Texas and California: what an unlicensed brokerage assistant may do

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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A brokerage runs on work that needs no licence: phones, files, diaries, signs, bookkeeping. It also runs on work that does, and the two kinds sit side by side at the same desk. The person who types a contract may be asked a question about it. The person who books a viewing may be asked to unlock the door. Whether that person needs a real estate licence is decided state by state, and the answers are not the same.

This guide takes two states as worked cases. For Texas, it follows two articles published by the Texas Real Estate Commission, known as TREC, on the use of unlicensed assistants, together with the Commission's rules 535.4 and 535.5 and its published answers to frequent questions. For California, it follows the Guidelines for Unlicensed Assistants who Work in the Real Estate Industry, a document carried by the California Department of Real Estate. It sets out the tasks each state allows, the tasks each reserves for licence holders, what the pages say about pay and supervision, and what a mistake can cost. It describes general rules only; how they apply to one office depends on its facts.

Texas Real Estate Commission article on unlicensed individuals in real estate transactions (undated); California Department of Real Estate guidelines, last revised 5 January 2018. Both read on 10 October 2026.

The Texas test: an act for another, for something of value

Texas does not start from job titles. According to the Commission's articles, the question is whether a person performs an act of real estate brokerage for another person, for a fee or other thing of value, or with the intent to collect one. The newer of the two articles ties this to section 1101.002(1)(A) of the Texas Occupations Code, which speaks of acts done for "a commission or other valuable consideration".

Both halves of the test matter. The older article gives an example of the second half: an unlicensed person who helps a neighbour lease a property for nothing of value, and expects nothing in return, is not engaged in regulated activity. Take away the payment and the expectation of payment, and the licensing question falls away with them.

Inside a brokerage the second half is nearly always met, because an assistant is paid for the work. So the Texas analysis for a paid assistant turns on the first half: which of the tasks on the desk are acts of brokerage, and which are support for a licence holder who performs those acts.

The Commission's rule 535.4, headed "License Required", was read for this guide in the copy of the Texas Administrative Code published by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, which is not the official text. That copy records the rule's latest amendment as effective 1 January 2024. Its first subsection sets the reach of the Act by place: it covers anyone acting as a broker or sales agent while physically within Texas, wherever the property or the client is, and it treats brokerage carried out from another state by mail, telephone, internet or email as acting in Texas when the real property is wholly or partly in Texas.

Texas: the tasks an assistant may carry out

The Commission's two articles list what an unlicensed person may do in a Texas brokerage. Read together, they describe eight kinds of work.

1. Calling a homeowner to schedule an appointment for a licence holder to show a listing. The licence holder conducts the showing.
2. Placing "for sale" signs and newspaper advertisements as the broker directs.
3. Answering telephones and doing clerical or secretarial work, such as data entry or typing contracts, when a licence holder directs it.
4. Confirming information that is already in an advertisement.
5. Ordering supplies, scheduling maintenance and similar tasks that keep the office running.
6. Serving as office manager or bookkeeper, including training and office and personnel matters.
7. Helping a buyer gather information and forms for a loan, at a licence holder's direction, according to the older article.
8. Bookkeeping and routine property management tasks, such as arranging repairs, provided they do not involve controlling rent.

Three of these carry conditions that are easy to miss.

The first is direction. Typing a contract and entering data are allowed when a licence holder specifically directs the work. The newer article sets the limit on the other side: an unlicensed person may not review a contract or facilitate a transaction. The assistant fills in what the licence holder decided; the assistant does not decide.

The second concerns office managers. An unlicensed manager may handle training and office and personnel matters. Rule 535.4(e), as reproduced by the Legal Information Institute, requires a licence of any employee, agent or associate of a broker who directs or supervises others performing acts that need a licence. The older article puts it in practical terms: an unlicensed person may not direct or advise agents on their work. Managing the office is one job, and supervising the brokerage work done in it is another.

The third concerns loans. The older article allows help with gathering loan information and forms at a licence holder's direction. The newer article lists helping to arrange financing among the things an unlicensed assistant should not do, and sends questions about licensing for financing work to the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending. The two statements are not word for word the same, and neither article is dated, so this guide records both.

Confirming an advertisement: where the telephone answer stops

The most detailed permission in Texas is the narrowest. Rule 535.5, headed "License Not Required", says in its subsection (f) that answering services and clerical or administrative staff need no licence to confirm the size, price and terms of advertised property, as long as callers are told they are speaking to staff or to a service. The newer TREC article adds examples of what may be confirmed: the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and whether compensation is offered and how much.

The older article draws the boundary in two ways. The confirmation covers only the property the caller asked about, so offering details of a second listing is outside it. And an unlicensed person may not "qualify" callers; those questions must go to a licensed agent.

A worked example, with assumed facts: a caller rings about an advertised three-bedroom house and asks the receptionist to confirm the asking price. The receptionist, having said she is office staff, reads the price from the advertisement. The caller then asks whether the seller would accept less and whether the firm has anything similar nearby. Under the Commission's articles, both questions are for a licence holder: the first goes beyond the advertisement, and the second concerns other properties.

Texas: showings, open houses and cold calls

Three activities are closed to unlicensed assistants in Texas, and the Commission states each without qualification.

Showing property is the first. Rule 535.4(c), in the Legal Information Institute's copy, says that unless exempt, a person must hold a broker or sales agent licence to show a property. It then defines the word. To show a property includes causing or allowing a prospective buyer or tenant to view it, unlocking it or providing access to it, and hosting an open house at it. The definition is about access as much as about salesmanship: opening the door for a prospective buyer is showing, even if nothing is said.

Open houses follow from that definition. The newer TREC article says: "An unlicensed assistant cannot host an open house." The older article dates the change, saying the Commission's open-house rule took effect on 20 December 2016. The history notes on the Legal Information Institute's copy of rule 535.4 list amendments effective 1 January 2015 and 6 March 2017 and none in December 2016, so the exact date on which the wording entered the rule could not be confirmed from that copy.

Rule 535.4(d) does allow one arrangement in which nobody escorts a prospective tenant, but it is an arrangement made by a licence holder. A licence holder may let a prospective tenant view a rental property unescorted only if three conditions are met: the property is vacant; the licence holder uses a method to control access and verify the tenant's identity; and the owner has signed written consent, in bold print of at least 12-point type, acknowledging that unescorted access may occur and stating whether the broker or the owner is responsible for resulting damage.

Cold calls are the third closed activity. Rule 535.4(f) requires a licence to solicit listings or to negotiate in Texas for listings. The newer article applies this to the telephone: an unlicensed person may not call people to find out whether they are interested in buying, selling or leasing property, even if the purpose is only to schedule a follow-up with a licence holder. Both articles cite a 1978 opinion of the Texas Attorney General, numbered H-1271, on this point. The contrast with the first permitted task is deliberate: ringing a homeowner whose property is already listed to fix a time for a showing is scheduling, while ringing a stranger to ask whether they might sell is solicitation.

The Commission's published answers to frequent questions carry the point into leasing. Asked whether a property management company engaged in leasing may have unlicensed employees solicit business, the answer is no: a rental agent who solicits a prospect by telephone must be licensed.

Texas: rent, trust accounts and property management

Property management is where the Texas line is finest, because much of the work is administrative. The Commission's articles allow bookkeeping and arranging repairs. What they close is control of the money.

Rule 535.4(h), as reproduced by the Legal Information Institute, requires a licence of a person who controls the acceptance or deposit of rent from a resident of a single-family residential unit, where that person can do any of three things: use the rent to pay for property management services, decide where the rent is deposited, or sign cheques or withdraw money from a trust account. The rule defines the unit to include a single-family home and a unit in a condominium, cooperative, row-home or townhome; duplexes, triplexes and four-plexes are outside it unless their units are owned in one of those forms.

Two exemptions are named in the articles, both drawn from section 1101.005 of the Occupations Code: an on-site manager of an apartment complex, and an owner, or an owner's employee, leasing the owner's own property. The newer article also notes that the Commission does not have jurisdiction over all property management, and gives commercial property as an example.

On the brokerage's own trust account, the Commission cites its rule 535.146(c)(7): an unlicensed person may keep the books, but only a licence holder may withdraw or transfer trust account money, and only a licence holder may sign on the account.

California: twelve headings from the Department of Real Estate

California approaches the same question through a single document. The Guidelines for Unlicensed Assistants who Work in the Real Estate Industry are marked as last revised on 5 January 2018. The Department's Real Estate Bulletin for spring 2018 records that the update began with an entry in the employee suggestion box and that three members of the executive committee edited the text.

The document is frank about its own status. It describes what unlicensed assistants can generally do without a licence, and says it is guidance, not statute or regulation. It points to two provisions of the California Business and Professions Code: section 10131, which lists the activities that require a broker licence, and section 10133.2, which provides specific "clerical" exemptions. Salespersons carry out the listed activities under their responsible broker. A footnote adds that the guidelines neither limit nor add to the law.

The guidelines then work through twelve headings. Under each, an assistant acts with the knowledge and consent of the broker.

• Cold contacting. An assistant may canvass by telephone or by electronic and social media to gauge interest, then refer an interested person to a licensee or schedule an appointment. The assistant may not try to induce the person to use a broker's services, or use the canvass to solicit for a specific property, transaction or product.
• Open houses. With the principal's consent, an assistant may place signs, greet the public, provide factual information or preprinted materials approved by the licensee, and arrange appointments with the licensee. Showing the property, discussing terms of sale, discussing features such as location, neighbourhood or schools, and soliciting are for a licensee only.
• Comparative market analysis. An assistant may prepare one, subject to the licensee's approval and for the licensee's use.
• Communicating with the public. An assistant may provide factual information from writings prepared by the licensee, but not in a way designed to solicit for a specific property, transaction or product.
• Arranging appointments. An assistant may schedule appointments for licensees with principals or parties and, as the licensee directs, order third-party reports and services such as pest, roof, title, appraisal or credit reports, or repair work.
• Access to property. With the principal's consent, an assistant may admit inspectors or repair workers who are there for the transaction. Information about the property must come from the broker or licensee, or from a data sheet prepared by the broker, the licensee or the principal, and its source must be made clear.
• Advertising. An assistant may prepare and design advertising if a broker or associate licensee approves it before publication.
• Preparation of documents. An assistant may prepare and complete documents under the licensee's supervision; the licensee reviews or approves the final version before it reaches a principal or party.
• Delivery and signing of documents. An assistant may mail, deliver or collect documents and obtain signatures, but may not discuss a document's content, relevance, importance or significance with a principal or party.
• Trust funds. An assistant may accept, account for and give receipts for trust funds received from a principal or party.
• Communication with principals. An assistant may say when reports or information will be delivered and when services will be performed or have been completed.
• Document review. An assistant may review transaction documents for completeness or compliance as the licensee instructs, and may review documents to recommend a course of action to the broker. The broker or associate licensee makes the final determination.

Where the two states part

Set side by side, the two regulators agree on the principle and differ on four everyday tasks. The table uses each regulator's own guidance; neither state's position can be carried into the other.

The open house shows the gap best. A worked example, with assumed facts: a brokerage with offices in both states sends an unlicensed assistant to a Sunday open house while the listing agent is delayed. In California, under the guidelines and with the seller's consent, the assistant may put out the signs, welcome visitors, hand over the licensee's approved information sheet and take names for appointments; if a visitor asks about the schools or whether the price is firm, the assistant has to leave the answer to the licensee. In Texas, under rule 535.4(c), the assistant may not host the open house at all, because hosting it is showing the property.

How an assistant may be paid

Neither regulator's guidance read for this guide sets out a pay scheme for assistants. What the Texas pages do say is where payment turns an act into a regulated one.

In Texas the licensing test is tied to consideration, as described above, so the form of an assistant's pay matters less than what the pay is for. The Commission's published answers to frequent questions add four points. Asked whether a licence holder may pay a commission or fee to an unlicensed person, the Commission answers, citing its rule 535.147(d): "In general, no." The same answer goes on to allow a licence holder to rebate all or part of a fee or commission, a subject outside this guide. A person who takes cash for a referral would be considered an unlicensed person engaged in the business of real estate brokerage, according to an answer that cites section 1101.351(a) of the Occupations Code. Under rule 535.20(a), gifts of merchandise with a retail value of US$50 or less are not considered valuable consideration. And under rule 535.147(b), an unlicensed person who owns a brokerage may share in the income the brokerage earns.

A worked example, with assumed facts: a Texas agent wants to thank an unlicensed assistant who passed on a neighbour's name as a prospective seller. Merchandise with a retail value of US$40 falls within the US$50 limit of rule 535.20(a) as the Commission's answer describes it. A US$40 payment in cash is a different matter on the Commission's wording, which treats cash for a referral as brokerage by an unlicensed person and limits the gift exception to merchandise.

The Texas pages read do not say whether an assistant's wage may be hourly or salaried, or whether a bonus may be linked to a closing. The California guidelines do not address compensation at all.

The broker's supervision duty

Both states place the assistant's conduct on the broker's desk.

In California the guidelines state it directly. The designated officer of a corporate broker must supervise and control activities performed on the broker's behalf, including those of unlicensed staff. An individual broker has the same duty over employees and agents acting in the broker's name in licensed transactions, and the guidelines add that this holds whether or not a given activity requires a licence. Every item under the twelve headings assumes the broker's knowledge and consent, and several require a licensee's approval before anything reaches the public or a client: advertising before publication, documents before delivery, a market analysis before use.

In Texas the Commission's articles speak of practice. Brokers and agents are told to establish written guidelines and training that tell agents and unlicensed staff what is and is not allowed, to monitor unlicensed assistants closely, and to ensure assistants do not directly help others buy, sell or lease property. The older article says a managing broker may gain some protection by issuing written guidelines and training, that a broker should not let any licence lapse, including those of sponsored agents, and that a broker facing a new situation may contact the Commission for an informal opinion.

Penalties for the assistant, the agent and the broker

Texas attaches consequences on two tracks, and the newer TREC article describes both.

The criminal track reaches more than the assistant. Conducting brokerage activity without a licence is a Class A misdemeanour. So is the act of a broker or sales agent who employs an unlicensed person doing that activity. The article gives the penalties as a fine of up to US$4,000, jail for up to one year, or both.

The administrative track belongs to the Commission, which may discipline a broker or sales agent who pays or associates with an unlicensed person performing licensed activities. The older article cites section 1101.652(b)(11) and (26) and section 1101.758 of the Occupations Code in this connection. In its published answers on rental locators, the Commission adds that unlicensed individuals who conduct residential rental location activity are subject to administrative penalties and may face criminal charges, citing sections 1101.757 and 1101.759, and that its members have instructed staff to enforce the law vigorously. The dollar amounts of administrative penalties were not on the pages read for this guide.

California's guidelines contain no penalty figures. Their footnote says nothing in them is intended to limit, add to or supersede any provision of law, and gives one warning that bears on every heading: courts read "negotiations" broadly, so an assistant who helps in negotiating or closing a transaction may be carrying out licensed activity.

What the pages read do not settle

Several points are left open by the sources used here.

California's penalties for unlicensed activity, and for a broker who employs or compensates an unlicensed person, sit in the Business and Professions Code and could not be read on the state legislature's site on 10 October 2026. They are not stated in this guide.

Neither of the two TREC articles shows a publication date, and they differ slightly on help with loan paperwork. The Commission's rules were read in a law school's reproduction, not in the official Texas Administrative Code.

The California guidelines were last revised on 5 January 2018 and describe themselves as guidance. Whether the Department has issued anything later on the subject was not established. The wording of sections 10131 and 10133.2 was not read directly.

Neither state's guidance, as read, addresses how an assistant's pay may be structured.

Texas and California both let an assistant carry the paper, the diary and the telephone. They part at the front door of an open house, which Texas reserves for licence holders.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

About Kooky and Shaka →