority, employment law, listing procedures, and disclosure of agency, among other topics.
Law of Contracts: This course covers topics related to offers and acceptances, fraud, breach of contracts, commission rules, and owner disclosure requirements.
Promulgated Contract Forms: An exploration of commission rules governing the use of forms, broker-lawyer relationships, and unauthorized practice of law.
Real Estate Finance: A review of primary and money markets, mortgage loan sources, loan application processes, closing costs, equal credit opportunity acts, and community reinvestment.
These courses are required for all apprentice sales agents license renewals. Please note, starting October 1, 2023, TREC requires a 30-hour Real Estate Brokerage course as part of SAE in order to renew. The remaining hours can be selected from a list of approved elective courses on topics such as real estate appraisal, real estate law, marketing, mathematics, property management, investments, and real estate inspection.Texas Continuing Education (CE) Courses for Real Estate Sales Agents
Every two years, real estate agents in the state of Texas receive a license renewal reminder. To qualify for license renewal, the state of Texas requires agents to complete a total of 18 hours of continuing education.
These courses must include:
Four hours of TREC Legal Update I.
Four hours of TREC Legal Update II.
Three hours of a Contract Course
Seven hours of elective courses.
Elective courses for real estate CE in Texas may include:
Appraisal: A course on the function and purpose of appraisals, what determines value, market and income-based value estimates, case studies, and appraisal reports.
Real Estate Law: Covers the main tenants of real estate law, including land description, conveyances, encumbrances, foreclosures, and titles.
Real Estate Marketing: Covers how to market your business, real estate professionalism, ethics, time management, how psychology impacts marketing, listing policies, advertising, and the Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act.
Real Estate Mathematics: Learn math and logic skills you'll need to be successful as a real estate sales agent, including percentages, interest, depreciation, proration, amortization, and how to estimate closing statements.
Property Management: Learn about the role of a property manager, basic landlord policies, negotiating leases, building tenant relationships, handling maintenance, habitability laws, and the Fair Housing Act.
Real Estate Investments: Covers topics related to real estate investment including investment analysis, time-valued money, discounted and non-discounted investment criteria, leverage, tax shelters, and property depreciation.
Residential Inspection: Learn about property condition addendum, inspector and client agreement, tools and procedures, and the basics of inspecting plumbing, HVAC, appliances, roofs, gutters, paved areas, walls, doors, windows, fireplaces, doors, and more.
What Are the Main Differences Between Texas CE and Texas SAE Courses?
SAE
You must have a total of 270 qualifying real estate course hours before you can renew for the first time. This number includes the 180 hours of pre-license coursework you've already completed, plus three 30-hour Qualifying Education courses you'll need to complete before your first renewal 2 years after getting licensed. You'll also need 4 hours of TREC’s Legal Update I, and 4 hours of TREC’s Legal Update II.
If you’ve been made a supervisor, you may also need to take the 6-hour Broker Responsibility course to renew.
Make sure to submit all documents to TREC at least 10 days before renewal, when choosing your courses make sure you do NOT repeat the same one within a 2-year period or it won’t count.
CE
You must complete 18 hours of courses including 4 hours of Legal Update 1 and 4 hours of Legal Update II
You’ll need to take 3 hours of contracts-related coursework as well.
The last 7 hours can come from any elective courses approved by TREC.
Like the SAE requirements, if you’ve been made a supervisor, you’ll need to take the 6-hour Broker Responsibility course.
These requirements must be met every two years after the first renewal.
Make sure to submit all documents to TREC at least 10 days in advance to your renewal date.
*This article was updated on 5/1/23