StepStone Realty, LLC · TREC #572467 · the home of the black sheep
You hold a Texas license and you also buy houses. You wholesale, you take them subject-to, you sell on a wrap. Most brokerages make you pick one: hide the deals or hand the license back. StepStone Realty lets you do both, and we built the brokerage around agents who do.
Below: what a licensed agent may do, what you must disclose, and exactly what it costs here.
Nearly every flat-fee brokerage in Texas calls itself investor-friendly, so the label tells you nothing. Three things do: your creative deals are allowed in writing, your own deals do not cost you a split, and someone will teach you how a wrap or a subject-to purchase is put together. Ask any broker, this one included, and get the answers in writing:
Yes to all three, for your own account. A license does not stop you investing. It adds duties to how you do it.
TREC rules require a license holder who buys or sells property for themselves to tell the other party, in writing, that they hold a Texas real estate license, and to do it before the contract is signed, not at closing. The same goes when you buy for a close family member or a company you have a real ownership stake in, on or off the MLS. The standard TREC contract forms have a section for it. Use it every time.
When you assign a contract, you are selling your interest in that contract, not the house. Texas law requires you to tell a buyer that in writing, and you may not market the property as if you own it. Your license disclosure goes on top. The law allows licensed agents to wholesale. Plenty of brokerage policy manuals do not.
Buying subject-to means you take title while the seller's loan stays in place, in their name. It is legal. What you owe the seller is the truth in plain words, in writing, before they sign: the loan stays on their credit, the lender can call it due when the title transfers, and a missed payment is a default in their name.
Selling on a wrap or with seller financing puts you on the lending side. Texas has specific rules for wrap mortgage loans, including written disclosures to the buyer before closing, and residential seller financing can require a licensed residential mortgage loan originator. Get those pieces right before the first payment is due, not after.
Can real estate agents buy distressed properties? Yes: pre-foreclosures, probate houses, tired rentals. The broker rules that bite are the ones about whose side you are on. If you represent the seller, you cannot quietly become the buyer. Tell them in writing that you want to buy, make sure they understand your interest now runs against theirs, and give them room to get their own advice. Never use what you learned as someone's agent to buy their property for less.
The other rules are the brokerage's own: some ban personal purchases, some take a full split on them. Here your own on-market purchase costs the same fee as any other closing, and off-market deals cost you nothing.
This is general information for Texas license holders, not legal advice. Rules change. For a specific deal, read the current TREC guidance and talk to a Texas real estate attorney.
A Texas sales agent license is only active while a licensed broker sponsors it. Hanging your license is agent shorthand for that sponsorship. Your broker's policy manual decides which deals you may do while you hold the license, which is why the choice of broker matters more to an investor-agent than the split.
Moving your sponsorship is an online change through TREC that the new broker accepts. Before you move, read your current independent contractor agreement for any notice terms and for how deals already under contract will be paid.
StepStone Realty, LLC (TREC #572467) is the licensed brokerage. Black Sheep Broker is what we call the agents who do both traditional deals and creative investing. The whole offer:
Commission-only, 1099 independent contractor. We do not publish an income figure, because we would be making it up.
What we stay out of: your personal wholesale, subject-to and wrap deals are yours. We allow them, we teach them, and nobody asks you to justify one. Broker support covers your licensed work: representation, listings and compliance. See the full fee comparison or the open agent role.
One where wholesaling, subject-to, wraps and your own purchases are allowed in writing, your own deals do not cost you a split, and someone teaches you how they are structured. Ask to see the policy manual before you believe the label.
Yes. Tell the buyer in writing that you are selling your interest in a contract, not the property, and disclose your Texas license in writing before the contract is signed. The law allows it. Many brokerage policy manuals do not.
Yes, for your own account, with your license disclosed in writing before the contract. If you represent the seller, tell them in writing that you want to buy, and never use what you learned as their agent to pay less.
A Texas sales agent license is only active while a broker sponsors it. Hanging it with an investor broker means your sponsoring brokerage allows the creative deals you already do, instead of making you hide them.
Yes. StepStone Realty, LLC, the licensed brokerage behind Black Sheep Broker, lets you keep 100% of your commission for $199/month plus $400 per on-market transaction ($400 per $1,000,000 of sales price). Off-market deals cost you nothing. E&O and CE are included.
Yes. Wholesale, subject-to, wraps and fix and flip are allowed and taught. Those deals are yours: we are not paid on them and not in the middle of them.
No license is needed to buy and sell your own property. A sales agent license, sponsored by a broker, lets you represent others. A broker license is only needed to run a brokerage and sponsor agents.
If you buy often, it can pay for itself: you represent yourself, earn commission on your own purchases and join the MLS. The trade is a license disclosure on every deal. We sponsor new agents on the same terms as everyone else.
Tell us where your license hangs today. Angie replies within one business day, and applying does not transfer your license.