How is a builder's contract different from a TREC form?

A production builder can lawfully hand you its own contract instead of a Texas Real Estate Commission promulgated form, because the promulgated-form rule at 22 TAC §537.11 does not reach a contract form prepared by the property owner — and on a new home, the builder is the property owner. That single line of rule text is the reason the paperwork on a model-home sales desk looks nothing like the paperwork on a resale down the street. Nothing improper is happening. But the document in front of you was written by one side of the table, and the protections you may be assuming are in it are only in it if someone put them there.

Why doesn't the builder use a TREC contract?

TREC promulgates contract forms that a license holder is required to use when a form exists for that kind of transaction. There are two promulgated new home contracts: the New Home Contract (Incomplete Construction), adopted at 22 TAC §537.30, and the New Home Contract (Completed Construction), adopted at 22 TAC §537.31. The current revisions are TREC No. 23-20 and TREC No. 24-20, effective July 1, 2026, and both are posted free at trec.texas.gov.

So the forms exist. The reason you rarely see one at a national builder's sales office is that §537.11 carries exceptions to the mandatory-use requirement, and one of them covers a contract form prepared by the property owner, or prepared by an attorney and required by the property owner. A builder who owns the lot and will own the finished house is the property owner. It can write its own contract, require it, and a license holder may use it without violating the rule.

What did the 2018 amendment actually change?

Before 2018, that exception was written around the word "principal." A principal in a real estate transaction is either side — buyer or seller. In 2018 TREC amended §537.11 to replace "principal" with "property owner," which aligned the rule with the language of the Real Estate License Act at Occupations Code Chapter 1101 and narrowed the exception to one side of the transaction.

The practical result matters to you specifically. The seller-side party can supply its own form. You cannot symmetrically direct your agent to prepare or require buyer-drafted paper as an alternative. If you want the deal papered differently, you are negotiating changes into the builder's document or having your own attorney draft an addendum for the builder to accept — you are not swapping in a form of your own.

What can your agent do with the builder's contract, and what can't they?

This is where a lot of buyers are surprised late. Under §537.11, a license holder may complete the blanks on an owner-prepared form, but may not draft the terms, add provisions, or strike language. Filling in a price, a closing date, a name, or a lot and block number is completing a blank. Writing a new paragraph about delay damages is drafting, and a real estate license does not authorize it. The same rule directs license holders to advise the parties that a contract should be reviewed by an attorney.

So when you say to your agent, "can we just change this line," the honest answer is usually: we can ask the builder to change it, and if the change is anything more than filling a blank, it needs to come from the builder's own contract department or from an attorney. That is not your agent being unhelpful. It is the boundary the rule draws, and it is the boundary that keeps unlicensed practice of law out of your transaction.

What should you compare, paragraph by paragraph?

We are not going to tell you what a builder contract contains, because builder contracts differ from company to company and division to division, and a sweeping claim about all of them would be wrong. What we can do is tell you what the promulgated forms address, so you have a checklist of subjects to find — or fail to find — in the document you were handed.

That last row is the one we push hardest on. The written warranty a builder provides now carries consequences well beyond repair obligations, because it can shorten the outside deadline for bringing a construction claim at all. We walk through that on how long a new home is covered in Texas, and it is worth reading before you sign rather than after.

The asymmetry is structural, not evidence of bad faith

A builder writes one contract and signs it hundreds of times a year. You will sign one, maybe two in your life. The builder's document is drafted by counsel who has watched every way these deals go sideways, and it allocates risk accordingly. That is what any repeat player's paper does, in any industry. Most builders in North Texas deliver what they promised and fix what they missed, and the sales agent telling you the contract is standard is usually telling the truth about their company's standard.

The point is not suspicion. The point is that "standard" describes the document's normal use, not its contents, and you are entitled to read the contents. Asking what a paragraph does is a reasonable question and a good sales agent will answer it or find someone who can.

What should you do before you sign?

1. Get the full document set, including every addendum, the design-center agreement, the HOA declaration, and the written warranty, and get them far enough ahead that you can read them.
2. Have a Texas real estate attorney read the contract. This is the single highest-value hour of the whole process, and it is inexpensive next to the purchase.
3. Register your own agent on your first visit to the community. Builders commonly require that your agent accompany or register you at first contact, and waiting can forfeit representation.
4. Read the district notices before you sign, not at closing. A MUD or PID notice carries its own timing rules and its own termination right, covered on what a MUD or PID notice is.
5. Ask what happens if the appraisal comes in under the contract price at delivery, and get the answer from the contract rather than from a conversation. That mechanism is explained at what happens if a to-be-built home appraises below the contract price.
6. Confirm in writing who the on-site sales agent represents. Unless you have a written agreement saying otherwise, the person at the sales desk works for the builder, and TREC's Information About Brokerage Services notice explains what that means.

If you want the same rule read from the other direction — what a builder or developer may and may not do with its own form, and where the license holder's line sits from the seller's side — that is covered on our builder-facing page about builder contract forms in Texas. Same rule, opposite chair.

How we sourced this

Written from 22 Texas Administrative Code §537.11, §537.30, and §537.31, from the Texas Real Estate Commission's published contract forms and form-adoption notices, and from the Real Estate License Act at Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1101. Verified August 2026 and current as of that date. Rules and form revisions change; confirm the current text at trec.texas.gov before you rely on it. This is general information, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for having your own attorney review your specific contract.

The Agency Dallas is independently owned and operated by Damon & Megan Williamson. Damon Williamson, Broker-Owner · Licensed Real Estate Agent, State of Texas. Dallas, Dallas County, Texas 75225. Equal Housing Opportunity. Texas Real Estate Commission Information About Brokerage Services and Consumer Protection Notice are available at trec.texas.gov. This is not intended as a solicitation of property currently listed for sale.