Why it's the Perfect Time to Earn Your Texas Real Estate License

What’s the real estate market like in the biggest state in the U.S.? It’s not all big lots and ranch estates, though you can find plenty of those in the Lone Star State – you can even find towns and cities that allow residents to keep horses on properties with enough acreage. Texas may be known for having plenty of open space, but its major metropolitan areas are growing and densifying quickly.

The Texas economy and population are booming while real estate prices appreciate at some of the fastest rates in the nation. There’s room to grow for real estate agents in Texas as cities expand and opportunities arise across the state.

RealEstateU offers online real estate courses in Texas that can prepare you for the Texas real estate exam. In Texas, you must complete 6 courses that are each 30 hours long, for a total of 180 hours. The courses include:

• Principles of Real Estate 1 & 2
• Law of Contracts
• Promulgated Contract Forms
• Law of Agency
• Real Estate Finance

Between these 6 courses, you will learn all the requirements for becoming a realtor in Texas and start practicing as a real estate agent. Once you complete the courses, there are a few more steps to follow, including:

• Completing the RealEstateU exam.
• Applying with the Texas Real Estate Commission to sit for the state exam.
• Getting fingerprinted by TREC and having a background check.
• Completing the state exam, which includes a national and state section.
• Applying for your active real estate license, something which must be completed with a real estate broker.

In addition to the Texas real estate classes you need to earn your real estate license, you can also sign up for the online exam prep course, specifically designed to help you pass the Texas real estate exam. It can reduce your study time by up to 90% and show you the key concepts you will need to remember to pass both national and state parts of the exam. It includes sample questions, an outline of key concepts, summaries, and practice quizzes. With the online exam prep course from RealEstateU, you can walk into the Texas real estate exam with confidence.

Becoming a real estate agent in Texas will open the door to plenty of opportunities. Every year, Texas gains around 400,000 new residents, a slowdown from nearly half-a-million per year in 2015. Much of that is driven by domestic migration, too – residents moving from other states in the U.S., rather than immigration. It’s driven the population up to 28 million and still growing quickly.

Compared to older metros in the Northeast, Texas is booming. Real estate can feel a bit slower in cities that aren’t growing as quickly, with sales taking longer and fewer major developments pushing out the borders of metro areas or spurring new condo and apartment growth in denser urban centers.

But growth isn’t the only thing that makes Texas a compelling place to become a real estate agent. These are some of the factors that make working in real estate in Texas different from anywhere else in America.

Diversity in Lot Sizes

There is a wide range of lot sizes available in many Texas metro areas. In Dallas-Fort Worth alone, there’s a huge availability of one-quarter and half-acre lots, townhouses, and high-rises throughout the metro area. On the other side of the state, there’s a growing trend for homeowners to install energy efficient options in El Paso, while old city centers are rich with 1920s bungalows that are highly desirable right now.

There’s some speculation that Texans may start looking to downsize to smaller lots and more affordable houses in the near future. Property taxes are skyrocketing in Dallas and other Texas cities, in part because high property taxes make up for the lack of an income tax. Texas’s rapid growth also means growing demand for police, fire, schools, and infrastructure, so municipalities are scrambling to find the funds from somewhere.

High Rises Are Growing

Texas’s biggest cities are experiencing a boom in high rise construction as more people move to Texas looking for apartments, condos, and office space. There has been a huge boom in skyscraper construction in Austin as the city becomes taller and denser, and construction has grown apace in Houston and Dallas as well.

That means real estate agents have more options. Texas is no longer a state where single family homes are the only way to sell commercial real estate. You can specialize in condos, apartment rentals, multi-unit sales, townhouses, or commercial leases.

You can also appeal to a wider range of lifestyles thanks to the construction boom and the growing demand for urban living. It may be nascent for now, but a growing number of Texans are looking for walkable neighborhoods, creative lifestyles, urban parks, and the other kinds of urban amenities you might look for in older cities in the U.S.

Outdoor Amenities

Texas offers a lot to people who live for the outdoors. From tree-lined streets to golf to horseback riding, Texas cities offer a lot to people who love the outdoors. A focus on people who love the outdoors is just one more way you can stand out from the crowd as a real estate agent. Appealing to a niche market can make a big difference in your marketing.

Vintage Homes and Urban Living

There’s a growing trend across the United States where people are willing to buy smaller and more expensive homes in exchange for urban lifestyles. Austin has long been the destination of Texans looking for a more urban version of Texas, best exemplified by those “Keep Austin Weird” T-shirts that speak to its creative, bohemian side.

But increasingly cities like Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso are developing the kind of downtown centers that attract knowledge workers and others. That includes townhouses, condos, apartments, and small-lot houses.

Growing Populations & Rising Housing Demand

With over four hundred thousand people moving to Texas each year, where are they all going? Suburbs and bedroom communities in Texas’s biggest metro areas are seeing the most rapid growth. Frisco, Texas, a town 25 miles from the Dallas-Forth-Worth Airport, has seen incredible growth in the past 30 years, from 6,000 in 1990 to over 180,000 estimated in 2018.

Bedroom communities like Frisco have a ton of recently-built houses and new communities. And while Frisco’s growth over the last three decades has transformed it from a village into a mid-sized city in its own right, it’s not even on the Top 10 list of fastest growing Texas cities that are undergoing similar transformations right now. The opportunities for real estate agents in Texas continue to multiply thanks to a strong economy and growth rates like these.

Affordable Homes See Highest Appreciation

As in so many parts of the U.S., affordable housing is in high demand. Affordable houses have seen the most rapid price appreciation as fewer starter homes are being built in favor of mid-to-high-end properties. It’s creating a supply crunch for many of the companies opening up factories and new offices in places like San Antonio and Plano. The price appreciation of affordable homes has made it an attractive investment, but with prices catching up to the mid-range of the market, the window is closing.

There is good news on the horizon for new homebuyers: in many parts of the U.S., prices are slowing down, and in Texas, the luxury-end (million-dollar-plus homes) have entered a buyer’s market. As luxury usually leads the industry, more easily influenced by changes in the stock market that lead the broader economy, many predict that as in other states, the real estate market will cool down. While the cool down in prices may frustrate listing agents, expect to get a lot more calls from clients hoping you can represent them as a buyer.

 

Start Getting Your Real Estate License in Texas Now

The real estate market in Texas is dynamic and healthy. Robust growth, increasing diversity in housing types, outdoor amenities, and growing urbanism in Texas’s major cities leave real estate agents with plenty of options to specialize and appeal to niche clientele. There’s something for everyone in the great state of Texas.

When you earn your real estate license in Texas, you can start helping people change their lives. Whether they’re moving to Texas, upsizing their home, downsizing their home, or moving to a new city for a new job, they need a real estate agent to help them set up and start their new lives.

Working as a real estate agent all starts when you sign up for online real estate courses in Texas. Get started today and you can join the Texas real estate market in no time. Don’t let the incredible opportunities opening up in the Texas real estate market pass you by.