FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What are the specific requirements?

You need to be at least 18 years of age, but no high school diploma is required.

The Minnesota Department of Commerce is the regulatory body that oversees Real Estate licensing. If you indicate that you have any kind of criminal history on your application, they will initiate a “bureau of criminal apprehension” check and they will make a determination as to whether you will receive a license. People who commit armed robbery, or felonious assault, have been able to get their licenses with a condition of extra supervision. So even with a criminal background, you’re still able to get a license in many situations.

How quickly can I get my license?

We’ve actually had people complete all 3 courses in 10 days, by doing a weekend, a weekday and a night class all at the same time! But we don’t promote that because it’s exhausting. If you were to go at a reasonable pace, doing our weekday class, you would be done with your courses 1, 2, and 3 in three weeks. If you were doing our weekend class, each course is four days, so it takes two weekends to complete each course. You would be able to get licensed in seven weeks. And if you were doing our evening classes, it would take you two months for you to complete your education.

What can I do with a real estate license?

In Minnesota, one real estate license allows you to do residential (single family, two-, three-, and four-family housing), as well as commercial property sales and leasing (industrial sites, agricultural land, property development, property management). So one license enables you to do all types of real estate transactions, from helping someone rent a house all the way up to selling that skyscraper in downtown Minneapolis.

If I’m an investor (or want to be), should I get my real estate license?

An investor should consider getting a license mostly because of Minnesota’s requirements for sellers of property, when it comes to the laws regarding disclosure, condition of property, and the contracts required. It would be prudent for an investor to consider getting a license. For instance, if you were fixing your clothes dryer, you would probably watch a YouTube video and see how to fix it correctly. You would buy the original equipment manufacturer parts to make sure you’re doing it right. Of course, you could use duct tape, and just guess your way through it on your own, but it makes more sense to get the proper tools to do the job correctly.

Would my Minnesota license work in other states?

No, it would only be valid in Minnesota, but we have what’s called “reciprocal license agreements” with other states. If you have a license and you reside in Minnesota and you want to get a license in Iowa (for instance), you simply contact the Iowa Real Estate Commission, find a broker, and apply for your Iowa license. There’s no education, and no testing. The same holds true for the states of Nebraska, North Dakota, Colorado, and Oklahoma.

If you want to get licensed in a neighboring state like South Dakota or Wisconsin, you will have to take a one- or two-day class, and then take the state portion of their exams. So getting a license in Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma, and North Dakota is very straightforward, but for the other 42 states, you’d actually have to go through all their licensing classes, national exam and state specific portions as well.

For questions about Continuing Education, click here.