Pressed on what has to be in a transaction file, a Texas broker usually names the contract, the addenda and the seller’s disclosure. That covers two of eight categories. The Texas Real Estate Commission writes the list out in 22 TAC §535.2(h): eight categories of record a broker must keep, at a minimum, for four years, and the categories that go missing are the ones that never pass through a transaction management system on their way into the file.
Contracts and disclosures are two of the eight. The other six are the agreements a broker relies on to claim compensation, substantive communications, receipts and disbursements, property management contracts, valuations, and the brokerage’s own sponsorship agreements with its agents. And in 2026 the contract paperwork changed three times: a statutory written buyer agreement on January 1, a new Information About Brokerage Services form the same day, and a ten-form contract package on July 1. A file review built in 2025 is checking for the wrong forms.
Key takeaways
- 22 TAC §535.2(h) names eight categories of record a Texas broker must keep for at least four years; contracts and disclosures are two of them.
- Two retention clocks run: four years from closing, termination of the contract, or the end of the transaction for the file, and four years from receipt or creation for trust account documentation under §535.146(e).
- 2026 changed the mandatory paperwork on two dates: a statutory written buyer agreement and a new IABS (1-2) on January 1, and a ten-form mandatory contract package on July 1 (three voluntary forms also took effect May 28).
- Under §535.2(e) a broker may delegate the responsibility to assist in administering compliance to another license holder, in writing, but may not relinquish overall supervision. Hiring an unlicensed vendor to assemble records and check them for presence, signatures and dates against a checklist the broker wrote is not delegation under that rule; the broker still decides whether a file is sufficient.
Why it matters: a broker-owner with forty agents is not running one filing problem, they are running forty. The contract lands in the transaction system because someone has to sign it. Substantive communications live in forty inboxes on forty phones. Sponsorship agreements live in an HR folder. The delegation letter that makes a team lead a supervisor may not exist on paper at all. The work of pulling all of that into a file that is “readily available to the Commission” is the part that scales badly with headcount and gets deferred until the file is closed and cold.
What are the eight categories a Texas broker must keep?
Straight from §535.2(h). A broker must, “at a minimum,” maintain the following for at least four years:
- Disclosures
- Commission agreements: listing agreements, buyer representation agreements, or other written agreements relied upon to claim compensation
- Substantive communications with parties to the transaction
- Offers, contracts, and related addenda
- Receipts and disbursements of compensation for services subject to the Act
- Property management contracts
- Appraisals, broker price opinions, and comparative market analyses
- Sponsorship agreements between the broker and sponsored sales agents
That list hides more than it shows. “At a minimum” means it is a floor, not the file. The IABS, the lead-based paint addendum, the MUD and PID notices and the HOA resale certificate all live in real Texas files, and while they sit inside category one as disclosures, none is named individually. Category eight is not transaction paperwork at all; it is the brokerage’s own agreements with its agents, which puts an HR record inside the compliance retention obligation. And the rule’s only exception for a missing record is destruction “by an ‘Act of God’ such as a natural disaster or fire not intentionally caused by the broker.” A departed agent’s deleted inbox is not an act of God.
Dig in: in the Texas files we review, the categories we most often find missing are not the contract (an operating observation, not a measured rate). They are category three, substantive communications, because nobody files an email until someone asks for it; and category eight, because the sponsorship agreement was never thought of as part of a transaction file. Both are records the rule requires and neither is produced by closing a deal.
How long must a Texas brokerage keep transaction records?
Four years, from one of three starting points, and a second clock runs alongside it for trust account records.
Under §535.2(h) the four years run from “the date of closing, termination of the contract, or end of a real estate transaction.” That clock is transaction-anchored: everything in a file ages out together, on the date the deal ended.
Trust account documentation runs differently. 22 TAC §535.146(e) requires a broker to keep “all documentation regarding a trust account for four years from the date the document is received or created by the broker.” That clock is document-anchored. Section 535.146 sets no reconciliation schedule; how 14 other states handle the monthly reconciliation is on trust account reconciliation by state.
On an ordinary sale the two clocks rarely conflict, because the transaction clock starts later and therefore ends later. Where they diverge is property management, where there is no closing date to anchor to and every receipt starts its own four years; and post-closing trust activity (a disbursement made or earnest money dispute resolved months after termination), where the trust document outlives the transaction file it belongs to. A brokerage that runs property management or holds earnest money is running two retention schedules, and §535.2(i) separately requires its written policies to ensure that “records are properly maintained pursuant to subsection (h) of this section.”
What changed in Texas files in 2026?
The changes landed on two dates.
January 1: the written buyer agreement became a statute. TRELA §1101.563, added by S.B. 1968, requires a license holder to enter a written agreement with a prospective buyer of residential real property before showing any residential property, or before presenting an offer if nothing will be shown. The agreement has to state the services, a termination date, whether it is exclusive, the representation status, and “the amount or rate of compensation the broker will receive and how this amount will be determined,” with a disclosure “in conspicuous language that broker compensation is not set by law and is fully negotiable.” A showing-only agreement under §1101.563(e) may not be exclusive and may not run more than fourteen days; if brokerage services continue past a showing-only agreement, a separate agreement is required.
The document is not new; buyer representation agreements have sat in category two of the retention list for years. The mandate is new, and so is its scope: §1101.563(a) covers a single-family house, a duplex, triplex or quadraplex, and a condominium or co-op unit. It does not reach unimproved land or acreage with no dwelling, five or more units, commercial property, or leases. A Texas buyer file for a lot is not covered; a file for a house is. TREC does not promulgate the agreement itself; most files hold the Texas REALTORS® forms, and a brokerage outside that association needs its own.
January 1: a new IABS. TREC adopted Information About Brokerage Services form 1-2 as required for use from January 1, 2026. The underlying obligation is TRELA §1101.558(b-1): at first substantive communication about a specific property, written notice in at least 10-point font describing representation options and naming the license holder, supervisor and broker with license numbers. The statutory exceptions are a residential lease under a year where no sale is being considered, a party the license holder knows is represented, and an open house; delivery in the body of an email is permitted under 22 TAC §531.20. An IABS delivered on or after January 1, 2026 on form 1-1 is the wrong form.
July 1: a ten-form contract package. Every mandatory residential contract was replaced on the same day: One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) 20-19, Unimproved Property 9-18, New Home Incomplete and Completed Construction 23-20 and 24-20, Farm and Ranch 25-17, Residential Condominium Resale 30-18, along with the Amendment 39-11, the POA Addendum 36-11, the Back-Up Addendum 11-9 and one entirely new mandatory form, the Seller’s Disclosure About Groundwater and Surface Water Rights (61-0). Three voluntary-use forms had already taken effect on May 28: the Seller’s Disclosure Notice 55-1, the Lead-Based Paint Addendum 56-0, and a new Seller’s Notice to Buyer of Removal of Contingency Under Addendum for “Back-Up” Contract (62-0). Voluntary means what it says: a seller’s disclosure on the Texas REALTORS® form, or any form that meets §5.008, is not a defect.
What to watch: the form number, not just the form. Under 22 TAC §537.11, a license holder negotiating a sale “shall use only those contract forms approved for mandatory use by the Commission for that type of transaction,” and a reproduced form must keep “the text and format of the form, including the sizing, spacing, and pagination” identical to TREC’s published version; scaling for a phone screen is allowed, so long as the executed copy complies. A transaction platform that reflows the executed form into its own layout is a compliance defect. And a license holder may add to or strike the form’s own language only “if specifically instructed in writing by a principal,” which makes that written instruction a document the file should hold.
Which disclosures does Texas law require in the file?
Several, and each one is triggered by something specific about the property rather than by every sale.
- Seller’s Disclosure Notice: Property Code §5.008. Required from a seller of residential property “comprising not more than one dwelling unit,” delivered on or before the contract’s effective date. If it is not, the buyer may terminate for any reason within seven days of receiving it. The section accepts any substantially similar form, so the TREC and Texas REALTORS® versions both satisfy it. The exemptions in §5.008(e) run to eleven, and two of them do most of the work in practice: new construction never occupied, under (e)(10), and property where the dwelling is under five percent of the value, under (e)(11). Foreclosures, bankruptcy trustees, estates and trusts, co-owner and family transfers, and governmental entities are also exempt. A file review has to establish which exemption was claimed, not just whether the form is present.
- POA membership notice: §5.012. Required when the property is subject to a property owners’ association, before the contract binds the buyer. Under §5.012(a-1) the second paragraph “must be in bold print and underlined,” a formatting requirement a reviewer can check.
- HOA resale certificate and documents: Property Code Chapter 207. Within ten business days of a written request, the association must deliver its governing documents and a resale certificate “prepared not earlier than the 60th day before the date the certificate is delivered.” The certificate has sixteen required contents, including unpaid amounts on the property, pending lawsuits, known violations and the transfer fee.
- MUD and special-district notice: Water Code §49.452. Given before a binding contract, and then executed again, acknowledged and recorded in the deed records at closing. Two notices, one recorded.
- Public Improvement District notice: §§5.014–5.0143. Same two-notice-plus-recording structure as MUD; under §5.0141(b) a buyer’s seven-day termination right depends on whether the service plan was filed with the county clerk before the contract date.
- Groundwater and surface water rights: new in 2026. TREC form 61-0 is provided by default under paragraph 7I of the resale contract unless every statement in 7I(3) is true; it is not required by any other statute and is excluded from the condominium contract.
- Condominium resale certificate: Property Code §82.157, a separate regime from Chapter 207.
- Lead-based paint: federal, for most housing built before 1978; TREC’s addendum 56-0 is the vehicle. Disclosure, pamphlet and signed acknowledgment in the file.
The statutory disclosures are conditional almost by definition: an HOA, a MUD, a PID, a pre-1978 build, a seller who is or is not exempt. That is why a flat checklist misses them. The reviewer’s question is not “is the form here” but “did this property trigger it, and if so is the right version here with the right signatures on the right date.”
Can a Texas broker delegate file review?
Partly, and the part that cannot be delegated is stated in the rule, as is who can receive the delegation.
Under §535.2(e) a broker “may delegate to another license holder the responsibility to assist in administering compliance with the Act and Rules, but the broker may not relinquish overall responsibility for the supervision of license holders sponsored by the broker.” Delegation must be in writing. Any license holder who leads, supervises, directs or manages a team must be delegated as a supervisor. The broker has to give TREC the name of each delegated supervisor within 30 days of a delegation that has lasted or is expected to last more than three consecutive months, and notify TREC within 30 days after it ends. TREC published a step-by-step on the notice in August 2026.
Delegation under §535.2(e) runs only to a license holder. Hiring an unlicensed vendor to assemble records, track deadlines and check a file for presence, completeness, signatures and dates against a checklist the broker wrote is not delegation under that rule; it never triggers the written-delegation or 30-day notice requirements, and it never moves responsibility. Deciding whether a file is sufficient is the review, and it belongs to the broker or a delegated supervisor. That is the side of the line Empower Transactions works on: exceptions go back to the broker, who decides.
Separately, §535.2(j) requires the broker or the delegated supervisor to respond to sponsored sales agents within two calendar days, a service standard written into a supervision rule, and a routine misquote as a file-review deadline.
What can an unlicensed person do on a Texas file?
TREC’s general answer is one sentence: “An unlicensed person may not engage in any activity for which a license is required.”
The binding language on the most common question is 22 TAC §535.4(c): a person must be licensed to show a property, and to “show” “includes causing or permitting the property to be viewed by a prospective buyer or tenant, unlocking or providing access onto or into a property for a prospective buyer or tenant, and hosting an open house at the property.” Section 535.4(f) requires a license to solicit or negotiate listings, and §535.5(g) exempts “clerical or administrative employees identified to callers as such to confirm information concerning the size, price, and terms of property advertised.”
TREC’s longer guidance on unlicensed assistants works through the rest: an unlicensed person may not direct or advise agents, and “may not review contracts, or help make ‘deals’ work,” and only a license holder may sign on a brokerage trust account. The article notes the employing broker or agent “might be criminally charged for the crime as well.” It is dated 2016 and some of its rule citations have been renumbered since; read it against the current rule text. TREC’s November 2024 article on the same question lists “transaction coordinator” among the titles that do not change the analysis (license status does) and answers the contract question directly: an unlicensed assistant “cannot review a contract or facilitate a transaction,” but “can input data into a contract if specifically directed by a license holder.”
Assembling records, tracking deadlines, typing a contract as specifically directed and routing executed documents sit on the clerical side. Advising a party, negotiating a term, or deciding whether a file is compliant do not. TREC’s Broker Responsibility Advisory Committee, an advisory body rather than the Commission, continued a discussion of transaction coordinators and consumer transparency at its July 2026 meeting and tabled it to October, so the subject is at least on the agenda.
The bottom line: the Texas file is eight categories, not two, on two retention clocks; its contract forms, its IABS and its buyer-agreement requirement all changed in 2026; its disclosures are conditional on the property rather than universal; and the delegation trail has to exist in writing and at the Commission. None of that is hard to satisfy on one transaction. It is hard to satisfy on every transaction, by every agent, for four years, which is a staffing question long before it is a compliance question.
Method note: rule text is quoted from TREC’s own published version of its rules and forms pages as of September 2026. TREC states that its posted rules are provided as a courtesy and that the Texas Secretary of State maintains the official text, so verify exact wording against the Secretary of State before relying on it. Statutory text is from the Texas Legislature’s published Occupations, Property and Water Codes. The “in the files we review” observation is Empower Transactions’ own operating experience, not a survey. Requirements change and this describes Texas only; other states differ. Empower Transactions is not a law firm and is not affiliated with, certified by, or endorsed by the Texas Real Estate Commission, the National Association of REALTORS®, or any state agency, and this article is not legal advice.
Florida defines its file differently, by disclosures that must exist at or before contract and a five-year clock that starts before closing. That version is in Florida Transaction File Requirements.
The other state pages are Florida, California, Missouri, Kansas, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long must a Texas real estate broker keep transaction files?
At least four years. Under 22 TAC §535.2(h) the four years run from the date of closing, the termination of the contract, or the end of the real estate transaction. Trust account documentation runs on a separate clock under §535.146(e), four years from the date each document is received or created, which matters for property management and for trust activity that continues after a transaction ends. Not legal advice.
What records does TREC require a Texas broker to keep?
Eight categories, at a minimum, under 22 TAC §535.2(h): disclosures; commission agreements including listing and buyer representation agreements; substantive communications with the parties; offers, contracts and related addenda; receipts and disbursements of compensation; property management contracts; appraisals, broker price opinions and comparative market analyses; and sponsorship agreements between the broker and sponsored sales agents. The list is a floor: the IABS, lead-based paint addendum, MUD, PID and POA notices and HOA resale documents all belong in a Texas file, and while most sit inside category one as disclosures, none is named individually. Not legal advice.
Does a Texas agent need a written agreement before showing a house in 2026?
Yes, for residential property as defined in TRELA §1101.563(a), meaning a single-family house, a duplex, triplex or quadraplex, or a condominium or co-op unit. Effective January 1, 2026, the license holder must enter a written agreement with the prospective buyer before showing, or before presenting an offer if nothing will be shown. The obligation is the license holder’s, not the buyer’s. It does not apply to unimproved land with no dwelling, five or more units, commercial property, or leases. Not legal advice.
Can a Texas broker delegate transaction file review?
A broker may delegate to another license holder the responsibility to assist in administering compliance, in writing, under 22 TAC §535.2(e), but may not relinquish overall responsibility for supervising sponsored license holders, and must notify TREC within 30 days of a delegation lasting more than three consecutive months and again when it ends. Hiring an unlicensed vendor to assemble records and check them for presence, signatures and dates against the broker’s own checklist is not delegation under that rule; the broker still makes every compliance determination. Not legal advice.
What Texas contract forms changed in 2026?
TREC adopted a new Information About Brokerage Services form (IABS 1-2) required from January 1, 2026, and adopted ten revised or new mandatory residential contract forms effective July 1, 2026, including the One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) 20-19, the Amendment 39-11, the POA Addendum 36-11 and a new Seller’s Disclosure About Groundwater and Surface Water Rights (61-0). Three voluntary-use forms took effect May 28, 2026: the Seller’s Disclosure Notice 55-1, the Lead-Based Paint Addendum 56-0, and the new Seller’s Notice to Buyer of Removal of Contingency Under Addendum for “Back-Up” Contract (62-0). Under §537.11 a license holder must use the current mandatory form for the transaction type. Not legal advice.
Is a seller’s disclosure notice always required in Texas?
No. Property Code §5.008 requires it from a seller of residential real property comprising not more than one dwelling unit, but §5.008(e) lists eleven exempt transfers, including new construction never previously occupied, property where the dwelling is under five percent of the value, foreclosure and court-ordered sales, transfers by a trustee in bankruptcy or a fiduciary administering an estate or trust, and transfers between co-owners or to a spouse or lineal relative. A file review has to establish which exemption was claimed, not just whether the form is present. Not legal advice.