Real Estate Broker licensing

This family holds two different things under one name. In most states the broker licence is the senior tier — the licence that lets you run a brokerage, supervise salespeople and hold client funds — and it is earned after a period of active experience as a salesperson, additional coursework and a longer exam. California, Florida, Texas and Illinois broker exams on this page are that kind. But several states title their entry-level licence broker as well: Colorado, Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, New Mexico, South Dakota and Tennessee all hand a new licensee a licence called broker, associate broker, broker associate or affiliate broker, and their senior tier is a managing, principal or designated broker. The page for each exam says which tier it is.

For the senior tier, experience is the gate. California counts full-time licensed salesperson experience within a recent window, or accepts a qualifying degree in its place; Alabama and Maryland set their own periods; Florida and Texas require active experience too. The coursework is longer and the exam covers what a supervisor must know: brokerage operations, trust accounts, agency law from the principal's side, and in California seven major subject areas set out in the broker content outline.

For the entry-titled broker states, the exam is the ordinary two-portion licensing exam and the experience requirement does not apply. Colorado, for example, sets qualifying education and an application process for the entry broker licence with no prior licence required. Read the page before you assume a years-of-experience gate.