How do I verify a property manager's Texas license?

Go to the Texas Real Estate Commission's public license search, enter the person's name, the company's name or the license number they gave you, and read the record. You are confirming four things: the license is active, the company is licensed as a brokerage in its own name, the person you are dealing with is a broker or a sales agent sponsored by that brokerage, and there is no disciplinary history you need to ask about. It takes a few minutes and costs nothing.

Managing rental property for others in Texas, including leasing, collecting rent and handling deposits, is brokerage activity that requires a real estate license. A company doing it without one is operating outside the law, and your tenant's deposit and your rent would be in unregulated hands. This article walks through the lookup and what each result means. The full guide to verifying a property manager's license and reputation in Texas adds reviews, references and track record; this one is the license check itself.

Who needs a license to manage rentals in Texas

Under Texas law, a person who leases or manages real estate for another person for compensation must hold a real estate license, and the activity has to be conducted under a broker. That means a property management company is either a licensed broker, or a business entity holding its own broker license with a named designated broker, and the people doing the leasing and managing are either brokers themselves or sales agents sponsored by that broker.

There are narrow exceptions, such as an owner managing their own property or an employee of the owner handling a single property under certain conditions, but a company that advertises management services to the public does not fall into them. If a company cannot give you a license number, stop there. No fee structure, guarantee or review score compensates for an unlicensed operator holding your tenant's money.

The lookup, step by step

The commission's website has a license holder search open to the public. Use it like this:

• Search by the individual's name first, exactly as it appears on their email signature or business card. Note the license type (broker or sales agent), the status, and the expiration date.
• Search by the company name as it appears on the agreement. A company managing property in its own name should have its own record as a business entity broker, with a designated broker listed.
• If the individual is a sales agent, open their record and confirm the sponsoring broker is the company you are dealing with, or its designated broker. An agent sponsored by an unrelated brokerage is not authorized to act for this company.
• Check the disciplinary history section on each record. An entry is not automatically disqualifying, but it is something to ask about directly.

Write down the license numbers and keep them with your copy of the agreement. If you are ever in a dispute, the license numbers are what a complaint to the commission starts with.

Reading the result and what each finding means

A clean result shows an active license of the right type, a company record with a designated broker, and the person you spoke with either as that broker or as an agent sponsored by it. That is the baseline, and most established companies around Keller, North Richland Hills and Fort Worth meet it.

Watch for these variations. An expired or inactive license means the person cannot lawfully act, even if they used to. A sales agent with no sponsoring broker is in the same position. A company name on the agreement that does not appear in the search may be a trade name; ask which licensed entity is behind it and check that one, and confirm the assumed name is registered. A disciplinary entry should be read, not just noticed: a late continuing-education filing years ago is different from a finding about mishandled trust funds. Ask the company about it and listen for a direct answer.

Say you find that the friendly person who gave you the tour is a sales agent sponsored by the company, and the company's record names a designated broker you have never met. That is normal. What you want to know next is whether that broker actually oversees the management, which is a question worth asking in the first meeting. The guide to broker-owned versus franchise property management explains why the answer matters.

Checks that go with the license search

The license tells you the company is permitted to operate. Three more quick checks tell you whether it operates well. First, the state's business entity search confirms the company is in good standing and shows who formed it, which helps when the brokerage, the management company and a maintenance company share owners. Second, ask whether the company carries errors and omissions insurance, which many brokerages hold to cover professional mistakes. Third, ask how tenant deposits and owner funds are held; Texas rules require money belonging to others to be kept in a separate trust or escrow account, not mixed with the company's operating money, and a licensed company should be able to describe this without hesitation.

None of these checks replaces the license search. They sit on top of it. A company that passes all four is one you can safely move on to interviewing properly, using something like the property manager interview scorecard. Perpetual's broker page gives the information you would look up, and the reviews page is the reputation side of the same question.

If the search turns up a problem

If a company is unlicensed, do not sign. If you have already signed, you can report the company to the commission, and you should move the tenant's deposit and your rent to a licensed manager promptly. If the problem is a disciplinary entry or an expired license on one individual, raise it with the designated broker and judge the response; a broker who did not know an agent's license had lapsed has a supervision problem. This is general information, not legal advice; if money is at risk, a Texas real estate attorney can tell you how to recover it. Perpetual's owner FAQ answers the licensing and trust-account questions owners most often ask before signing.

How Perpetual handles this

I am a licensed Texas broker, and Perpetual Property Management operates under that license with the broker and the company both searchable on the commission's site. I would rather you check than take my word for it, so the license information is on the website and the numbers are in the agreement you receive before signing, alongside every fee. Tenant deposits and owner funds are held in a separate trust account as Texas rules require, and the monthly statement and owner portal show every dollar in and out.

Perpetual is broker-owned and local to Keller, North Richland Hills and Fort Worth, which means the designated broker on the record is the person managing your house, signing the Texas-compliant lease, reviewing the documented inspections and approving vendors, not a name on file in another city. If you want to confirm anything about the license before we talk, look it up first and then ask me whatever the record raises. How the license sits behind the day-to-day work is described under full-service management.

The takeaway: Run the Texas Real Estate Commission license search on the person and the company before you sign anything; an active broker record with no discipline is the floor, not the finish line.

Questions owners ask

Property management in Keller, North Richland Hills and Fort Worth. How full-service management works in Tarrant County →