Iowa

The Iowa Real Estate Commission is part of the Department of Inspections, Appeals, & Licensing at 6200 Park Avenue, Suite 100, Des Moines, IA 50321. Phone (515) 725-9022 x7. Email [email protected]. It licenses salespersons and brokers under Iowa Code chapter 543B and IAC 193E (education in ch. 16, fees in ch. 9, E&O in ch. 19 / 481-2019). PSI Services LLC delivers the exam at test-takers.psiexams.com/iare, (855) 898-0712. Rice Insurance Services Center holds the Commission group E&O policy. There is no recovery fund; instead, § 543B.47 requires errors-and-omissions insurance. Licensure requires U.S. citizenship or lawful-presence verification through SAVE.

School blogs often describe the education as a single "96-hour Iowa course," but 193E—16.2 and DIAL's salesperson-by-exam page divide it into parts. Sixty live-or-distance hours of principles and practices — five named 12-hour blocks: Introduction to Real Estate and Iowa License Law; Ownership, Encumbrances, Legal Descriptions, Transfer of Title and Closing; Contracts, Agency and Antitrust; Valuation, Finance and Real Estate Math; Property Management/Leasing, Fair Housing, Environmental Risks and Health Issues — plus three additional 12-hour courses that must be live instruction: Buying Practices, Listing Practices, and Developing Professionalism and Ethical Practices. Live means classroom or electronic delivery with real-time visual and audio contact (193E—16.1). All 96 hours must be completed during the 12 months before the Commission receives the application. The 60 must also be under 12 months old when you sit PSI. An hour is 50 minutes. School finals count as hours. Substitution of substantially similar courses must be requested in writing, and courses older than 12 months do not qualify.

The PSI bulletin hosted by DIAL sets out the exam: salesperson 80 national items in 120 minutes at 56 points and 40 state items in 60 minutes at 28 points, $95, five to ten experimental items, and a registration that expires after 90 days. The broker exam is 75 items for 80 points at 60 (BEST-ANSWER scenarios scoring 0/1/2) and 40 state at 30, and brokers bring nine certificates. Scores expire on the last working day of the sixth month following the pass date. Fingerprints are a Commission packet requested in My Iowa PLB / DataPro as RE - Background Request, $51, 5–6 weeks after the card returns, valid 210 days under § 543B.15(9); do not mail the card to the FBI. An original salesperson license cannot be issued inactive (193E—4.1(1)). License $125 salesperson / $170 broker (193E—9.1). Licenses run three years and expire December 31 of the third year with 36 hours of CE (8 Law Update, 4 Ethics, 24 electives, max 24 online, 18 elective hours may carry, Law Update and Ethics cannot). Nebraska's 96 hours (30+30+30+6), Missouri's 48+MREP, Illinois's 75 plus 45, and Washington's broker entry title are different systems from Iowa's.