# How Much Does a Texas Real Estate License Cost? Updated October 16, 2026 from Texas Real Estate Commission records. TREC's own fees come to **$286** for someone who passes the exam first time and has never been fingerprinted for TREC. Everything else — the coursework, exam retakes, and the education and fees that come due at your first renewal — is on top, and most cost pages stop before they get to it. - **$286** state fees to get licensed (application, fingerprints, one exam attempt) - **$43** each exam attempt (paid to Pearson VUE) - **56.12%** pass first time (both portions, statewide) - **$110** renewal fee (every two years, on time) ## Getting licensed: the state fees | Fee | Amount | Paid to, and when | |---|---|---| | Sales agent original application | $206.00 | TREC, when you file through the REALM Portal — $150 application plus $6 Texas Online, $40 Texas A&M Research Center and $10 Real Estate Recovery | | Fingerprinting | $37.00 | IDEMIA, after TREC authorises your appointment — only if you have not previously been fingerprinted for TREC | | Sales agent exam, per attempt | $43.00 | The exam provider, Pearson VUE, each time you sit it | | **Total, passing first time** | **$286.00** | | | Fitness Determination (optional) | $54.00 | TREC, before you apply — worth it only if something in your history might be a problem | From [TREC's fee schedule](https://www.trec.texas.gov/agency-information/fee-schedule) effective 15 December 2025, read on 20 September 2026. Fees change; TREC's page is authoritative where this one is not. Course sites ranking for this question have quoted the exam fee as $54 and $58. It is $43. ## The coursework: the biggest cost, and the one we do not print The 180 hours of qualifying education — six 30-hour courses — cost more than every state fee combined, and the price is the least stable number in the process. Providers sell tiered packages and run near-constant promotions, so any range we printed would be out of date within weeks. Check the price on the provider's own page on the day you buy. What we can give you is the number that should decide the purchase: each provider's exam pass rate, straight from TREC, with the sample size beside it. A cheaper course that sends you back for a second or third attempt is not cheaper. [Every approved provider's pass rate](https://txlicensedata.online/exam-pass-rates/) *(Two providers in that table pay this site a commission; the table says which, and is sorted by a neutral column.)* Two of those providers were priced by hand on September 22, 2026: AceableAgent's packages were $449, $519 and $669, and Colibri Real Estate's were $299 to $449 with a code applied on their page. Those are the figures from that date, not today's — promotional pricing moves weekly, and this page drops them automatically 30 days after the check rather than show you a number nobody re-read. Read the live price yourself: [AceableAgent](https://txlicensedata.online/go/ace/cost) and [Colibri Real Estate](https://txlicensedata.online/go/colibri/cost). *(Affiliate links: this site is paid a commission if you enrol through either, at no extra cost to you. They are two of the 30 providers TREC approves; the other 28 are in the pass-rate table, priced by nobody.)* ## What a failed exam really costs Statewide, 56.12% of candidates pass both portions of the exam first time — so a retake is close to a coin flip, not a rare event. Each attempt is another $43. The expensive part is the third failure: fail either portion three times and you must complete **30 more classroom hours of qualifying education for each portion you failed** before you may test again. That is another course purchase, more weeks of study, and 5–7 business days for TREC to re-authorise you with Pearson VUE — all while the one-year clock on your application keeps running. [How the exam works](https://txlicensedata.online/texas-real-estate-exam/) ## The cost nobody lists: your brokerage Once licensed you must be sponsored by a broker to practise, and brokerages charge in very different ways — commission splits, monthly or desk fees, per-transaction fees, and sometimes association dues on top. TREC does not regulate those terms and no public dataset records them, so we cannot measure them. Ask every brokerage you talk to for the full schedule in writing. [Who sponsors new agents, from TREC's records](https://txlicensedata.online/find-a-sponsoring-broker/) ## After you are licensed: the costs that come due | Cost | Amount | When | |---|---|---| | Sales Apprentice Education (90 hours) and Legal Update I & II (8 hours) | course prices | Before your first renewal, two years in — cannot be deferred | | Renewal, on time | $110.00 | Every two years | | Late renewal, under 90 days | $143.00 | Up to 90 days after expiry | | Late renewal, over 90 days | $176.00 | 90 days to six months after expiry | | Reinstatement | $196.00 | Six months to two years after expiry; after two years you reapply and retake the exam | | CE Deferral Fee | $200.00 | Renewing active without finishing continuing education — buys 60 days | | 18 hours of continuing education | course prices | Each renewal after the first, to stay active | **89,325** Texas licenses currently sit in TREC's "expired less than six months" status — the window in which the late fees above apply. That is a grace category, not people leaving the business, but it shows how often renewal deadlines are missed. [What renewal requires, step by step](https://txlicensedata.online/after-your-texas-license/) ## Common questions **Q:** How much does it cost to get a Texas real estate license? TREC's fees total $286 if you pass the exam first time and have not previously been fingerprinted for TREC: the $206 application, $37 for fingerprints and $43 for the exam. The 180 hours of required coursework are priced separately by each provider and are the largest single cost. **Q:** How much does it cost to renew a Texas real estate license? $110 on time, every two years, plus the required education. Renewing late costs $143 within 90 days of expiry and $176 from 90 days to six months; after six months the license must be reinstated for $196. --- Source: https://txlicensedata.online/texas-real-estate-license-cost/ Computed from TREC open data on data.texas.gov; updated October 16, 2026. Licensed CC-BY 4.0. Method: https://txlicensedata.online/methodology/