How To Get A Florida Real Estate License
The 6 Steps To Getting Your Florida Real Estate License So That You Can Start Earning The Income That You Deserve
Congratulations on ordering and receiving our eBook on “How to get a Florida Real Estate License”.
More and more people are getting into real estate. The economy is turned around, individuals and families buying and selling homes and investment properties. According to two economists that I follow, Dr. Sean Snaith and Dr. Hank Fishkind, the outlook for the Florida economy and real estate markets look strong, at least through the year 2022. This is as far as their last reports go!
According to the state of Florida, anything and everything is compensation, not just money. However, money is certainly the main driver to get your real estate license. In the state of Florida you must be properly and legally licensed if you would like to help all those individuals and families buy and sell homes and investment properties, for compensation.
Compared to almost every other profession, is incredibly inexpensive to become professionally licensed as a real estate agent. Best of all, the second you pass your state exam, you can connect with a hiring broker and begin immediately working on earning a six-figure income.
There are six steps that you must complete if you would like to obtain your Florida real estate license.
The 6 Steps to Getting Your Florida Real Estate License
Step 1 – Make sure that you are Eligible for a Florida Real Estate License
There are a few minimum requirements in order to be eligible to test for and receive a Florida Real Estate License.
1. You must be at least 18 years of age.
2. You must have at least a high school diploma, or its equivalent.
3. You must have a Social Security Number. A TIN looks the same but will not count.
You do not have to be a US citizen nor do you have to be a resident of the state of Florida.
If you meet all three of the above minimum requirements, then keep reading!
Step 2 – Apply to the State of Florida for Your Florida Real Estate License
In Florida, ‘Real Estate’ is a profession that is regulated. At the top levels of Florida government, Real Estate is regulated by Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation, otherwise referred to as the DBPR. The DBPR is located in Tallahassee, FL.
The DBPR regulates 32 different business and professional categories with over 100 different licenses.
In Florida, if you want your Real Estate License, you must first apply for your license on the DBPR’s website,
www.MyFloridaLicense.com
Once you are there, click on “Apply or Manage My License” on the home page, center, left side.
When you see the mini-window called “Select License Type”, scroll down to “Real Estate” and select. (Not “Real Estate Appraisers” by the way. It’s a completely different license).
Underneath “Getting Started as a Real Estate Professional”, you will see a green box called, “Apply For A License”. Click on it.You then want to select “Real Estate Sales Associates” and when it opens up, select “Initial Application-Sales Associate License (Form RE 1)
From here, you can select the “Apply Using Online Services” option or “Apply Using a Printable Application” option. I recommend using the Online Services option.
You are going to want to fill in the application completely, including and especially the background questions. You are required by state law to disclose if you have ever been convicted of, found guilty of, plead guilty to, or plead nolo contendere to (no contest) to anything other than very minor traffic violations.
If your case was adjudicated, you must still disclose the details and facts on your real estate license application. If your case was expunged, then you do not have to do so. If you are not sure as to whether or not your case was expunged, (as expungement is not automatic, it is another legal process that you must direct your attorney to complete) you will need to go to the county or district where your case resides and find out.
Most offenses will not keep you from getting your Florida Real Estate License. Even a felony conviction will not necessarily keep you from getting your Florida Real Estate License. The Florida Real Estate Commission, known as the FREC, is extremely interested in knowing and believing that you can be trusted with the public’s health, safety, and welfare. This includes their money.
If you are worried, send in a serious, genuine, “from the heart” letter that explains why your past offense will never happen again. Do not make this up. They will see through it.
If you are still worried, ask at least 3 friends and associates to write a letter of character reference on you. You need at least 3 letters, and you want all 3 authors to be from a variety of social circles and contacts.
One more 'Word of Warning': If something happened to you in the past that falls under the heading of: “convicted of, found guilty of, plead guilty to, or plead nolo contendere (no contest) to anything other than very minor traffic violations: you had better disclose this to them on your own.
They are going to find out, as you will discover in Step 3. There is very little that upsets the FREC as much as applicants not self-disclosing! It is a sure way to receive a denial of your request for a Florida Real Estate License.
You must also pay the Application Fee to the state of Florida DBPR. This fee is currently $83.75.
Step 3 – Get Your Fingerprints Taken
You must have your fingerprints taken by an approved ‘Live Scan’ vendor.
At The Climer School of Real Estate, our preferred Live Scan vendor only charges our students $70.00 if paid with cash or check and $75.00 if paid with a credit card. Call us at 407-822-3926 for scheduling your fingerprints.
There is a bit of work here behind the scenes so don’t try to save a few bucks by going anywhere that does fingerprints.
The vendor must be approved by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, (the FDLE).
The fingerprints are not sent to the DBPR in Tallahassee, I don’t care what the email says or what your DBPR Application Profile says.
Your fingerprints are sent to the FDLE and to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (the FBI). There is a Florida DBPR Real Estate Sales License Originating Agency Identification Number that is sent along with these (otherwise known as an ORI).
Many fingerprinting services do not do all of this and you are left wondering what is taking so long. Actually, nothing has happened with your fingerprints.
The FDLE and the FBI each do criminal background checks on you. They send the criminal background check reports to the DBPR.
The DBPR matches the information in the criminal background check reports from the FDLE and the FBI against the information that you provided in the background questions of your application.
If everything matches, you are either approved or you are sent a request for more information.
If everything does not match, you will receive a ‘Notice of Insufficiency”. They are not going to tell you what they think they know. They want you to disclose.
Step 4– Take a FREC Approved 63 Hour Sales Associate Pre-License Course
The FREC requires that almost every applicant who wants a Florida Real Estate License take a Commission-approved 63 Hour Sales Associate Pre-License Class.
This is what
The Climer School of Real Estate, the Best Real Estate School in Florida, does. Your choice of Real Estate School is critically important as you need to pick the school that teaches you how to 'beat' the state exam. The only school that does this is The Climer School of Real Estate. All of the other schools teach you the book. We teach you to beat and pass the state exam.
We believe that the state exam focuses much more on tricking test takers into a wrong answer than in testing them on their knowledge. Florida's Bureau of Education and Testing (
BET) is very good at tricking people on the state exam.
Month after month with thousands taking the Florida Real Estate state exam for the first time, the Pass-Fail rate for first time test takers is 50-50. 48% to 52% pass the exam on their first attempt. This means that month after month, the Fail rate is also 48% to 52%.
The Passing rate drops significantly for second time and repeated time test takers. Month after month with thousands taking the Florida Real Estate state exam for the second or for a repeated time, the Pass-Fail rate is 30-70. Only 29% to 36% pass the exam after their first attempt. This means that month after month, the Fail rate is also 64%% to 71%.
This is not an accident nor a coincidence. This is exactly why you need The Climer School of Real Estate. We teach you to pass the state exam, not to know the textbook that goes away as soon as you pass the exam and start working.
60 Hours are of Principles, Practices, and Law. 3 Hours are for the Class Exam. There are a few ways to take this required class.
There is an In-The-Classroom delivery, there is an Online 'read-at-your-own-pace' delivery, and there is a Live Streaming delivery which is a combination of Online and Live Instructor Classroom.
The FREC-required syllabus is 19 chapters of differing information. The course exam is 100 multiple choice questions. You must take this exam within 30 days of completing your course. You must make at least a 70 or above to pass this end of course examination.
If you fail this exam, you must wait at least 30 days to retake it. The retake test will be a different test. You must retake the test within 1 year of finishing your class or you will be required to retake the class.
When you pass the end of course examination, you will receive a “Course Pass Certificate”. This certificate has your name and information on it along with the date of the test, the Real Estate school information and the name and signature of the school instructor or permit holder.
You will ABSOLUTELY need this Course Pass Certificate with you to gain entry to the Exam Testing Center. Florida Real Estate state examinations are held at Pearson Vue Testing Centers.
Step 5– Take the Florida Real Estate License State Examination at a Pearson Vue Testing Center
This is where a lot of students begin to forget the order of events regarding their ability to sign up for the state exam at Pearson Vue.
Review Steps 2 and 3, they are “Apply to the State of Florida for Your Florida Real Estate License” and “Get Your Fingerprints Taken”. These two steps allow your request for a Real Estate license to be reviewed and evaluated.
Once the review and evaluation process has been completed by the DBPR, and you have submitted everything that is required or has been asked, and either there is nothing in your background history that would keep you from getting a license or they FREC has decided to review your request and case further and have decided that can be trusted with the ‘health, safety, and welfare of the public (including their money), you will receive your approval to register for, and take your state examination.
Pearson Vue currently charges $36.75 for every time that you take your Florida Real Estate state exam.
You do this by going to www.PearsonVue.com .
Up at the top left is a box that says, “For test takers”. Scroll to “Schedule an exam”. Type in “Florida Real Estate & Appraisers”. Over on the right is “Sign In” or “Create account”.
You may now pick your location. There are Pearson Vue Testing Centers all over Florida as well as the entire United States. You may take this test anywhere there is a Pearson Vue Testing Center.
What you need to remember is that you cannot register for your state examination until you have been approved by the FREC. Don’t even try. Every single class, many of my students come up to me and tell me that they can’t get into the Pearson Vue site. They forget that they will not be able to until they are formally and officially approved by the FREC and the state of Florida.
When you do get to your Pearson Vue Testing Center, you will need:
1. Your Course Pass Certificate
2. Two forms of identification.
a. Both must have your signature on it
b. One must have your picture
c. You want all addresses to be consistent
d. For some reason, work ID’s and student ID’s will not work
3. A calculator that does at least ‘multiply, divide, add, and subtract’.
a. Financial or Mortgage calculators are allowable although they will not help you
b. Calculators that are programmable are not allowed
c. Calculators that have alpha-numeric keys are not allowed
You will have 3 and a half hours to complete this test. You will have 103 multiple choice questions. This is a computer based test and the time is to the second. 3 of your questions are experimental and are not scored.
You must score a 75 or above to pass. If you pass, you do not get your score. You only receive a piece of paper that says “PASS”. If you fail, you do get your score, and you get a piece of paper that not only says “FAIL” but tells you how you did in each chapter.
You want the PASS paper, not the FAIL paper.
Step 6–The Best Real Estate School in Florida is The Climer School of Real Estate
There are too many choices for Real Estate Schools in Florida. Buyer Beware!
There is no question about it: The Climer School of Real Estate is the Best Real Estate School in Florida with the Best Real Estate Instructors in Florida.
www.ClimerRealEstateSchool.com
We have over 800 5 Star Google Reviews and over 200 5 Star Facebook Reviews. (While you are on our Facebook page, please 'Like' us. You will get notifications of upcoming classes and events.) There are many good reasons for these 5 Star Reviews.
We believe with all our hearts that The Climer School of Real Estate students pass the Florida Real Estate state exam on their first try at a much higher percentage rate that students of the other schools. We also have heard quite a bit of unofficial confirmation of this belief.
We love our students and will do anything to help them succeed. We treat our students like family. We even have a ‘Climer Concierge’ just to make sure that you are getting what you need.
Most of the other schools stand up in front of the class behind a podium and either just read straight from the book (we figure that you already know how to read), read directly from boring, bulleted PowerPoint slides (death by PowerPoint), or both. We hate this style of teaching.
The Climer School of Real Estate uses the textbook as a guide. We constantly let you know what page number we are on and what line number we are on. We tell you what is important for the state exam, and teach you how to remember it when you are at your Pearson Vue Testing Center.
We also have fun as we believe that adults learn better when they are laughing and in a good mood.
We believe that this class is not truly a ‘real life’ exercise. Rather it is strictly designed for a state exam. We also believe that once you pass your state exam 98% of what we have taught you goes away and is not a part of your real life, Real Estate Career Experience.
Your real life, Real Estate Career Experience begins the second that you PASS at Pearson Vue and go to work for a Broker. This is when you begin to learn the information that you really need. You could probably burn your textbook if you wanted to.
The Owner and Head Instructor Andy Brown, has incredible experience in all areas of the Real Estate Industry but also in Public Speaking and Adult Learning Theories. He has taken 10 different standardized State and National Licensing Exams. He knows how they think, what they are trying to do to you, and what they expect of you.
He uses all of his knowledge, experiences, and tools to provide a product and a delivery that is most beneficial and productive to his students. All of the Climer School of Real Estate Instructors are developed and certified in the “Climer School” method and they all love their students and what they do.
Andy has recently agreed to begin sharing his style, methodology, and knowledge with Real Estate Instructors in other states. He is formally training Real Estate Instructors outside of Florida in the states’ “Instructor Development Workshops”.
You must take this class. If you really want your absolute best chance of passing your Florida Real Estate State Exam on your first try, you have to enroll at The Climer School of Real Estate.
We also have many options. See Appendix A at the end of the eBook for some of them. See Appendix B at the end of the eBook for our tricks and tips to help you get the ‘Easy’ exam at Pearson Vue.
Thank you for taking the time to read “How To Get A Florida Real Estate License”. We hope it helps you in some way.
We look forward to having you as one of our students and to meeting you one day.
If you need any further help, or if there is anything at all that we can do to assist you, call us at 407-822-EXAM (3926), email us at ClimerConcierge@gmail.com or visit our website www.ClimerRealEstateSchool.com.
If you are ever in the central Florida area, stop by and have a cup of coffee and say “Hi”, 5104 N Orange Blossom Trail, Suite 114, Orlando 32810. We are about one-half mile north of Lee Rd (around the corner from the Orlando Realtors Association) on North Orange Blossom Trail, on the left in the 2 story Rosemont Building.
Good Luck!
Appendix A – Types of Courses at The Climer School of Real Estate
For the required 63 Hour Pre-License Class, we have:
Classroom
We have many locations around central Florida including Orlando, Winter Park, Baldwin Park, Oviedo, Lake Nona, Waterford Lakes, Eustis, St. Augustine, and Gainesville, with more locations coming.
See our locations: https://www.ClimerRealEstateSchool.com/Locations
We offer a variety of class schedules to suit everyone’s lifestyle including a faster 1-week class, an easier paced 2-week class, and a 5-week and an 8-week night/evening class for those who work during the day and can’t take that much time off.
www.BestRealEstateLicenseClass.com
We even offer the Sales Associate Pre-License class in Spanish.
https://www.climerrealestateschool.com/online-store/101-S-Asociado-de-Ventas-63-Pre-Licencia-de-Bienes-Ra%C3%ADces-p71249273
The classroom course comes with your class textbook, calculator, class test study guide, study guide review, the class test, and your course pass certificate.
Online
We partner with Dearborn/Kaplan to offer our REcampus self-paced, self-study online ‘24/7’ course.
Our Online Course comes with a e-textbook and access to our Climer School of Real Estate Audio Online Course Exam Study Guide Review for free once you are ready.
Your course test is taken online when you are ready, within one year of course completion.
www.BestOnlineRealEstateClass.com
Live Streaming
This is our newest and most innovative form of class delivery. Our Live Streaming Class can be taken by anyone, anywhere in the world with a Live Climer School of Real Estate Instructor leading the class. This is an interactive, online class. You see your instructor and can ask questions to your instructor verbally or via chat box.
We have discovered how to make this format entertaining, enjoyable, and educational. You are able to connect with your instructor as well as the rest of your classmates.
The Live Streaming comes with a hard-copy text book, the same as the In-Classroom version, and you take the class final exam online, the same as the Online version.
The class is typically offered in our 2-week format however we are experimenting with different days and time combinations.
www.BestLiveStreamingRealEstateClass.com
We also partner with different Brokerages, Mortgage Companies, and Title Companies around the state of Florida who love hosting groups of our students for the class at no extra charge. They give you a room and a large monitor so a few of you can take the online Live Streaming Class together. This only enhances the experience!
State Exam Review Aids
2 Day State Exam Review Class. This is an accelerated, ‘cram-course’ style review class. We offer this twice each month and includes a State Exam Review Manual. For one low fee for Climer School students, you have unlimited FREE access until you pass your state exam!
www.FlaRealEstateExamReview.com
We have an Audio Review Course. Access your review course on a 24/7 basis.
www.OnlineFloridaRealEstateExamReview.com
Our Video Review Course is being updated.
ClimerSchool YouTube channel with many, free Real Estate Math Tutorial Videos
www.Youtube.com/ClimerSchool Please make sure that you Subscribe
Sales Associate ‘Q’ Bank practice questions
www.FlaRealEstateQbank.com
CompuCram practice questions. Enter ‘Climer10’ for a 10% discount.
www.ClimerCompuCram.com
100 Question Free Practice Exam
www.FreeFlaREpracticeExam.com
Extra 10 Math Question Free Practice Exam
www.climerrealestateschool.com/climer-schoolclass-study-aids
Appendix B – Secret Tips to Help You Get The ‘Easy’ Test at Pearson Vue
& Things You Must Do To Get the ‘Easy’ Test at Pearson Vue
No. 1 You must wear your magic, ‘Lucky’ Climer School of Real Estate T-Shirt. It’s hard to explain but the results and the stories from our students speak for themselves. Only $10 Many colors and sizes.
https://www.climerrealestateschool.com/climer-school-online-store
No. 2 You must put a ‘Lucky’ Clime School magnet in your shoe when you take your state exam. Ask Susan or Emily to put one in your T-Shirt order box.
No. 3 You must throw a ‘Lucky’ Climer School One Hundred Dollar Bill around the Pearson Vue Test Center (not in the actual center however, this makes them grumpy). Ask Susan or Emily to put one in your T-Shirt order box.
No. 4 Buy a small box of chocolates and give it to your Pearson Vue Intake clerk. Tell them that you just felt like doing something nice for them.
No. 5 When you are sitting down at your testing table and you are doing your 4 System Tutorial Questions, answer them all incorrectly.
No. 6 Sign up to take the test in Spanish and translate the test to English once you are taking it at Pearson Vue. One button translates your entire exam into English. Make sure you accept the test in Spanish.
Aceptar - Si
No. 7 Don't tell anyone our secrets. These are all highly-confidential 'Climer School' family secret stuff.
After you finish your exam at Pearson Vue, send me an email to Andy.ClimerREschool@gmail.com .
Let me know how you did and send me as many questions that you can remember from your state exam experience!
Good luck and have fun,
Andy Brown, Owner and Director of Education and Training
The Climer School of Real Estate, the Best Real Estate School in Florida
Since 1984, The Climer School Of Real Estate is The Best Real Estate School in Florida with the Best Real Estate Instructors in Florida. We have the best pre-license classes, the best post license classes, the best Spanish classes, and the best live streaming real estate classes in Florida. If you want to have the best chance of passing your Florida Real Estate Exam on your first try, then you need to attend classes at The Climer School. Call us at 407-822-3926 (EXAM), or stop by our website at www.ClimerRealEstateSchool.com . All thoughts and opinions in this eBook are the thoughts and opinions of Andy Brown, the best real estate instructor in Florida, Director of Education & Training.
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