Real Estate Licensing Reciprocity Questions

[Jonathan Orr]

Hi BP Agents

Need help clarifying things.  I am a licensed California sales person.  I have clients in California that are interested in properties in outside states (specifically Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Colorado).

I am wondering what I need to do to be apart of the properties they are looking at.  In the research I am doing I a bit confused on how Reciprocity and cooperative states work.  I realize in California I am limited to only properties in California.  However, if anyone can explain it on a basic level on what states Cooperate and if anyone has tips on what would be a good state to get licensed in so that I can use that license in other states (of course I would need a in state broker agreement).  Any tips or help is appreciated.

Thank you!

[Fred Heller]

@Jonathan Orr    It's funny because I'm looking into exactly the same thing, only in reverse. I've been looking into getting a California license.

Texas has no reciprocity with any state. I don't think California does either. But it's my understanding that I would receive credit in California for any Texas classes I took that are also required in California. So I would only have to take California-specific classes. At least that's what I was told by a California RE school. 

The problem is. I can't reach CALBRE. Every time I call the wait is literally hours long. And I need to speak with CALBRE to determine what classes I would need for California. You guys really need to work on that, by the way. You can get through to someone at TREC in a few minutes at most.

From everything I've seen Texas and California are pretty similar regarding licensing requirements, although Texas is tougher. Texas requires more hours of education than California. And Texas requires 4 years practical experience to get your broker's license, while California only requires 2.

So I would start out by calling TREC to find out what classes you need to take. You can take the classes online, but you would actually have to come to Texas to take the test and get fingerprinted. Once you get your license, you would need a Texas broker to sponsor you.