How to become a real estate agent in Florida

The most relaxing and sunny state of the United States is no doubt the best characteristic for Florida, although California may argue with this statement. We can call FL also the hot spot for retirees and thus, the local real estate market never remains idle. Let’s add to that the 3rd largest population among all the states, and here we conclude. People actively sell and buy properties in Florida, and their need for the services of a top-level real estate agent is quite high.

So, if you are at the very start of your career, or you need some changes to scale up your life, how about getting a license as a real estate salesperson? We can bet, it’s worth your consideration!

The first and foremost thing is to choose the type of licenses provided by the state government in the niche of RE.

In case you consider real estate brokerage to be your future career choice, you should start with an RE agent’s position. And for this, you need to meet multiple requirements developed by the FL authorities.

The position of a real estate salesperson makes you an intermediate between real estate sellers and buyers or landlords and tenants. Thus, you get your income for the service you perform. These are as follows:

For these services, you can get top dollar if you try your best. Why so? Let’s check some facts!

– The highest-ranked local real estate brokerage company is Madison Allied LLC which offers $149,912 per year.

So, if the idea of becoming a real estate salesperson sounds great to you, let’s get some information with may be of good use for you when following that way. We divided these options into 6 steps to take to make the process of a real estate agent’s license easy to read and comprehend.

The first and foremost thing to consider is to match your personal features with the federal and local requirement list. What’s important for applicants?

That’s what makes the basis for your success in further becoming a licensed real estate agent or even a broker in Florida.

The next step is your agent\broker education. You have to complete 62 hours of special courses which include reviews of the most required topics for your future careers. These are courses in law, history, marketing, sales, math, finance and insurance. Almost everything in theory and practice is included in this course.

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Off- or online study packages that include a practice test and course completion certificates.

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Just check the list provided by the CE Shop! Each of these courses is paid and you have to plan your money to attend them and complete your education. Yet, in Florida, you have a choice between on-board studies in a classroom, online real-time classes, and remote education packages with access to all the resources you need to study. It’s also up to you to select the schedule.

Some students prefer completing their real estate courses in a matter of weeks or to study daily, while others may need 1-2 months, especially, if it is a student who is employed and considers becoming a licensed real estate agent or broker one of the possible continuing education opportunities. Typically it takes a month or its equivalent in weeks to complete your classes.

In any case, your prep classes become your helpers in gaining success during the examination in the National Commission testing center which is one of the following steps you should pass on your way to the license.

As for the cost of a pre-licensing education course, your license coursework may cost you from $245 to $400 for the full course of 63 hours and may have differences because of the school policy, your education schedule and whether you complete it online or in person.

It’s quite important to contact a reliable and experienced real estate school instructor to get the necessary knowledge and get your classwork completed nevertheless you are going to study in-premise or take an online course.

Thus, the critical benefits when choosing an instructor for your license course and further exams in Florida include as following:

However, you should also consider the personal features of the instructor.

– Almost 70% of respondents among real estate salespersons are satisfied with their salaries.

Prior to passing your exam and becoming a professional real estate agent with a license in Florida you have to submit your fingerprints to any Livescan Service Provider. Fingerprinting doesn’t threaten your privacy, yet, for business related to luxury home selling, deluxe apartment sales, and top dollar contracts, it’s a part of a must-do routine along with a criminal background report. So, if you wish, you can submit your fingerprints, for example, in Accurate Biometrics or Pearson VUE.

Besides fingerprints, you also need to pass a criminal background check and get a report on this background made by a local law enforcement provider with eligibility of provision of such criminal background reviews.

The next step is the license application for your final exam which summarizes your course, your professional skills, and whether you are ready to get a position as a licensed real estate sales agent in Florida. Access to the application form for the exam is available on the same Pearson VUE service. Just sign in and get access to the scheduling plan. You can create the application remotely and select the most convenient date for your exam. The application for a license in Florida is required also before your exam test is completed. You can make it in person and get approved in one of the FL Real Estate Commission’s offices or on the officially approved site where all the initial terms are indicated. Then you wait a bit, typically, for three days, and you can get your access and your application reviewed and approved by the DRE.

Check your mail so as not to miss a letter from Pearson VUE which holds state RE license examination tests. In this letter, you’ll be provided with an authorization link to book your license exam date and time. Please, click on it and schedule your real estate exam and the form of exam undegoing suitable for you. Besides, you can enter this resource to get more useful info before your exam like the Candidate’s Handbook, tips and recommendations for successful exam completion.

On a chosen date, you’ll have to start your exam. You have 100 questions to answer related to all topics you learn during the pre-license course and you have to complete the task in 210 minutes. Time won’t expand anymore. You have a limitless number of attempts, yet, you have to pay for each one $36.75 as a fee. The score for exam approval is 75/100, so you need to answer correctly 75% of tasks to pass it and get a license. As a prove of your score, you receive a document with indicated mistakes, and in case you fail, you can consider it a content basis for a further retake.

After you have passed your exam, you have nothing to do but expect a review of your license application. Yet, while your exam score is processed by FREC, according to Florida state laws, you need to find an associate broker agency which will sponsor you as only salespersons who are sponsoring local real estate brokers can work legally in Florida. Just inspect the list of the best agencies and real estate brokers with their members indicated and apply for their sponsorship. We are sure you’ll succeed with it.

Then you can feel free to wait for no more than 10 business days to receive your license via email to the address indicated when you signed in.

We’ll calculate total costs and time expenses for real estate agents’ licensing in Florida. Learn more about how much you’ll spend on them and do not miss any line to consider.

– The best-paid locations for realtors in Florida are Inverness (average rates are $98,619 annually) and Davenport (average rates are $95,923 per year).

According to current state regulations, Florida realtors can work without an obligatory pre-license examination in 10 states of America including Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Rhode Island, and West Virginia. Although the reciprocity principles are actual for both real estate brokers and agents, you might know that the reverse situation still needs the candidate who relocated to FL to pass a state-specific exam to obtain the permit to work as a RE salesperson. The good news is this exam is quite different and it has only 40 points instead of the local pre-license exam (100 tasks).

– Although Georgia is on the reciprocal list, it provides specific conditions for Florida real estate agents and brokers. You have to undergo an additional examination to approve your FL license in this state.

All the decisions for the approval of real estate licenses are under the influence of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. That authority regulates and provides licensing for multiple business niches including the real estate industry in Florida. To get in touch with the officially charged with licensing in RE Florida authorities, please, follow our information.

Being a member of the FL realtors’ community means also regular license renewal. Since your RE license becomes active and it works as valid, you need to track its expiration time. In Florida, it is 2 years since its approval. You have to renew it every 2 years by applying for renewal on DBPR’s site or downloading its official app to do this online. Besides, you have to pass post-licensing continuing education classes in Florida to get it renewed. Also, a fee of $64 is collected for the renewal.

Don’t forget that your license can remain not activated if it’s expired for two years. Then you’ll have to pass through each step of licensure once more to get it updated and activate it.

Let’s summarize the information from this guide in a quintessence of typically asked questions about real estate agent’s license in Florida.