Best Schools For Renewing Your Texas Real Estate License
If you are like most people, you view continuing education (CE) like going to the dentist for a checkup. You don’t really want to do it, but you know it is for your own good.
As a licensed real estate agent in Texas, the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) requires you to renew your license every 2 years by completing continuing education and paying the appropriate renewal fee.
There are different CE requirements depending on your situation, so let’s take a quick moment to review what you will need to do.
Texas Real Estate Renewal Requirements
| First-Time Renewal | Second and All Subsequent Renewals | |
|---|---|---|
| Sales Agent | 90 hours of Sales Apprentice Education (SAE) 4 hours of Legal Update I 4 hours of Legal Update II | 10 hours of Elective CE* 4 hours of Legal Update I 4 hours of Legal Update II |
| Broker | 10 hours of Elective CE* 4 hours of Legal Update I 4 hours of Legal Update II | 10 hours of Elective CE* 4 hours of Legal Update I 4 hours of Legal Update II |
Now that you know how many hours you need, the next step is to choose the right school. With nearly 1,000 education providers approved to provide CE courses in Texas, this can seem like a daunting task.
Which one is the best school?
We don’t believe there is a single school that will be perfect for everyone. Everyone has a different learning style, budget, and studying habits. Furthermore, every school has their own strengths and weaknesses in their course offerings.
As a result, we have gone through the list and selected who we think are the top real estate schools that will accommodate the unique learning preferences of most individuals to renew your Texas real estate license.
This list would not be complete without mentioning the biggest name in real estate education: Colibri Real Estate.
Colibri Real Estate and McKissock Learning are actually subsidiary brands under the same parent company called Colibri Group. They use Colibri Real Estate for all pre-license and post-license education, while McKissock is the platform used for continuing education.
If you need SAE courses, then you would get them from Colibri Real Estate. They only have one online package that includes courses in Marketing, Property Management, and Brokerage. The courses look fresh and modern looking. Plus, they just started including free proctoring on their final exams.
If you are looking for CE courses, including Legal Update I and II, then you would get them through McKissock Learning. They have a long list of elective courses to choose from, and they allow you to customize your package.
What separates them from every other school is their annual membership program. This not only covers all of your CE requirements, but it also provides you with a plethora of options for professional development. There are hundreds of how-to videos, webinars, and job aids to help you bring your game to the next level.
Recommended for: the Value Shopper
If you are looking for the best real estate courses from a school in Texas, you need look no further than Aceable. Based in Austin, they started as a small online school and have since become a powerhouse in the industry. In fact, they now have the #1 overall pass rate on the Salespersons exam out of all of the biggest schools in the state.
One of the ways they were able to achieve that is by developing their own approach to courses. Rather than sound like an old college textbook, Aceable courses have been written in a style that sounds more conversational and friendly. This makes learning new concepts less intimidating and easier to digest.
Aceable also incorporates a lot of technology into their courses. While the course itself is simply online reading, they offer a balanced mix of short video clips and interactive exercises throughout to keep you engaged. There is also a mobile app that you can download on your phone, which makes studying on-the-go very convenient.
Everything is already setup for you as a 90-hour or 98-hour bundle, depending on your renewal needs. The SAE topics are in Real Estate Marketing, Investments, and Law. If you are looking for a no frills solution to getting your renewal done, Aceable makes the whole process as painless as possible.
Recommended for: Busy People
Champions School of Real Estate
Champions School of Real Estate is the 800-pound gorilla of real estate education in Texas. They are the biggest and most well-known education provider in Texas. More people have taken their award-winning courses to get licensed than any other real estate school.
Champions School of Real Estate offers a variety of formats to take the courses. You can drive to one of their seven campuses (Austin, Dallas, Houston Galleria, Houston North, West Houston, Fort Worth, and San Antonio) and sit in a classroom. You have the option to attend one of their ChampionsLive! Broadcasts and live-stream it so that you can watch it from home but still get that classroom feel. You can also choose to take the regular online courses, which are available in both PDFs and hardcopy books.
After you complete the courses, they will typically notify TREC within 24 hours.
Champions School of Real Estate is perfect for someone who wants to satisfy their CE requirements in a classroom. However, they are on the high side of the price range. They give you a decent selection of course topics to choose from and do a great job of providing their students with an immersive, learning experience.
Recommended for: Learning in the Classroom
The CE Shop has one of the most comprehensive and rigorous programs in the real estate industry. They are a 100% online-only shop and offer programs in all 50 states. This is really geared for people who are genuinely interested in learning first, satisfying CE requirements second.
The CE Shop only has one SAE package that includes the Appraisal, Brokerage, and Real Estate Investment courses. They have their own online proctoring service and charge $17.50 per test. There’s some funny fine print that you should be aware of. If you don’t pass the final exam, you can only re-take it once within 90 days. If you fail the second time, you must re-take the entire course again.
Besides their frequent promotions, what really stood out with The CE Shop was their course selection for continuing education. They currently have 26 elective CE courses to choose from, not counting the Legal Updates. They also offer the Code of Ethics training if you are a realtor looking to satisfy the bi-annual ethics CE requirement.
The CE Shop is a great choice for people who actually want to learn something and grow their knowledge of real estate. They offer a huge and growing selection of topics that will satisfy anyone’s appetite for knowledge.
Recommended for: the Knowledge Seeker
Is there another school that you think deserves to be on the list? We are always on the lookout for the best providers. Let us know in the comments section below.