What education is required to get a CA real estate license?

In order to qualify to take the state licensing exam and apply for your California real estate license, you must first complete three college-level courses. These courses include Real Estate Principles (45-hours), Real Estate Practice (45-hours), and one 45-hour elective course.

You must complete the 45-hour Real Estate Principles course, 45-hour Real Estate Practice course, and one, 45-hour elective course in order to qualify to obtain your California real estate salespersons license.

You must complete a total of 135-hours of education in order to qualify to take the state licensing exam. The 135-hours are broken down into 3, 45-hour courses: Real Estate Principles, Real Estate Practice, and one elective course.

You can take the required 135-hours of pre-licensing education online or in-person at a local school. Most students prefer to take the courses online since it gives them more flexibility and they can typically complete the courses in a shorter time frame.

Yes, you can certainly take the 135-hours of required education online. The DRE approves both online and in-person courses. Most students actually prefer to take the courses online, as it allows them to complete the courses at their own pace.

Yes, you are allowed to take (and complete) the 135-hours of required pre-license education while you are still in High School. The DRE only requires that you are at least 18 years old when it comes time to apply for your real estate license.

Yes, you are allowed to complete the 3, 45-hour pre-license courses with more than one school. The DRE only requires that you submit your three Course Completion Certificates when it comes time to apply for the state licensing exam. The 3 Course Completion Certificates may be from more than one school.​

If you are admitted to the California ​State Bar, the DRE will waive the 135-hours of required pre-license education. If you hold a law degree but are not admitted to the California State Bar, you may use your law degree credits in place of the 45-hour elective course.

The DRE may allow you to use college credits towards the 45-hour elective course if the credits were earned as part of a real estate or law related course. However, you will still be required to complete the 45-hour Real Estate Principles and 45-hour Real Estate Practice courses.

The 45-hour elective course may include one of the following: RE Appraisal, Property Management, RE Finance, RE Economics, Legal Aspects of RE, RE Office Administration, General Accounting, Business Law, Escrows, Mortgage Loan Brokering and Lending, Computer Applications in Real Estate Common Interest Developments.

You can take the school's final exam for any of the 3, 45-hour pre-license courses as many times as needed until you pass. There is no limit as to how many times you can take the school's final exam.​

Yes, the California final exam for any of the three 45-hour pre-license courses is open book. You can use any textbooks or other resources when taking the final exam.

The Real Estate Law requires that a student cannot complete any 45-hour pre-license course within 2-1/2 weeks.​ Since an applicant is required to complete 3, 45-hour pre-license courses, you cannot complete all three courses (135 hours in total) within 7-1/2 weeks from the date of enrollment.

No, the final exams for each of the required 45-hour pre-license courses are not proctored. If you take the course online, you can also take the final exam from the comfort of your own home.

The Real Estate Law requires the final exam for each 45-hour pre-license course to include a minimum of 100 questions.

As soon as you pass the course final exam, your Course Completion Certificate will be available within your RealEstateU account. You can print the Certificate or save as a PDF. You will eventually have to submit a copy of each Certificate to the DRE as part of your state exam application.