Colorado Real Estate Broker Exam

Colorado licenses a single tier: everyone who holds a real estate licence in the state is a broker. That is why qualifying education runs to 168 hours rather than the 60 to 90 typical of salesperson states. The extra hours cover the responsibilities a two-tier state defers until a licensee upgrades — trust accounting, contract preparation and closing mechanics — because in Colorado there is no supervising broker standing between a new licensee and those duties.

The national portion is 80 questions in 120 minutes and the state portion is 74 questions in 110 minutes, so sitting both means 154 questions across 230 minutes. That works out at 90 seconds per question nationally and just under 89 on the state portion — near enough the same pace on both. A 15-minute tutorial precedes the exam and does not come out of that allowance.

The national portion requires 60 correct out of 80 and the state portion requires 53 correct out of 74. In percentage terms that is 75 percent nationally and about 72 percent on the state portion, so the national bar is the stricter of the two.

No. The two portions are scored separately and a passing score stays valid for one year, so a portion you have cleared is banked while you retake the one you missed. Planning around that is worth doing: candidates who are strong on national principles but weak on Colorado law can sit both, secure the national pass, and concentrate entirely on the state portion for the retake.

They are prescribed by component rather than left to the provider: 48 hours of law and practice, 48 hours of contracts, 32 hours of practical applications and 24 hours of closings, which together account for 152 of the 168. Those proportions are the most useful guide available to where the state portion puts its weight — contracts carries equal billing with law and practice, and closings is worth 24 dedicated hours rather than being an administrative footnote.

The exam fee is $44.95 and renewal costs $252. A licence history document, which another state relies on when considering reciprocity, costs $15. Those are the Division's fees only — the 168 hours of qualifying education are the larger expense by a wide margin and must be finished before you sit rather than afterwards.