How to become a real estate agent

This page is independent of any school or brokerage. It is a map, not a substitute for your state's guide: the state pages carry the section-by-section sourcing, the fees in full and the deadlines that trip people up.

1The five steps, in the order every state uses them

1. Complete the pre-licence course

   Every state requires classroom or online education from a provider its board approves before you can sit the exam, and most put a time limit on how long the certificate stays valid. The hour count is the number that varies most: 40 hours in Alaska and 180 hours in Texas. A few states express the requirement as named courses rather than a single total, and the guides say so.

2. Pass the licensing exam

   Almost every state exam has two portions, a national one and a state-law one, given by a testing vendor at a computer centre. 23 states use PSI and 23 states use Pearson VUE on the pages read; the rest run their own exam or the guide does not name the vendor. Pass marks are a percentage in some states and a scaled score in others, and a failed portion can usually be retaken on its own.

3. Apply, with a background check

   The application goes to the state board, online in most states, with the course certificate, the score report and a fingerprint or criminal-history check. Most states put a deadline on this step, counted from the exam pass or from the course, and the deadline is the part of the process people most often miss. The state's own fees are fixed and published; the guides total them before tuition, from $80 in New York to $729 in Connecticut.

4. Find a sponsoring broker

   A new licence is only usable under a licensed broker. Some states require the broker's signature before the licence issues; others issue an inactive licence that activates when a broker takes you on. Either way the choice of brokerage is the first business decision, and each state guide points to which brokerages in that state publish their pay plan.

5. Renew with continuing education

   Licences run one to four years depending on the state, and renewal needs a set number of continuing-education hours plus a fee. 6 states renew every year. Several states also require a post-licence course in the first year or two, on top of the CE for renewal, and a few issue a provisional or temporary licence that cannot be renewed until that course is done.

Source: the 51 state guides on this site; each range above names the board page it was read from.

2What changes from state to state

• The name of the licence. Most states call the entry licence a salesperson licence. 9 states use another name for the same entry-level licence, among them Colorado (associate broker), Illinois (broker), Indiana (broker), North Carolina (provisional broker), New Mexico (associate broker), Oregon (broker); in those states there is no separate salesperson licence to apply for.
• Minimum age. 40 states set it at 18 on the pages read; Alaska, Alabama, Nebraska require 19; New Mexico and Wyoming say the age of majority; and 6 boards (Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin) state no age in words on their public pages, which the guides say rather than assume.
• Course hours. From 40 hours in Alaska to 180 hours in Texas; 30 of the 47 states that state a single total require between 60 and 90 hours. The requirements comparison lists every state.
• Exam. Question counts, time limits and pass marks differ by vendor and state; several states publish no pass rate at all, and the guides say "not published" where that is true rather than borrowing a school's estimate.
• State fees. From $80 in New York to $729 in Connecticut before tuition, counting the exam, application, licence and any recovery-fund or fingerprint fee the board publishes.
• Renewal. Terms of one to four years; continuing education from 7 hours per term in Arkansas to 48 hours in Kentucky.
• Pay. The only independent wage series is the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of agents paid as employees; the salary by state table ranks every state on it and explains what it leaves out.

3Start with your state

Each guide answers the questions people type by state: requirements, steps in order, total cost, how long it takes, the exam and its pass rate where published, reciprocity, renewal, what agents earn, and which brokerages to look at once licensed.

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Washington
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

4Compare states side by side

Questions people ask

How long does it take to become a real estate agent?

It depends on the state's course hours and its exam and application deadlines. The course is the longest fixed part, from 40 hours in Alaska to 180 hours in Texas, taken at the school's pace; the exam is a single sitting; and boards rarely publish an application processing time. Each state guide lists the fixed parts and says where the board publishes no typical time.

How much does it cost to get a real estate licence?

The state's own fees, counting the exam, application, licence and any fingerprint or recovery-fund fee the board publishes, run from $80 in New York to $729 in Connecticut. Tuition for the pre-licence course is set by the schools and comes on top; boards do not publish it.

Do I need a college degree to be a real estate agent?

No state on the pages read requires a degree for the entry licence. Most require a high school diploma or equivalent and a minimum age of 18, and all require the state-approved pre-licence course and the licensing exam.

Can I use my real estate licence in another state?

Not automatically. Each state decides whether to recognise another state's licence, usually by waiving the course or the national portion of the exam while still requiring its own state-law exam and application. Every state guide has a reciprocity section read from that state's board.

Which state is the easiest to get a real estate licence in?

Measured by pre-licence hours alone, Alaska requires the fewest at 40 and Texas the most at 180; measured by fully published state fees, New York is lowest and Connecticut highest. Hours and fees are only part of it: exam pass marks, background checks and post-licence courses differ too, and a licence is only useful in the state that issued it.

Sources and dates