2025 Texas sessionsRegular and both called sessions have ended. This index covers House and Senate bills, not resolutions. Statuses come from official reports.

← Back to bills and search results

2025 · Regular session · Senate bill

SB1172

SB1172 expands exemptions from Occupations Code chapter 1101, the Texas Real Estate Commission’s real-estate licensing framework, for specified resource interests, company-related transactions and commercial-signage work.

Read bill highlights ↓

Official caption: Relating to exempting certain transactions from regulation by the Texas Real Estate Commission.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists Senate author(s): Perry. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.

Report an error ↗

Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.

Bill highlights

Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.

Read the full explanation ↓

What does it do?

SB1172 expands exemptions from Occupations Code chapter 1101, the Texas Real Estate Commission’s real-estate licensing framework, for specified resource interests, company-related transactions and commercial-signage work. It expands the existing mineral/mining-interest transaction exemption to expressly cover minerals, mining or a quarry, standing timber and defined “other energy sources.” It concerns the sale, lease or transfer of the specified real-property interests—not every land transaction near an energy project. Final law, sections 1–2; Prior exemptions; Prior licensing definitions.

“Mineral” incorporates Property Code 75.001 and includes the listed oil, gas, related hydrocarbons, coal, lignite, uranium and base, industrial, precious or strategic minerals. “Other energy source” means a natural resource other than water or a mineral needed to produce energy, including geothermal, nuclear, solar and wind energy. Although the final act defines water to include diffused surface water, groundwater and specified state water, it does not add water interests to this resource-transaction exemption. Final law, section 1 and section 1101.005(9)(A); Referenced mineral definition; Groundwater definition; State-water provision.

New company-related exemptions cover real estate owned or leased by, being acquired by, or being leased to a limited partnership or limited liability company. For a partnership, the listed actors are its general partner, that general partner’s employee negotiating in the course of employment, or the partnership’s employee negotiating in the course of employment. For a limited liability company, they are a manager or managing member, such a manager’s or managing member’s employee negotiating in the course of employment, or an employee or member of the company negotiating in the course of employment. These descriptions do not create a blanket exemption for every outside broker handling a company’s transaction. Final law, section 1101.005(10)–(11).

The act also exempts a person conducting a real-estate transaction on behalf of a commercial signage entity. It does not define that phrase in its new definitions or waive unrelated property, contract or permitting requirements. Signed May 24, 2025, the act took effect immediately. Final law, section 1101.005(12) and section 3; Official history.

What changed along the way?

The introduced bill would have expressly exempted water-interest transactions and included hydroelectric energy in “other energy source.” The Senate substitute removed water from the transaction list, expressly excluded water from “other energy source,” and removed hydroelectric from its examples. It also narrowed “for” a partnership or company to the specific owned/leased/acquired/being-leased-to relationships in the final text. The engrossed text matches that substitute. The House committee then added the definition of water, but did not restore the deleted water-transaction exemption. Introduced bill; Senate substitute; House substitute; All versions; Final law.

The sole indexed floor amendment, Tepper’s House amendment adopted May 2, added the commercial-signage exemption. The Senate concurred May 12, and it appears in the final law. Earlier exemptions for such matters as licensed Texas attorneys, specified owner leasing, cemetery lots, hotels/motels and foreclosure sales were retained rather than newly created. Adopted amendment; Amendment index; Prior exemptions; Final law.

For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.

Official bill versions

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?

Qualifying actors and transactions fall outside this chapter’s licensing framework, potentially reducing licensing or intermediary burdens. The corresponding tradeoff is that this chapter’s regulatory framework does not apply to those exempt activities. The act does not guarantee lower transaction prices, validate anyone’s title, create water rights or make a specific project exempt from all regulation. Applicability still depends on the interest, entity and person’s role described in the law. Final law.

The March 10, March 18 and April 29 fiscal notes anticipate no significant state or local fiscal implication. They explain that the Real Estate Commission is responsible for its own operating costs and may not impose costs on general revenue under its self-directed, semi-independent structure. They do not quantify private savings or losses of consumer protection, and the latest indexed note predates the floor signage amendment. Introduced fiscal note; Senate substitute fiscal note; House substitute fiscal note.

Official sources

Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.