So you’ve decided real estate is the perfect career for you. How exciting! I’ll make this brief because it sounds like you are ready to get started on your new adventure!
The great news is, that if you’ve got the drive and the time to devote to studying, you can get your real estate license in a matter of weeks!
Keep reading to find out what you’ll need to do and roughly how long each step takes.
1. Complete the Required Real Estate Pre-licensing Courses
(Takes approximately 2 to 8 weeks, depending on your state.)
Once you’ve determined that you meet the requirements to be a real estate agent, you need to get signed up for a pre-licensing course. Heads up: This will likely be the most time-consuming part of launching your new career.
Pre-licensing education requirements vary pretty widely by state. The shortest course requirements are in Alaska, Michigan, and Massachusetts, clocking in at 40 hours.
The states with the longest prelicensing requirements are Texas (180 hours), Colorado (168 hours), and Oregon (150 hours).
Check out the Aceable real estate course for your state to get more information on the education requirements, or visit your state’s Real Estate Career Center for details on how to get a real estate license in your area.
Learn What You Need to Know to Be Successful
Each state requires that you learn national and state-specific content in order to become a licensed real estate agent. This is a good thing! Buying a house is the biggest transaction most people make in their lifetime. You’ll need to have some pretty specific knowledge to be successful as an agent.
Your pre-licensing course will teach you about:
Real estate law
Ethics
Contracts
Escrow procedures
Financing
Listing a property
Closing a sale
Fair housing laws
Real Estate Appraisal
Real Estate Finance
State-specific regulations and rules
You can satisfy your course requirements at your own pace with online courses through a provider like AceableAgent.
Our online course makes all that required content more fun with scenarios that will make you laugh, interactive learning activities to keep you engaged, and videos to walk you through the required content in an entertaining way.
Create a Course Completion Plan
As you map out your plan to become a real estate agent, consider your answers to the following questions:
Is an online course right for you?
Whether you take the pre-licensing course online or in person, the hours invested are roughly the same, but taking a class online is the quickest path to getting your license because you can schedule your learning when it’s convenient for you.
What other commitments do you have?
Be realistic about the time you’ll need to work, take care of your family, and sleep! You don’t want to get overwhelmed before you’ve even started your new career.
How many hours per week can you devote to your pre-licensing course?
Are you studying full-time? Or can you do a few hours during the week and more on the weekend? Once you have the number of hours you can devote to your course per week in mind, divide the number of hours in the course by your weekly hours, and boom: you can see how many weeks it will take you to get through the course.
Check out a few sample study plans for the Texas course to get an idea of how to break down your course time.
2. Submit Your Application
(Application review times vary by state.)
As soon as you complete the required real estate coursework, you’ll need to follow your state’s process for submitting an application to become a real estate agent.
Give yourself a few days to gather all the documents you need to provide along with the application. The amount of time it takes your state to approve your application is not in your control. Use the wait time to study for your exam and interview with potential brokers.
Interview with what now? That’s right, in almost every state, you’ll need to find a broker to sponsor you before you can provide real estate services for clients. The sooner you can figure out who you want to work with, the less chance there is that getting a sponsored broker will delay your license.
3. Study for and Pass the Exam
(Allow 1 or more weeks to study)
While you’re waiting for your application to be approved, study for your exam. AceableAgent offers a study package to fit your needs. We recommend all of our students use the practice tests that we provide as part of all of our course packages. Practicing will help you ace your exam on your first try! Our premium course package includes access to PrepAgent, which offers thousands of practice questions, webinars with experts, flashcards, videos, and other bonus materials to help you prepare.
So, How Quickly Can You Get Your Real Estate License?
If you make earning a real estate license your top priority, you can do it in a matter of just a few months with an online course.
Can you believe you can do something that BIG in such a short amount of time?
Ready for an exciting new career in real estate? Take the first step with AceableAgent!
Updated 11/17/23