California RE Salesperson Exam Guide (2026): Requirements, Cost & Pass Rate

Every number in this guide comes from the California Department of Real Estate's published requirements for the salesperson exam: what the test costs, how many questions you'll face, how long you get, what score passes, and how many hours of coursework stand between you and a seat at the test center. Use it to plan backwards from test day instead of guessing.

California Salesperson Exam at a Glance

• Questions: 150
• Time allowed: 195 minutes
• Exam fee: $60
• Passing score: 70%
• Exam administrator: PSI
• Prelicensing education: 135 hours

Step 1: Complete California's 135-Hour Prelicensing Requirement

As in other states, you must complete required prelicensing education hours before you can sit for the exam. California's requirement is 135 hours — one of the larger time commitments in the licensing process, so start it well before the date you hope to test.

Treat those 135 hours as your primary study vehicle rather than a box to check: the topic areas below track what the coursework covers, and candidates who engage with the material during the course need far less cram time afterward.

Step 2: Apply, Pay the $60 Fee, and Schedule with PSI

The California exam fee is $60, and the exam itself is administered by PSI. The registration sequence looks like this:

1. Finish and document your 135 hours of prelicensing education.
2. Submit your salesperson exam application to the California Department of Real Estate (DRE).
3. Pay the $60 exam fee.
4. Once your application is processed, schedule your test appointment through PSI, the exam administrator.

Format and Scoring: 150 Questions, 195 Minutes, 70% to Pass

The California exam has 150 questions, and candidates are allowed 195 minutes. That works out to roughly 1.3 minutes per question — enough time if you keep moving, but not enough to wrestle with any single item for five minutes.

The passing score is 70%. On a 150-question exam, that means about 105 correct answers — which also means you can miss around 45 questions and still pass. Internalize that before test day: when you hit a brutal question, flag it, move on, and come back. No single question can fail you.

What to Study: The Core Topic Areas

Agency relationships and fiduciary duties

• An agency relationship arises when a principal authorizes an agent to act on their behalf in dealings with third parties.
• Memorize OLD CAR: Obedience, Loyalty, Disclosure, Confidentiality, Accounting, and Reasonable care — the core fiduciary duties.
• Loyalty means placing the principal's interests above the agent's own and avoiding conflicts of interest.
• A classic exam trap: confidentiality survives termination of the agency, so even after a listing ends you may not reveal the seller's lowest acceptable price.
• Accounting requires safeguarding entrusted funds and prohibits commingling client money with the agent's own.
• Dual agency is legal only with the informed written consent of both parties, and a dual agent cannot advocate for one party against the other.
• Know the customer/client distinction: customers are owed only honesty, fair dealing, and disclosure of known material defects — not fiduciary duties.
• Agency terminates by completion, expiration, mutual agreement, revocation, renunciation, or operation of law such as death or incapacity.

Listings and contracts

• A listing agreement is an employment contract authorizing a broker to market a property and find a ready, willing, and able buyer.
• Compare the three listing types: under an exclusive right to sell, the broker is paid if the property sells during the term regardless of who procures the buyer; under an exclusive agency, no commission is owed if the seller personally finds the buyer; an open listing is non-exclusive and pays only the broker who procures the buyer.
• A valid real estate contract requires competent parties, mutual assent, consideration, a lawful object, and a writing under the Statute of Frauds.
• Any change to the terms of an offer is a counteroffer that rejects and terminates the original offer — the original cannot later be accepted.
• Earnest money is a good-faith deposit held in the broker's trust account.
• Financing, inspection, and appraisal contingencies let a buyer cancel and recover the deposit if a condition is not met.
• A time-is-of-the-essence clause makes stated deadlines strictly enforceable; missing the date is a breach.

Deeds, title, and recording

• A deed is the written instrument that conveys title from grantor to grantee, and it must be delivered to and accepted by the grantee to transfer title.
• Rank the deed types: a general warranty deed gives the greatest protection, warranting against all title defects arising at any time, even before the grantor owned the property; a special warranty deed covers only defects arising during the grantor's ownership; a quitclaim deed conveys whatever interest the grantor may have with no warranties and is used to clear clouds on title.
• Recording provides constructive notice to the world and establishes priority, generally protecting the first party to record.
• Title insurance protects against losses from covered defects that existed but were unknown when the policy issued; marketable title is title free from reasonable doubt or serious defects that a prudent buyer would accept.

Financing

• A mortgage or deed of trust pledges the property as security for repayment of a promissory note.
• In lien-theory states the borrower keeps title and the lender holds a lien; in title-theory states the lender or trustee holds title until the debt is repaid.
• Loan types: conventional loans are not government-backed, FHA loans are insured by the FHA, and VA loans are guaranteed by the VA for eligible veterans.
• PMI is generally required on conventional loans when the down payment is under 20% of the purchase price.
• A fixed-rate mortgage keeps one rate for the term; an adjustable-rate mortgage changes periodically based on an index plus a margin.
• Amortization: early payments go mostly to interest, later payments mostly to principal.
• A due-on-sale clause lets the lender demand full repayment on sale, blocking assumption without lender approval.
• Discount points are prepaid interest that lower the note rate; one point equals 1% of the loan amount.

Fair housing

• The federal Fair Housing Act — part of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, amended in 1988 — bans discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
• Know the seven federally protected classes cold: race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, and disability.
• Familial status protects households with children under eighteen and pregnant persons.
• The Civil Rights Act of 1866 separately prohibits all racial discrimination in property transactions with no exemptions.
• Definitions the exam loves: steering is channeling buyers toward or away from neighborhoods based on a protected class; blockbusting is inducing owners to sell by suggesting people of a protected class are moving in; redlining is denying loans or insurance in certain areas based on protected characteristics.
• Advertising that indicates a preference or limitation based on a protected class is illegal even if the transaction itself would be exempt.
• The Mrs. Murphy exemption (owner-occupied buildings of four or fewer units) never applies to race and cannot be used with discriminatory advertising or a licensee.

Real estate math

• Commission = sale price × rate: a $300,000 sale at 6% yields an $18,000 commission.
• LTV = loan amount ÷ the lesser of appraised value or purchase price: a $240,000 loan on a $300,000 property is 80% LTV.
• Proration divides shared expenses like taxes, rent, or interest between buyer and seller using the closing date as the dividing point. Many exams use a 360-day banker's year with 30-day months, so the daily rate is the annual amount divided by 360.
• Direction matters: for prepaid expenses the buyer reimburses the seller for the unused portion; for expenses paid in arrears the seller credits the buyer.
• Gross rent multiplier = sale price ÷ monthly gross rent.
• Income capitalization: net operating income ÷ cap rate = estimated value.

Final Prep: Converting Study Hours into a Passing Score

1. Run full timed simulations. Practice with 150 questions against the 195-minute clock at least twice before test day so the pace feels familiar rather than frantic.
2. Drill the math until it's automatic. Commission, LTV, proration with the 360-day year, GRM, and income capitalization are formula plug-ins — free points if the formulas are memorized, time sinks if they aren't.
3. Lock in the list-based content. OLD CAR, the seven protected classes, the three listing types, and the three deed types are pure recall — flashcard material for the final week.
4. Play to the 70% bar. You need roughly 105 of 150 correct, so answer the questions you know first, flag the rest, and bank easy points before returning to the hard ones.