Georgia real estate licensing
Georgia Real Estate Salesperson License requirements
A practical, source-checked guide to qualifying, passing the exam, applying, and keeping this license active.
By Gabriel Giner, Editor · Verified · RE License Guide Editorial Desk
- Required education
- 75 instructional hours (GREC Rule 520-2-.04)
- Exam fee
- See current GREC/PSI candidate handbook (commonly about $119–$121; pay the live PSI amount)
- Published fees
- $170 license fee if you apply fast, plus PSI exam fee and 75-hour tuition
- Typical timeline
- Typically 2–4 months after starting the 75-hour course
What to know first
Georgia licenses a salesperson, a broker, and a community association manager who is neither of those things. The CAM 25-hour prelicense course is the wrong door if you intend to sell houses. Salesperson prelicense is a minimum of 75 instructional hours under GREC Rule 520-2-.04; breaks do not count, and graded exercises and tests may not exceed 10 percent of required instruction time. That 10-percent testing cap is a Georgia school-compliance rule, not a line in a national 75-hour catalog.
The sequence is exam-then-apply, closer to California than to Texas. You complete the 75-hour course (or qualifying college hours, or 75 hours approved by another jurisdiction), sit the GREC exam through the Commission's contracted vendor (currently PSI; always confirm on grec.state.ga.us), and then apply for the license. GREC materials long published a $170 license fee if you apply within three months of passing and $340 if you apply after three months but within twelve; after twelve months you retake the exam. Bring a Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC) report to the test center; it must be recent (schools commonly cite a 60-day window). That in-person criminal-history ritual is not IdentoGO-for-TREC and not DRE Live Scan.
A salesperson must affiliate with an active Georgia broker to practice. You may apply inactive without a sponsoring-broker statement. Then the first-year 25-hour salesperson postlicense course is mandatory; failure lapses the license. GREC's postlicense exam passing score is commonly 70 percent at the school. After that, CE is 36 hours every four years, including 3 hours of license law, with renewal on the last day of your birth month. Florida will mutually recognize a Georgia licensee who is not a Florida resident and who passes the 40-question Florida law exam; Georgia will not automatically treat a FREC 63-hour Course I as its 75-hour prelicense. The Recovery Fund (Education, Research, and Recovery) is a GREC consumer-protection statute, not a bonding requirement you post at application.
Your path to the license
Follow these steps in order. Deadlines and affiliation requirements can make a passed exam unusable if they are missed.
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Complete the 75-hour GREC salesperson prelicense
Not the 25-hour CAM course.
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Obtain a fresh GCIC report and schedule PSI
Pay the live exam fee. Sit national and Georgia sections.
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Apply for the license within 3 months if you want the $170 fee
After 3 months and before 12, the published fee doubles to $340. After 12, retake the exam.
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Affiliate with a Georgia broker to go active
Or remain inactive.
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Finish the 25-hour postlicense in year one
Then 36 hours of CE every four years, including 3 hours of license law, by the last day of your birth month.
Education and eligibility
- Minimum age
- 18 years old
- Identification
- A Social Security number is required. An ITIN is not confirmed as a substitute.
- Residency and identification
- Georgia residency is not required to test. Licensees who become nonresidents must cooperate with GREC investigations. You may sit the salesperson exam at 17; the license cannot activate until 18.
- Qualifying education
- GREC-approved salesperson prelicense with a proctored school exam, or 10 quarter / 6 semester hours of real-estate coursework from an accredited college, or 75 hours approved by another state's regulator. Breaks do not count toward the 75.
- Education or filing deadline
- Apply for the license within 12 months of passing the state exam or retake it. The $170 versus $340 split turns on the three-month mark.
- After licensing
- 25-hour GREC-approved salesperson postlicense course in the first year of licensure, with a school exam (commonly 70 percent). Failure lapses the license. The course can count toward a portion of the first 36-hour CE cycle — confirm the current GREC credit rule.
- Character review
- GCIC criminal-history review. Convictions and licensing sanctions on the report require extra documentation at the test center.
- Background process
- A GCIC report is presented at the PSI test center. It must be recent. This is a Georgia criminal-history product, not an FBI-only IdentoGO print for another agency.
- Experience
- No experience required. Affiliation with an active Georgia broker is required to practice.
- Broker affiliation
- Required to practice. Inactive licensure is available without a sponsoring-broker statement.
Documents to prepare
- 75-hour completion reported to PSI
- GCIC report at the test center
The licensing exam
The GREC salesperson exam, as described in the Commission's candidate handbook, is a national-plus-Georgia paper delivered by the contracted vendor (PSI). Commonly published structure: 100 national items and 52 Georgia items, four hours, with a 75 percent (or scaled equivalent) passing standard on each section — confirm counts and the live scaled score in the handbook linked from grec.state.ga.us, because third-party sites disagree on 75 percent versus scaled 72. Georgia items test O.C.G.A. Title 43, Chapter 40, BRRETA brokerage relationships (Georgia is not a Florida transaction-broker state), trust accounts, and the Recovery Fund. Georgia is not a community-property state.
PSI (confirm on grec.state.ga.us) · Fee: See current GREC/PSI candidate handbook (commonly about $119–$121; pay the live PSI amount)
| Part | Questions | Minutes | Pass |
|---|---|---|---|
| National | 100 | — | 75% |
| Georgia state | 52 | — | 75% |
Retake through PSI. After 12 months without a license application, the exam must be repeated. Confirm waiting periods in the live handbook.
What to study
-
GREC candidate handbook
GREC / PSI
Exam fees, GCIC instructions, and $170/$340 license-fee split.
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BRRETA
Official Code of Georgia
The agency statute the Georgia section tests.
Application costs
These are commission or testing-vendor amounts we can cite. School tuition and optional preparation products are private-market prices.
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Application | $170 |
| Initial license | $170 |
GREC handbook: $170 if applied within 3 months of passing; $340 if between 3 and 12 months. That amount covers the first four-year term. Exam fee is paid to PSI at the live handbook amount. Renewal fees are set by GREC (commonly cited online versus mail amounts — pay the portal).
| Commission | Georgia Real Estate Commission O.C.G.A. Title 43, Chapter 40; GREC Rules Chapter 520 |
|---|---|
| Pre-licensing | 75 instructional hours (GREC Rule 520-2-.04) GREC-approved salesperson prelicense with a proctored school exam, or 10 quarter / 6 semester hours of real-estate coursework from an accredited college, or 75 hours approved by another state's regulator. Breaks do not count toward the 75. Apply for the license within 12 months of passing the state exam or retake it. The $170 versus $340 split turns on the three-month mark. |
| Post-license education | 25-hour GREC-approved salesperson postlicense course in the first year of licensure, with a school exam (commonly 70 percent). Failure lapses the license. The course can count toward a portion of the first 36-hour CE cycle — confirm the current GREC credit rule. |
| Sponsoring broker | Required to practice. Inactive licensure is available without a sponsoring-broker statement. |
| Fingerprints | GCIC report at the test center, not a California Live Scan. If the report shows history, bring the supporting documents the handbook names. |
| CE / renewal | 36 hours every four years, including 3 hours of GREC-approved license law, due by the last day of the birth month. First-year 25-hour postlicense is separate and can lapse the license if missed. |
| Recovery fund | GREC administers the Real Estate Education, Research, and Recovery Fund. Consumer payments are capped per transaction in the statute (commonly taught as $25,000 per transaction — confirm O.C.G.A. § 43-40-22 before relying on a class number). A payout can revoke the licensee until the Fund is repaid. |
Mistakes that delay applicants
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Waiting more than three months to apply
The published license fee doubles from $170 to $340 after three months, and the exam dies at twelve.
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Stale GCIC at PSI
A report that aged past the handbook window is a turned-away candidate, not a computer-based inconvenience.
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Missing 25-hour postlicense
GREC lapses the license. Florida voids; Georgia lapses. Neither is a late fee you can ignore.
Reciprocity and recognition
| Partner / path | Accepted exam | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Florida | Florida 40-question law exam (30 to pass) when using FREC mutual recognition into Florida | Nonresident of Florida; active Georgia license obtained by education and exam. Georgia inbound from Florida is not an automatic waiver of GREC's 75-hour course — read GREC nonresident rules rather than assuming a mirror compact. |
GREC will consider 75 hours of another state's approved prelicense toward exam eligibility. That is education recognition, not a license compact with California or Texas.
Renewal and staying active
36 hours every four years, including 3 hours of GREC-approved license law, due by the last day of the birth month. First-year 25-hour postlicense is separate and can lapse the license if missed.
Applicant checklist
- Complete 75 instructional hours at a GREC-approved school
- Order GCIC in time for it to still be fresh on exam day
- Pass PSI and apply within 3 months for the $170 fee
- Affiliate with a Georgia broker
- Finish 25-hour postlicense before the first anniversary
How Georgia is different
Georgia's 75-hour prelicense matches Pennsylvania and North Carolina and is heavier than Florida's 63, lighter than Texas's 180. The 25-hour first-year postlicense is lighter than Florida's 45 (which can make a license null and void) and North Carolina's 90 (required to remove provisional status and remain eligible for active status). Florida mutual recognition expressly names Georgia. North Carolina will typically still require its state exam section. Do not assume another neighboring state offers reciprocity simply because it shares a border.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the 25-hour CAM course enough to sell houses?
- No. CAM is a separate GREC license. Selling real estate requires the 75-hour salesperson prelicense, the exam, and a broker affiliation.
- Does Florida reciprocity get me a Georgia license automatically?
- No. Florida mutual recognition is a Florida inbound path. GREC still has its own exam and 75-hour rule unless a GREC education-recognition option applies.
Primary Sources
Regulatory requirements on this page are drawn from the official board, statute, and exam-provider materials listed below.
- Georgia Real Estate Commission
- GREC Rule 520-2-.04 — Real Estate Courses
- GREC / PSI candidate handbook
- FREC mutual-recognition list (Georgia is on it)
Verified 2026-09-02 · Next scheduled review 2026-12-01