cost · fees
The Cheapest Real Estate License Among These Markets
New York’s $15 exam and $65 license look cheap until you count 77 hours. Georgia doubles after three months. Board fees are not the real bill.
By Gabriel Giner, Editor · Published
Board fees are the only dollars this site will print, because they are the only dollars commissions publish. School tuition, exam-prep apps, and E&O are private-market prices. Among the commissions compared here, the cheapest board path is not the cheapest path, and one state will double the application fee if you wait.
Verified board line items (entry licenses)
New York DOS: $15 exam, $65 original salesperson license. California DRE RE 206: $100 exam, $350 original salesperson license, $49 Live Scan. Texas TREC (December 15, 2025 schedule): $206 original sales-agent application; Pearson $43; IdentoGO $37. Florida: RE 1 has appeared at $62.75 on live checkout (older PDFs $83.75 — pay the cart); Pearson $36.75. Illinois: PSI $58; by-exam application cited at $125 in 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1450.130. Georgia: $170 if you apply within three months of passing, $340 from three to twelve months. Pennsylvania: $97 initial salesperson ($72 + $25 Recovery Fund); Pearson combined $52. North Carolina: $105 application (effective April 1, 2026); Pearson $63 comprehensive. Fingerprint dollars are omitted where the bulletin does not print them.
On that list, New York’s published board total is the lowest. California’s original salesperson license fee is the highest single line. Georgia is cheap only if you apply in ninety days. Florida’s RE 1 figure has moved; this site will not freeze an old PDF. Texas’s $206 is an application fee that already bundles what other states split into exam-plus-license line items — do not add a second “license fee” TREC did not publish.
Broker board fees are a different table
California broker: $150 exam, $450 license. Texas broker original application $308 (2026 education/experience grid is the real cost). New York broker $185. Pennsylvania sole-proprietor initial $169.50. Illinois managing broker is a second PSI $58 plus the endorsement or by-exam fee IDFPR publishes. Florida broker dollar fees are omitted here where the live checkout was not independently restated on this pass — use DBPR, not a blog. NCREC does not sell a second standard exam for “full” broker; you pay the same application/exam architecture and then postlicensing.
The bill you actually write
Seventy-seven to 180 classroom hours dominate. Texas 180 plus 270 SAE is an education invoice, not a TREC invoice. Florida’s 63 plus 45 post-license is two school invoices; miss the second and the first was wasted because the license is void. North Carolina 75 plus 90 postlicensing is the same shape. California’s three college-level courses can be community-college cheap or private-school expensive; DRE does not cap tuition. New York’s cheap board fees sit on top of 77 hours and a sponsoring broker you must already have. E&O is often a brokerage requirement, not a DOS or DRE line.
Use the cost calculator to add verified board fees to the tuition quote in your hand. Then open the destination fee schedule the day you pay. Georgia’s ladder, Florida’s checkout, and TREC’s dated schedule are why a screenshot from a friend is not a source.
What “cheap” hides
New York’s $80-ish board total assumes you already have a sponsoring broker and 77 hours. If the only broker who will hang your license is in a market where you cannot produce, the $65 license was not the bargain. California’s $350 license is a four-year term; amortized it is not four times New York’s two-year $65, and DRE’s 45-hour CE is a second tuition event. Texas SAE is a third tuition event that dwarf’s TREC’s $206. Florida’s void penalty makes a skipped $300 post-license course cost the entire pre-license invoice. Georgia’s $340 late application is a tax on indecision, not on poverty.
Illinois looks mid-pack on PSI $58 plus $125 until you remember the first license is a broker license — you are not saving a salesperson sitting you will take later, because there is no later salesperson sitting. North Carolina’s $105 + $63 looks modest until 90 hours of postlicensing are on the calendar. Pennsylvania’s $97 includes a $25 Recovery Fund assessment you will not see on a New York receipt.
How to compare without lying to yourself
Add (1) published board fees from the license page, (2) the school’s quote for qualifying education, (3) the school’s quote for post-license / SAE / postlicensing where that state has a trap, (4) prints at the named vendor, (5) a year of E&O if the broker requires it. Do not add a second state’s fees “in case you transfer.” Transfers are new applications. Run that sum in the calculator for the actual typeSlug — sales agent in Texas, sales associate in Florida, provisional broker in North Carolina, broker in Illinois — because selecting “salesperson” for those four will correctly return no row.
Renewal is part of cheap. New York $65 every two years. Pennsylvania $96 biennial. North Carolina $50 each June 10. California $350 every four years. Texas and Florida renewal dollars belong on the live fee page the year you renew; this site will not invent them. A cheap original fee with an expensive first-renewal education bill is not a cheap market. SAE and Florida post-license are why Texas and Florida can look inexpensive on day one and expensive on day 365.