Five steps. Zero guesswork. Your brokerage.
You've been the agent. Now you'll be the broker, the one whose name goes on the door. The path is five steps in a fixed order, and you'll walk them with a mentor who has already made this exact move. Here's the whole thing, demystified.
Do you qualify? Three boxes to check.
TREC's broker eligibility rules read like a tax form. They boil down to three things. Not sure where you land? Call us, we'll look at your history together and tell you straight.
Complete your 270 core qualifying hours.
The broker license requires 900 hours of qualifying education. Here's the math:
- 270 core hours: seven required 30-hour courses (Principles I & II, Law of Agency, Law of Contracts, Promulgated Contract Forms, Real Estate Finance, and Real Estate Brokerage), plus a few elective hours to round out 270. Only the Real Estate Brokerage course has a time limit: it must be completed within 2 years of applying.
- 630 additional hours, built from any combination of:
- Your existing agent hours (every licensed agent has at least 278 built in, 180 pre-license hours plus 98 hours of SAE, often more with other continuing education)
- A bachelor's degree, any subject: credits 300 hours
- Experience points earned beyond the required 720 minimum: convert at 2:1, up to 300 hours
- This bucket must also include the separate 6-hour Broker Responsibility Course, no 2-year expiration on this one.
A large share of agents still need to take some additional coursework to close the remaining gap, that's normal, and it's exactly what we're here for.
View the official TREC Qualifying Experience Report (BL-A form) ↓Submit your broker application to TREC.
Already a licensed Texas agent? Good news: you already have a TREC REALM account. No new registration, no activation emails, log into the portal you already use, and apply for the broker license from there.
Fingerprinting, if you even need it.
Coming in from out of state? Texas runs a fingerprint background check through IdentoGO. Booking your appointment online takes about 5 minutes; the visit itself depends on your location and any wait at the center, so leave more time than you'd think. The only tricky part is finding one number. Here's exactly where it is.
Master the exam while TREC does its paperwork.
The 7-10 days TREC spends processing your application is the single best study window you'll ever get. Your 270 hours are fresh, there's nothing left to file, nothing to wait on but them. And the broker exam demands more than the one you passed years ago, the bar is 75%, not 70%. Use the window.
Schedule and pass the Pearson VUE broker exam.
Once TREC approves your application, you'll get an eligibility letter and can book your seat at any Pearson VUE testing center in Texas. Two portions in one sitting, and here's the difference from the agent exam you remember: both portions require 75% to pass, not 70%. Higher bar, same preparation principle: walk in having already done it.
Why the two numbers: each portion mixes in a handful of unscored "pretest" questions TREC uses to build future exams. They look identical to the real ones and aren't identified, so there's no way to spot them and no reason to try. Answer every question the same, and only the scored ones count toward your 75%.
Pass, and you're a Texas broker, your own name on the license, your own brokerage if you want it. And if test day doesn't go your way the first time, call us. We look at your score report together, build a plan, and you retake it. We pick up the pieces. That's the job.
Your brokerage is real. Right now, Google doesn't know that.
Search your own name today and you'll probably find a Facebook profile, a HAR listing buried among hundreds of other agents, and nothing that says you're the broker now. Make a Nest builds you a real, professional site, your story, your market, your closed deals, live in 72 hours.
"This is way better than the standard agent website. It positions me as a strategic advisor instead of just another Realtor." — Nik Shehu, Broker
How our students walk in ready.
Twenty years of exam-day phone calls, distilled to four habits. None of them are complicated. All of them work, especially with a 75% bar.
Becoming the broker is easier with one beside you.
We're the only school where unlimited 1-on-1 tutoring comes standard, and where a real person always picks up. Call and ask anything: your experience points, your hours, how fast you could realistically finish.