The short version: Every real estate agent, home inspector, mortgage loan officer, and insurance agent you hire in Texas is licensed by a specific state authority, and every one of those licenses can be checked against a free public record in about five minutes. For real estate agents and home inspectors, that record is the Texas Real Estate Commission’s (TREC) License Holder Search. For loan officers, it’s NMLS Consumer Access. For insurance agents, it’s the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) lookup. This guide walks through each one, what the results actually mean, and the red flags a clean-looking profile can hide.
We built Neighborhood Registry on exactly this check — every professional listed in our Texas directory is matched against the issuing authority’s record before their profile is marked verified, and re-checked on a schedule afterward. But you don’t need us for the check itself. Here’s how to run it yourself, for any professional, whether they’re listed with us or not.
Why this five-minute check matters
A home purchase is usually the largest wire of money in a person’s life, and it moves through email threads full of instructions from people you’ve known for a few weeks. Fraudsters know this. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) counted 9,359 real-estate-fraud complaints and $173.6 million in reported losses in 2024 alone (IC3 2024 Internet Crime Report), and its standing real-estate wire-fraud advisory describes the standard play: a compromised or impersonated email account sends “updated” wiring instructions days before closing.
License verification doesn’t stop a hacker. What it does is answer the question underneath everything else: is the person asking for my money and my signature actually who they say they are, accountable to a regulator who can end their career? An unlicensed operator has no license to lose. A licensed one does — and the license record also tells you their legal name, their sponsoring broker, and whether a regulator has ever disciplined them.
Step by step: checking a real estate agent with TREC
Texas law — the Real Estate License Act, Texas Occupations Code Title 7, Chapter 1101 — requires anyone who brokers or sells real estate for another person, for compensation, to hold a license issued by TREC. TREC licenses brokers, sales agents, and — importantly for Texas buyers — real estate inspectors under the same roof. Here’s the check:
Step 1: Get the agent’s full legal name and license number
Ask directly, or take it from their business card or email signature. Nicknames are the most common reason a search “fails” — the record lists legal names. Texas also requires agents to give you two disclosures early in the relationship: the Consumer Protection Notice and the Information About Brokerage Services (IABS) form. Both name the license holder and the sponsoring broker; an agent who has never mentioned them is worth a second look.
Step 2: Search the official License Holder Search
Use TREC’s License Holder Search at trec.texas.gov — free, public, no login. Search by the person’s name or license number. The record shows the license type, current status, contact information, education history, and, for a sales agent, the broker who sponsors them.
Step 3: Read the status the way TREC intends it to be read
Texas licenses carry a status, and only one of them authorizes work:
- Active — the holder is current and, for a sales agent, sponsored by an active broker. Only an active license holder can legally practice.
- Inactive — the license exists but the holder cannot practice. For a sales agent this usually means no sponsoring broker. Inactive does not mean “almost active.”
- Expired — the license has lapsed. An expired license holder cannot legally work for compensation until it’s renewed or reinstated.
Also check the disciplinary history the lookup surfaces: TREC publishes whether a license holder has received disciplinary action. A clean, active record with a sponsoring broker that matches the agent’s marketing is what you want to see.
Step 4: Match the record to the person in front of you
Confirm three things line up: the name, the sponsoring broker on the record versus the brokerage on their marketing, and the area they claim to serve. A mismatch on the broker is the most common legitimate hiccup (agents change sponsors), but it should always have a simple explanation — and the record, not the agent’s website, is the source of truth.
Checking a home inspector: also TREC, different license
Texas is one of the states where the same agency licenses inspectors, and the same License Holder Search covers them. Inspector licenses come in three tiers — Apprentice Inspector, Real Estate Inspector, and Professional Inspector — and a Professional Inspector’s license number carries the “-PI” suffix you’ll see on our Texas inspector profiles. The check is identical: search the name or number, confirm the status reads active, and confirm the tier matches what the inspector claims. For example, the inspectors on Neighborhood Registry in Texas hold Professional Inspector licenses — 26708-PI (Keller/Fort Worth), 6932-PI (League City), and 10594-PI (Katy/west Houston) — and you can pull each of those records yourself in the same search, the same way.
Checking a loan officer: NMLS Consumer Access
Mortgage loan originators aren’t licensed by TREC. They’re licensed (or, for some bank employees, federally registered) through the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System, and the public window into it is NMLS Consumer Access — free, and run for exactly this purpose.
- Get their NMLS number. Every originator has a unique, permanent NMLS ID; it appears on loan estimates, business cards, and email signatures. A loan officer who can’t produce one is done being evaluated.
- Search by name, company, or NMLS ID. The record shows license status by state, employment history with licensed companies, and any regulatory actions.
- Confirm the employer matches your paperwork, and that the Texas license status reads active/approved.
Checking an insurance agent: the Texas Department of Insurance
Insurance agents are licensed by the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI). TDI’s license lookup (through the Texas.gov licensing portal TDI links from tdi.texas.gov) searches by name or license number; TDI also answers license questions on its Help Line, 800-252-3439, including whether an agent is licensed and whether TDI has taken disciplinary action against them. Confirm the lines of authority on the record match what the agent is offering to sell you — an agent licensed for property and casualty has no business writing your life policy, whatever their website says.
Checking a tradesperson: the license depends on the trade
Texas splits trade licensing across boards, which is exactly why “licensed and insured” on a truck door tells you nothing by itself:
- Plumbers — the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners (TSBPE). Confirm the license type (Master Plumber, Journeyman, Apprentice) and that it’s current, in the board’s Public License Search.
- Electricians, HVAC, and most other regulated trades — the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) license search.
The pattern is the same everywhere: the issuing board’s own record, searched by name or license number, beats any badge, sticker, or screenshot.
What a verification check can — and can’t — tell you
It can tell you: the person is legally licensed, right now, for the work they’re proposing; the broker or firm they’re actually affiliated with; and whether a regulator has taken public action against them.
It can’t tell you: whether they’re good. License status is a floor, not a ranking. It says nothing about how many homes they’ve sold in your neighborhood, how they negotiate, or whether their clients would hire them again. That’s why our profiles pair the license record with neighborhood-level coverage — Shahla Ghademi’s verified seat is Panther Creek in Frisco, and Eric White’s is Trinity Falls in McKinney — narrow, specific, and checkable. Specific and checkable is what you’re looking for, from any source.
Five red flags that should stop the conversation
- No TREC record, with an excuse. “My license is under my broker’s name” or “the site is just outdated” — sales agents are individually licensed and individually listed. Search by license number to be thorough; then believe the record.
- An inactive or expired status presented as a technicality. Neither authorizes work for compensation. Full stop.
- The name or broker on the record doesn’t match the name doing business. DBA names exist, but the licensed human — and their sponsoring broker — must be findable.
- Pressure to skip paperwork or move money early. Especially wiring instructions that arrive by email with last-minute changes — the IC3’s core warning. Confirm any wire instruction by phone, at a number you obtained independently of the email thread.
- Reluctance to be checked. A professional who has passed this check a hundred times will hand you their license or NMLS number without blinking. Resistance is information.
How Neighborhood Registry applies this (our methodology, in the open)
Professionals claim a neighborhood through our listing process. Before a profile is marked verified, we match the applicant against the issuing authority — TREC for Texas realtors and inspectors, NMLS for loan officers, TDI for insurance agents, TSBPE/TDLR for trades — and stamp the profile with the authority and the date checked. We re-verify on a schedule afterward, and a license that lapses takes the Verified status down with it. One professional per role per neighborhood: when a seat is claimed by a verified pro, it’s off the board.
You can run every step in this guide yourself, for free, whether or not you ever use our directory. That’s rather the point of publishing it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if a real estate agent is licensed in Texas?
Search TREC’s License Holder Search at trec.texas.gov by the agent’s name or license number. Confirm the status reads active and, for a sales agent, that the sponsoring broker on the record matches the brokerage the agent is marketing under.
What does it mean if a Texas agent’s license is inactive?
The license exists but does not authorize work. A sales agent goes inactive when they have no sponsoring broker; an inactive license holder cannot legally represent you or earn a commission until the license is active again.
How do I verify a Texas home inspector’s license?
Use the same TREC License Holder Search. Inspectors are licensed as Apprentice, Real Estate, or Professional Inspectors; a Professional Inspector’s number ends in “-PI”. Confirm the tier and an active status.
How do I verify a mortgage loan officer in Texas?
Use NMLS Consumer Access. Search by the loan officer’s name, company, or NMLS ID and confirm an active Texas license, an employer that matches your loan paperwork, and no regulatory actions on the record.
How can I check a Texas insurance agent’s license?
Use the Texas Department of Insurance license lookup (linked from tdi.texas.gov) and search by name or license number, then confirm the agent’s lines of authority cover what they’re selling you. TDI’s Help Line (800-252-3439) can also confirm licensure and disciplinary history.
Does a verified license mean an agent is good at their job?
No. Verification confirms the agent is licensed, accountable to a regulator, and free of disqualifying record issues. It doesn’t measure sales skill, local knowledge, or client satisfaction — judge those separately, through neighborhood-level track record and real client reviews.
Related questions
Re-verification: checked weekly, formally re-verified every 12 months
Verification is not a one-time check. Every license on Neighborhood Registry is re-checked weekly against the issuing authority’s public record, and formally re-verified every 12 months, on the anniversary of its initial verification. Where the authority publishes a machine-readable record, the checks run automatically; otherwise a Registry reviewer completes them against the authority’s record.
If a re-verification finds a license lapsed, expired, or revoked, the professional’s Verified status is removed, their neighborhood seat is released, and their profile is unpublished until the license is verified active again.