Moving to Real From Houston: What to Decide and Ask Before You Sign

Fill in Real's application, including your sponsor's name and email if you are naming one, then sign the Independent Contractor Agreement and pay the one-time application fee. Your license moves when you request sponsorship by Real Broker, LLC in TREC's online licensing portal and Real's Texas broker can accept it. Within 30 days of signing the ICA you affiliate with a board and an MLS.

Real's US fee schedule lists a $249 sign-up fee per agent, and any fees your state or board requires are listed at the payment step and paid before you can join. TREC says a sponsorship change can take a few hours to appear in its portal and on the license holder search. Once it is effective, you may update your IABS, list the new sponsoring broker in contracts and advertise under it. Real's ICA also moves every license you hold, in every state, unless you keep one inactive where you are not actively working.

Three things are set when you sign the ICA. Your sponsor, two co-sponsors or nobody: Real will not add a sponsor or change one afterward. Your join date: it sets your anniversary date, the first day of the following month, which is when your cap resets each year. And your stock purchase plan choice, carried in from the application, although you can opt out later.

If you have already paid a cap at your current brokerage, that amount does not count at Real, so the timing of your join date matters; Real says it can work with you on timing your onboarding date, and it grants cap deferments case by case. Opting out of the stock plan is allowed at any time, but you cannot opt back in until after your next anniversary reset date. The sponsor section of the ICA is initialed three times to show the selection is correct and cannot be changed once the ICA is signed.

No. Real's help center says any amounts paid to your previous brokerage will not be considered toward your cap at Real. It encourages agents to think about that when deciding to change brokerages, and says Real can work with you to time your onboarding date. An agent who has already capped may be granted a cap deferment, which Real decides case by case.

A cap deferment is an agreement between a new agent and Real that defers the agent's cap for a set period. In most cases, Real's help center says, it is granted to an agent who was capped at their previous brokerage, so they can join Real as a capped agent for a predetermined time. During the deferment there is no split to Real, so the agent's sponsor receives no revenue share on those deals.

Your cap year starts on your anniversary date, which Real sets as the first day of the calendar month after your join date. Your join date is the day you complete onboarding and transfer your license to Real. Your cap resets on each anniversary date, and you pay up to the cap amount in each anniversary year, so the day your license moves decides when your cap year runs.

Real's fee schedule states the same reset: the company cap resets every year on the agent's anniversary date. A cap paid at your previous brokerage does not count toward Real's, and Real says it can work with you on timing your onboarding date with that in mind. The stock purchase plan runs on the same calendar: an agent who opts out cannot opt back in until after the next anniversary reset date.

Every license you keep active does. Real's ICA has an exclusivity clause that requires agents to transfer their licenses to Real in every state where they are licensed and to become a paying dues member of a local association or board in each of those states. The alternative Real offers is to keep a license inactive in any state where you are not actively working.

In Texas, a licensed sales agent may engage in real estate brokerage only while sponsored by a licensed broker and acting for that broker, which is why the move includes a sponsorship request to Real Broker, LLC in TREC's online licensing portal. You also have to affiliate with a board and an MLS within 30 days of signing the ICA. Real's fees are set out on the page about how Real works for an agent.

No. In Texas, a sales agent is sponsored by a licensed broker and may engage in real estate brokerage only while acting for that broker; after the move, that broker is Real Broker, LLC. A sponsor at Real is a person you name in your application, alone or as one of two co-sponsors, and naming one is optional.

The two are recorded in different places. Your sponsoring broker changes through TREC's online licensing portal, where you request sponsorship and Real's Texas broker can accept it; once TREC shows the change as effective, you may update your IABS and advertise under the new broker. Your sponsor at Real goes into the ICA from your application, and if you name nobody, one cannot be added later. How to choose one is covered on the page about what a sponsor at Real does.