Real estate licensing by state
Practical guides to pre-licensing education, state exams, application fees, fingerprints, broker sponsorship, reciprocity, and renewal. Every guide cites the state commission or its official testing materials.
Covers all 51 jurisdictions and 102 license types. Latest source review: 2026-09-02.
Salesperson
Three college-level courses (minimum 45 hours each) · California Department of Real Estate (in-house; not PSI or Pearson VUE)
Sales Agent
180 classroom hours in six TREC qualifying courses · Pearson VUE
Sales Associate
63-hour FREC I pre-license course · Pearson VUE
Salesperson
77-hour DOS-approved salesperson qualifying course · New York Department of State (eAccessNY); not Pearson VUE or PSI
Broker
75-hour broker pre-license (60 topics + 15 applied principles); confirm live if an IDFPR packet still mentions 90 · PSI (IDFPR testing vendor; older packets say AMP)
Provisional Broker
75-hour North Carolina Broker Prelicensing Course · Pearson VUE (after NCREC Notice of Examination Eligibility)
Minimum age, background review, residency rules, and disclosures.
Required pre-license courses, hour totals, expiration rules, and post-license education.
Testing vendor, exam sections, timing, published passing standard, and retake rules.
Commission, examination, fingerprint, initial-license, and renewal fees we can verify.
When a sponsoring, responsible, principal, managing, or broker-in-charge relationship is required.
Continuing education, first-renewal traps, reciprocity, endorsement, and waiver rules.
Each state controls its own credential, application order, examination, and deadlines. Texas issues a sales agent license. Florida uses sales associate. Illinois's entry credential is broker, while North Carolina starts applicants as provisional brokers.
An out-of-state license may lead to reciprocity, mutual recognition, endorsement, an education waiver, or no shortcut. The destination state decides. That is why each guide links to the live regulator rather than treating a school comparison chart as authority.
Interactive comparison
See how entry-level requirements differ before choosing a school or starting an application.
Uses the same source-checked data as our state guides.
Most applicants need several weeks to several months. The biggest variables are required course hours, application processing, fingerprint clearance, exam availability, and whether the state requires a sponsoring broker before issuance.
State-controlled fees commonly include the application, exam, fingerprints, and initial license. School tuition and optional exam prep are private-market costs. Use our calculator to combine verified government fees with the price a school actually quotes you.
No. A state regulator issues your real estate license. REALTOR® is a membership mark of the National Association of Realtors. You can hold a state license without joining NAR.
Usually not as a direct transfer. Depending on the destination, an active out-of-state license may qualify you for reciprocity, endorsement, mutual recognition, an education waiver, or a state-only exam.
Each license guide displays its verification date, next scheduled review, and primary sources. Because commissions can change fees and forms between reviews, every guide also links directly to the regulator.
exams · application · first steps
A passing score is usually one item in an unfinished file. The next step depends on whether your state tests before or after the application—and whether a broker must approve it.
licensing · broker · REALTOR
The wall license is a state product. REALTOR® is a membership mark. Illinois and North Carolina do not even issue a salesperson title.
brokerage · sponsorship · career
The highest commission split is not automatically the best offer. New licensees should compare supervision, fixed costs, training, lead ownership, and the exit clause.
reciprocity · mobility
There is no title transfer among California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. There are waivers, and most pairs have none.