When is 900 hours not really 900 hours?

To be eligible to apply for your broker’s license, the Real Estate License Act requires you to have two years of active salesperson experience in Texas in the preceding eight years and complete 900 classroom hours of education. Core real estate courses must account for no less than 270 of those hours, while you may use related courses to make up the balance.

Before you choke on the thought of sitting through 900 hours–37.5 24-hour days–of classes, remember that you’ve already taken quite a few courses to acquire and maintain your salesperson’s license. You probably don’t possess 900 hours’ worth, but you may be able to put a big dent in the requirement.

If you’ve been an agent for at least three years, you should have at least 180 hours of core courses to your credit–two-thirds of the core course requirement.

If you earned a college degree or have taken any college-level classes, those probably count as related classes. To verify where you stand with your education requirements, submit your college transcripts to TREC as part of an evaluation of your education documents along with certificates of completion of any other courses that you think may apply.

Check out these Web pages for more information:

• List of core real estate courses: www.trec.state.tx.us/education/core.asp

• List of related courses: www.trec.state.tx.us/education/related.asp

• Request for evaluation of education documents: www.trec.state.tx.us/pdf/education/ed-eval.pdf

Buyers & sellers, visit www.texasrealestate.com.
REALTORS®, visit www.texasrealtors.com.