TREC forms: the Texas contracts, addenda, and notices
The Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) approves contract forms for mandatory use, and its rules say when you must use them. This page covers which forms you must use and what you may not draft, the resale contract, the financing addenda, the disclosure forms, the termination notice, the IABS notice, and the 2026 form changes. Every fact comes from a TREC rule, a TREC form, or TREC's website, and links to its source.
Every fact links to its source. Checked Oct 2, 2026
The forms you must use, and the resale contract
When you negotiate a sale, you use only the contract forms TREC approved for mandatory use for that transaction, with limited exceptions, for example a form the owner's attorney prepared and the owner requires. (Source: TREC)
You may not draft or recommend contract language that defines or affects the parties' rights, obligations, or remedies, including an escalation, appraisal, or contingency clause. You may add informational items, and you may add or strike language when a principal instructs you in writing, if the change is conspicuous. (Source: TREC)
TREC's One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) is TREC No. 20-19, with an effective date of July 1, 2026. TREC says it is for the resale of a single family home, a duplex, a triplex, or a fourplex, and not for a condominium, a new home a builder sells, or farm and ranch property. (Source: TREC)
The financing addenda and other addenda
The Third Party Financing Addendum is TREC No. 40-11, with an effective date of January 3, 2025. TREC says it is used when a third party, not the seller or the buyer, provides any type of financing for all or part of the purchase price. (Source: TREC)
Under TREC No. 40-11, the buyer applies promptly for the financing checked in Paragraph 1 (conventional, Texas Veterans Land Board, FHA, VA, USDA, reverse mortgage, or other) and makes every reasonable effort to get approval. Financing approval is obtained when both Buyer Approval and Property Approval are obtained. Time is of the essence for Paragraph 2. (Source: TREC)
The Addendum Concerning Right to Terminate Due to Lender's Appraisal, TREC No. 49-1, is used only with the Third Party Financing Addendum, and not with FHA or VA financing. The parties check one: the buyer waives the Paragraph 2B right to end the contract when the appraised value does not meet the lender's requirements; the buyer waives it only when the appraised value is at least the amount written in; or the buyer may also end the contract within the days written in after the Effective Date if the lender's appraisal is below the amount written in and the buyer gives the seller a copy, with the earnest money refunded. (Source: TREC)
TREC's contracts page lists these other addenda, with their effective dates: the Seller Financing Addendum (TREC No. 26-8, February 1, 2023); the Loan Assumption Addendum (41-3, February 1, 2023); the Addendum for Release of Liability on Assumed Loan and/or Restoration of Seller's VA Entitlement (12-3, December 5, 2011); the Addendum for Sale of Other Property by Buyer (10-6, December 5, 2011); the Short Sale Addendum (45-2, April 1, 2021); and the Addendum for Section 1031 Exchange (60-0, January 3, 2025). (Source: TREC)
Disclosure forms, the termination notice, and the IABS notice
TREC's contracts page lists these disclosure forms, with their effective dates: the Seller's Disclosure Notice (TREC No. 55-1, May 28, 2026); the Addendum for Seller's Disclosure of Information on Lead-Based Paint and Lead-Based Paint Hazards (56-0, May 28, 2026); the Addendum for Property Subject to Mandatory Membership in a Property Owners Association (36-11, July 1, 2026); Subdivision Information, Including Resale Certificate for Property Subject to Mandatory Membership in a Property Owners' Association (37-5, February 10, 2014); the Notice to Purchaser of Special Taxing or Assessment District (59-0, February 12, 2024); the Addendum Containing Notice of Obligation to Pay Improvement District Assessment (53-0, September 1, 2021); and the Seller's Disclosure about Groundwater and Surface Water Rights (61-0, July 1, 2026). (Source: TREC)
TREC's contracts page also lists the Notice of Buyer's Termination of Contract, TREC No. 38-8, with an effective date of April 1, 2025. (Source: TREC)
TREC Rule 531.20 adopts the Information About Brokerage Services notice, TREC No. IABS 1-2, and requires you to give the completed IABS at the first substantive communication that Occupations Code Section 1101.558 sets. You may give it in person, by first class mail or overnight courier, in the body of an email, or as an email attachment or link with a specific reference to the IABS in the body of the email. The link may not be in a footnote or signature block. You also link a completed IABS from the homepage of each business website. (Source: TREC)
If you reproduce the IABS notice, you copy its text word for word, with the same spacing, borders, and placement. Only the broker contact information may be filled in ahead. (Source: TREC)
The 2026 form changes
TREC adopted the 2026 contract form changes at its May 4, 2026 meeting, and says the revised contract forms became mandatory on July 1, 2026. The changes include a definition of "Legal Holiday", a new Seller's Water Disclosure about groundwater and surface water rights, an expanded Seller's Disclosure Notice (insurance status, private road maintenance, above-ground storage tanks, conservation easements), revised broker compensation language in Paragraph 12, clearer notice delivery in Paragraph 21, and the addenda grouped by category in Paragraph 22. (Source: TREC)
At the direction of the Sunset Advisory Commission, TREC added a water rights section to Paragraph 7 of most of its contract forms, but not the Residential Condominium Contract, and created the Seller's Disclosure About Groundwater and Surface Water Rights. No law other than the contract requires it. Under a TREC contract, the seller gives it unless all of the statements in Paragraph 7I(3) of the resale contract, or the matching paragraph of another TREC contract, are true. (Source: TREC)
Not on this page
The terms of a condominium resale under TREC's Residential Condominium Contract (Resale), TREC No. 30-18: read it.
The terms of the other financing addenda: read each form on TREC's site.
The text of the IABS notice: TREC No. IABS 1-2 sets it.
What the Seller's Disclosure Notice, the water disclosure, and the MUD and PID notices say.
Title commitments, surveys, and the title forms of the Texas Department of Insurance.
The blanks of a given deal: read the contract itself.
