TREC delays Realm rollout as budget shortfall makes fee increase likely

The Texas Real Estate Commission on Thursday delayed the public launch of its new license-management system — called Realm — citing ongoing data conversion and external-system integration problems, and approved a FY‑2026 budget that projects multimillion‑dollar operating shortfalls.

Commission Executive Director Chelsea Buchholz told commissioners the agency is doing additional test conversions and integration checks before going live: “Data conversion and also integration are our current challenges,” she said, and staff are running a small mock conversion “to determine its success to then determine next steps.” Buchholz said she remains “hopeful for a go live later this year” but gave no firm date.

Why it matters: TREC’s licensing fees make up roughly 90% of agency revenue, so continuing declines in new license applications and exam revenue have an outsized effect on the agency’s finances. Commissioners were told that without a fee increase or other changes, the agency will draw down reserves and likely need deeper cuts after 2027.

Key budget numbers and vote - Fiscal‑year‑to‑date (10 months) revenue: $11,300,000 (about 81.8% of projections). Expenditures: $15,100,000 (about 71.2% of budgeted spending). That yielded an operating loss of $3,700,000 for the period, Chief Financial Officer Renata Williams reported. - The FY‑2026 budget the commission approved projects $13,200,000 in revenue and $20,300,000 in expenditures, a $7,000,000 operational shortfall that would be covered by drawing on fund balance and reserves. The plan shows reserves declining sharply across FY‑2026–FY‑2028 without a reversal in revenue trends.

Commissioners voted to approve the FY‑2026 budget, the FY‑2026 investment policy and the FY‑2026 budget and financial administration policy during the meeting. Chair Mark Woodruff said staff had explored expense reductions and that the agency had already removed 9.6 vacant full‑time positions from the FY‑2026 budget, producing about $488,000 in salary savings. Williams also noted a proposed 3% merit pool for employee raises in the approved budget.

Realm implementation and costs Buchholz and Tom Watson, TREC’s director of information technology, said the technical problems center on converting legacy records and ensuring the new system communicates correctly with external systems (for example, Department of Public Safety fingerprinting and exam vendors). Watson said Realm will allow more applications to be taken online once stable and that the current online‑transaction measures will change after the rollout.

The project is budgeted as a multi‑year capital effort: staff presented a total Realm budget of about $5.4 million, of which $3.1 million had been recognized and roughly $2.3 million remained tied to future deliverables. Buchholz said the project remains “on target to be within budget,” but acknowledged the launch timing was revised to protect data integrity.

Customer service, staffing and next steps Customer relations director Robert Hood reported average phone wait times of about 1 minute, 28 seconds in June and July thanks to recent hires; the contact center handled roughly 14,000–15,000 calls per month in the period reported. Buchholz said the commission plans a demonstration of Realm during the afternoon workshop and that staff will provide ongoing implementation updates to commissioners.

The budget vote was taken after staff presentations and discussion. Commissioners were told the Governor’s Office has not yet acted on the agency’s preliminary request for a fee increase. The commission approved the FY‑2026 budget as presented.

Ending Buchholz told the commission she will provide a more detailed implementation timeline as conversion testing completes. The commission scheduled a workshop later in the day that included a first look at Realm and implementation work arising from the recent legislative session.