The Education Standards Advisory Committee (ESAC) met on April 7 to hear updates from agency staff on the upcoming launch of a new licensing system, and to review rule changes related to exam proctoring.

Going Online

Later this year, the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) is rolling out a new licensing system that will allow TREC-approved education providers to submit course and provider applications online. This also means all documentation typically required with those applications will be submitted through the new online format.

Getting your business done with the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) and the Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board (TALCB) is about to get even easier.

The Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) hosted its first meeting of the year in Austin with a room full of Texas REALTORS® in attendance to earn continuing education credit and receive updates from the agency’s staff and advisory committee members. Here’s what happened.

Thank You for Your Service

The Commission recognized these departing advisory committee members:

For the Texas Real Estate Commission, 2025 opens with the first meeting of the year held by the Education Standards Advisory Committee (ESAC). Its January 6 agenda began with an introduction of new members:

• Christina Valero, license holder member
• Christopher Gonzales, license holder member
• Paul Silverman, educator

Reappointments were also made:

After combing through 1,100 complaints during his 11-year tenure with the Commission, TREC Chief Investigator Roy Minton wins Investigator of the Year for a second time. The first win was in 2019. Both recognitions, by the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO), were given for Minton’s work in uncovering rental fraud.

The changes listed below, recommended by the Broker-Lawyer Committee, were adopted by the Texas Real Estate Commission during its November 4 meeting. These apply to all contract forms unless specified otherwise.

Multiple contract form changes were adopted by the Texas Real Estate Commission during the November 4 TREC Meeting after being recommended by the Broker-Lawyer Committee (BLC). Some of those changes are in response to industry practice changes around broker compensation.

“This has been a topic of interest across the whole industry and represents a lot of hard work on behalf of the Broker-Lawyer Committee and staff,” said TREC Executive Director Chelsea Buchholtz. “This is ongoing. We are not finished yet.”

With the notion of keeping everything under one roof, Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) staff took on a new part of the development of the 2024-2025 Legal Update I & II courses. Thanks to the skills and talent of TREC Director of Government and Strategic Communications Summer Mandell, this book was wholly produced in-house, to include the design of the course materials.

During the Texas Real Estate Commission’s Education Standards Advisory Committee (ESAC) meeting on October 7, the group reviewed three rules regarding course proctoring and student identification requirements. Multiple changes were recommended but before a dig into the highlights, a congratulations.

The Texas Broker-Lawyer Committee (BLC) met twice in July to discuss its routine work of reviewing TREC’s forms, but also to discuss potential changes to the TREC contract forms as a result of the proposed NAR settlement related to compensation.