Nebraska Real Estate Salesperson License requirements

Follow these steps in order. Deadlines and affiliation requirements can make a passed exam unusable if they are missed.

1. 1

   Turn 19 and complete 96 hours (30+30+30+6 Course #0003)

   Not the retired 66. Principles and Practices, Nebraska License Law, one approved 30-hour elective, plus Course #0003. Providers report within 10 days. Distance must be Commission-approved / ARELLO-certified.

2. 2

   Open the NREC portal, pay $175 application + $150 exam to the Commission, start the Patrol report

   Cards release after the application is on file. Typical 4–8 weeks. File is valid 12 months. Preliminary $100 conviction review is optional but cheaper than 96 wasted hours.

3. 3

   Sit Pearson after the authorization email (80/50 at 75%, 4 hours)

   Two IDs. No palm vein. Keep the original score report with picture intact. Salesperson portion-banking: 3 attempts or 6 months, or until the file dies.

4. 4

   Issue the license within 30 days of the pass notice

   $90 original, E&O, designated broker (or written inactive), original score report. The $90 covers the rest of the calendar year; the first 2-year renewal is $180.

5. 5

   Course 7000 within 180 days (plus 3-hour team course if you are on a team)

   Post-license. Not CE. Not part of the 96. Miss it and the license goes inactive until it posts. Then 18-hour/2-year CE (12 CE including 6 R-designated, 6 training optional).

Minimum age

19 years old

Identification

A Social Security number is required. An ITIN is not confirmed as a substitute.

Residency and identification

Age 19 prior to taking the examination (NREC table; Pearson handbook). High school diploma, GED, or Department of Education home-school evidence. Nonresidents and newly relocated people using License Recognition pay the application fee ($175) in addition to issuance; military service members and spouses assigned to a Nebraska permanent duty station who already hold a license elsewhere may have the issuance fee waived (NREC military page) but still fingerprint. Application materials are valid 12 months from Commission receipt; after that, a new application, new background, and new fee.

Qualifying education

NREC current requirement and Title 299 Ch. 7 § 004.09 (effective January 1, 2026): 30-hour course in Real Estate Principles and Practices and 30-hour course in Nebraska Real Estate License Law in a Commission-approved curriculum, plus one additional 30-hour approved pre-license course in a non-specific subject, plus 6 clock hours in Professional Practice and Standards (Course 0003). The retired 66-hour path applies only if you were already scheduled to sit before January 1, 2026 and the application did not expire. Distance education must be Commission-approved and ARELLO-certified. Providers report within 10 days; university students use transcripts. Course 7000 (12 hours) is post-license, due within 180 days of issuance under § 81-885.13(9), valid 4 years from completion for later applications, and is not part of the 96. Team members add a 3-hour team course in the same 180-day window.

Education or filing deadline

Sit only after the 96 is posted. Application file valid 12 months from Commission receipt. License issuance within 30 days of the pass notice. Course 7000 within 180 days of being licensed; miss it and the license is placed inactive until the course posts. Course 7000 evidence is valid 4 years from completion for any license application.

Character review

Current Patrol criminal-history report plus Commission review. Disclose every conviction and pending charge, including those a court later expunged, set aside, or struck. Preliminary Application for Individuals with Criminal Convictions is a $100 NREC product if you want an answer before paying for 96 hours. Non-disclosure is independently disqualifying.

Background process

Nebraska State Patrol fingerprint-based criminal history after the application is on file. Typical Commission review 4–8 weeks including that report. File valid 12 months; expired files need a new background.

Experience

No licensed experience is required for the salesperson license. Designated-broker affiliation (for active status) and E&O are required to issue. You must still complete issuance inside 30 days even if you ask for inactive.

Broker affiliation

A Nebraska salesperson practices under a designated broker at all times (NREC "Difference between brokers and salespersons"). Broker affiliation approval is a portal step. E&O is required; designated brokers often offer a group policy. The license must be issued within 30 days of passing — have the broker ready, and say in writing whether the license should issue active or inactive. Inactive still has to be issued inside those 30 days. After issuance, Course 7000 is due in 180 days even if you went inactive; the statute is "all licensees."

Pearson VUE after NREC pre-qualification (https://www.pearsonvue.com/us/en/ne/realestate.html; (800) 819-3966). Handbook #092800, April 2025. Fee paid to NREC, not Pearson. · Fee: $150

Exam fee $150 paid to NREC with the application; retake $150 to NREC with a retake application (Fee Schedule; handbook). Salesperson candidates who pass one portion may retake only the failed portion for three subsequent attempts or six months, or until the 12-month application expires, whichever comes first; miss that window and you sit the full exam again. Broker candidates (the other license on this file) must retake the entire test if they fail — do not import that rule here. Cancel/change at least 48 hours before the appointment or forfeit. Absent/late without an excused reason (illness, death in family, disabling traffic accident, court/jury, military, weather — requested within 14 days) forfeits the fee. No walk-ins. Authorization to test is emailed by Pearson after NREC approval.

These are commission or testing-vendor amounts we can cite. School tuition and optional preparation products are private-market prices.

NREC Fee Schedule (fee change noted effective January 1, 2026 on the licensing-information page): License Application Fee salespersons & brokers $175; License Examination Fee $150 per exam; Examination Retake Fee $150 within one year of application; Salesperson Original License Fee $90; Broker Original License Fee $110; Salesperson Renewal Fee 2-year $180; Broker Renewal Fee 2-year $220; Late Renewal Penalty $25 per month or portion thereof from December through June; Re-instatement $150; Certificate of Licensure $25; Branch original/renewal $50; Transfer $50; Preliminary Application for Individuals with Criminal Convictions $100; Returned Check / Not Accepted $30; PC / PLLC certification $25. Application, examination, and initialLicense in this object are three different checks, not stacked synonyms. Original $90 covers the balance of the calendar year; all licenses then renew on the 2-year cycle, active or inactive. Fees are non-refundable. ACH, AmEx, Discover, Visa, MasterCard; debit cards are not accepted on the checklist. Confirm the live Fee Schedule before paying — NREC flagged a January 1, 2026 fee change on the application-information page.

• !

  Studying a 66-hour blog

  January 1, 2026: 96 hours including Course #0003 and a named 30-hour Nebraska License Law course. Title 299 Ch. 7 § 004.09 is the rule. Expired applications do not grandfather the 66.

• !

  Sitting at 18, or paying Pearson instead of NREC

  Issuance and exam approval wait on 19. The $150 exam fee and $175 application fee are paid to the Commission. Pearson collects nothing at the center. Debit cards are not accepted on the checklist.

• !

  Passing Pearson without a designated broker, E&O, and the original score report lined up

  30 days to issue. The sitting dies if you miss it. Keep the score report with the picture intact — NREC wants the original. Inactive is still an issuance inside those 30 days, not a way to park a score.

• !

  Skipping Course 7000, or confusing it with Course 0003 or with CE

  0003 is prelicense (6 hours, part of the 96). 7000 is post-license (12 hours, 180 days, all licensees). CE is 18 hours / 2 years after that. Miss 7000 and the license goes inactive until it posts. Teams add a 3-hour team course in the same 180.

• !

  Letting the application file age past 12 months, or hiding a conviction the Patrol report will show

  New application, new background, new $175. Disclose expunged, set-aside, and pending charges. The $100 preliminary application is how you ask before spending on school.

• !

  Importing Iowa's sixth-month score fuse or Washington's one-year pass-to-apply fuse

  Nebraska issuance is 30 days from the pass notice. Portion-banking for salespersons is three attempts or six months inside the 12-month file. Those are three different clocks. Mixing them is how people miss issuance with a still-valid Pearson printout in the drawer.

Confirm live waivers on nrec.nebraska.gov licensing-forms. Recognition is not Iowa reciprocity and not a waived Course 7000. The 30-day issuance fuse still runs from the Nebraska pass notice if you sit Pearson here.

Is it still 66 hours?

No. As of January 1, 2026 original salesperson education is 96 hours: 30 Principles and Practices, 30 Nebraska License Law, 30 approved elective, plus 6-hour Course #0003 (NREC table; Title 299 Ch. 7 § 004.09). The retired 66 applies only if you were already scheduled to sit before that date and the application did not expire.

Why age 19?

NREC will not approve you to sit, and will not issue a Nebraska real estate license, before 19 (table; Pearson handbook). Iowa and Kansas issue at 18. Sitting at 18 wastes the $150.

What is the Pearson sitting, and who do I pay?

Handbook April 2025: 80 scored national items in 2.5 hours and 50 scored Nebraska items in 1.5 hours, 5–10 pretest, 4 hours total, 75% on each portion. $150 exam fee is paid to NREC with the $175 application, not to Pearson. Retake is another $150 to NREC. Passes are reported as PASS only; failures get a number.

How long after passing do I have?

The license must be issued within 30 days of being notified that a passing grade has been received (NREC licensing-information page). Have the designated broker, E&O, original score report (picture intact), and $90 ready. That is not Iowa's sixth-month fuse. The application file itself is 12 months from receipt — a different clock from issuance.

What is Course 7000? What is Course 0003?

Course #0003 is 6-hour Professional Practice and Standards, part of the 96-hour prelicense. Course 7000 is 12-hour post-license due within 180 days of issuance (§ 81-885.13(9)); miss it and the license goes inactive until it posts. Team members also take a 3-hour team course in that window. Neither is renewal CE. 7000 evidence is valid 4 years from completion for later applications.

Is E&O optional?

No. Active practice requires it. The state exam scores it. Designated brokers often offer a group policy. Issuance inside 30 days will wait on the proof.

What is CE after Course 7000?

18 clock hours every two years for active licensees (NREC CE overview; § 81-885.54). At least 12 hours Commission-approved CE, of which at least 6 hours are designated-subject-matter "R" courses (license law, landlord-tenant, trust accounts, agency, fair housing/ADA, ethical decision making, CMA/BPO, environmental, contracts, finance, safety). The remaining 6 hours may be Commission-approved training; CE can substitute for training, not the reverse. Non-R courses cannot be duplicated within 4 years; R courses may be repeated in later periods but not in the same period. First 2-year renewal is $180.

Can I bank a passed portion if I fail the other?

Salesperson yes: three subsequent attempts or six months, or until the 12-month application expires, whichever comes first (handbook). Broker candidates on the other license must retake the entire test. Do not import the broker rule onto this sitting.