January 01, 2026

Mark Woodroof has served on the Texas Real Estate Commission since 2021. The CEO and Managing Partner of Better Homes and Gardens Gary Greene was appointed TREC chairman in May 2025.

TREC balances its priorities but exists to serve the public

TREC serves more than 237,000 license holders in Texas. But our main job is to protect the consumer. The commission has nine members: six broker members and three public members. The broker members obviously bring that industry perspective, and the public members are looking at everything as consumers. These different points of view raise some good conversations.

TREC must stay within its lane

Being appointed to the commission is like being dropped onto a moving rollercoaster. But staff takes time to orient new commissioners. You’ll see something and think, “We ought to fix this.” Then you discover that legally we can’t do that. It isn’t in our mandate; the statute doesn’t allow TREC to weigh in.

Changes are a long time in the making

If you see a change and wonder where it came from, it is the result of multiple stages of input. Let’s say new legislation is passed. We have committees that work on recommendations for how to implement the law and several opportunities for the public to comment on what’s happening before TREC puts it into practice. So much of what impacts the license holders gets developed in those committee meetings.

Up next: Legislative mandates and a new portal

We’ve implemented changes from Senate Bill 1968. For instance, all brokers and broker applicants—regardless of whether you sponsor agents—must take the broker responsibility course.

The bill also gives TREC the ability to keep brokers in the communications loop when an associated broker has a complaint open with TREC—but just that a complaint is open. TREC legally cannot provide further details. If brokers want to know more, they could have policies and procedures in place that require associate brokers to notify them of a complaint.

We also just launched the Real Estate and Appraiser License Management (REALM) Portal, which allows license holders to conduct more business online. It’s had its share of technical issues. We continue implementing solutions and we appreciate your patience.

TREC runs on your feedback

We regularly ask for input on rule changes. We want to hear the positives and negatives. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. And please tell us what you think. TREC is continually improving.