How to get your New York real estate salesperson licence, step by step.
Seven steps, in the order the state takes them. Every requirement, fee and rule on this page was read on the Department of State’s own pages in September 2026 and is linked at the bottom. Course tuition is the one number the state does not set, so it is not invented here.
General information, not legal advice. The state can change any of this; before you pay a fee, open the linked page and confirm.
Check that you qualify
You must be 18 or older and, by the time you apply, sponsored by a New York State licensed real estate broker. There is no college requirement.
The application asks whether you have ever been convicted of a misdemeanour or felony and whether any charges are pending; it also carries a mandatory child-support statement. A record does not automatically bar you — the state reviews each application — but answer honestly.
The Department of State has no reciprocity with any other state: a licence from elsewhere does not transfer.
Take the 77-hour qualifying course
The course must be an approved 77-hour salesperson qualifying course. Your school gives its own proctored final exam at the end; the state exam comes after.
Tuition varies by school and the state does not publish it. Ask for the whole price in writing before you enrol.
Working full time? Seventy-seven hours at ten hours a week is about eight weeks; at five hours a week it is about four months. Ask the school what evening, weekend or self-paced formats it offers. Once a course has been applied towards a licence it does not expire.
Create your eAccessNY account and schedule the state exam
Exams are scheduled online only, through an eAccessNY account: from the main menu choose “Apply to Take an Exam”. The written-exam fee is $15.
Pick the exam site that suits you — the state lists sites in Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Franklin Square, Hauppauge, New York City, Plattsburgh, Pomona, Rochester, Syracuse and Utica. You can reschedule online up to six days before your exam date.
When you schedule, the system asks you to print a page called the Summary of Your Submission. Print it. You need it at the door.
Take the state exam
It is multiple choice, based on the 77-hour curriculum, and you get one and a half hours. Results are pass or fail — no numerical score — and appear in your eAccessNY account; they are not given by phone. A passed result stays valid for two years.
The rule the state prints in capitals: no one is admitted after the specified starting time. Bring current government photo ID and your printed Summary of Your Submission. Calculators are allowed only if battery or solar powered, silent, non-printing and without an alphabetic keyboard.
If you fail, you schedule another exam in eAccessNY. There is no waiting period stated on the state’s pages.
Find a sponsoring broker
You cannot be licensed without one, and the broker’s licence number (UID) goes on your application. Start talking to brokers while you are still in the course, not after you pass.
Ask each office the same questions: how the commission split works, what training and mentoring you get in the first year, whether there are desk or technology fees, and what happens with rentals. Write the answers down and compare.
The broker must log in to their own eAccessNY account and authorise your application before the state will look at it.
Apply in eAccessNY
From your account choose “Apply for Initial Salesperson License (qualifying by Exam only)”, enter the sponsoring broker’s UID, pay the $65 fee by card and press Submit once. Print the Summary of Your Submission for your records.
Your broker authorises the application from their account; the Department of State then reviews it and, when approved, mails the licence to the business address on the application. The state does not publish a processing time on the pages checked.
Attorneys, people applying for an additional salesperson licence and anyone previously licensed apply on paper by mail instead.
After the licence arrives
The term of licensure is two years. Before each renewal you must complete 22.5 hours of approved continuing education, including 2 hours of cultural competency, 2 hours of implicit-bias training, 2.5 hours of ethical business practices, 1 hour of recent legal matters, 3 hours of fair housing and 1 hour of agency law. Hours do not carry over between terms.
You can renew online from three months before the expiry date, and you need a sponsoring broker to renew. There is no grace period: an expired licence means you cannot work until it is renewed. Let it lapse for more than two years and you start again with the current education requirement and the state exam.
Completing an approved broker qualifying course later also counts as continuing education for a salesperson.
What the state charges
Only two payments go to New York State. Everything else is the school’s price and the broker’s terms.
| Written exam fee (eAccessNY) | $15 |
| Initial application — two-year licence | $65 |
| 77-hour qualifying course | varies by school |
| State fees, one attempt at the exam | $80 |
Application fees are nonrefundable. If you have to sit the exam again, budget the exam fee again. Ask each school for its full price before you enrol; the state does not set tuition.
Where this comes from
- New York State Department of State — Become a Real Estate Salesperson — checked September 2026.
- New York State Department of State — Real Estate Salesperson (term of licensure) — checked September 2026.
- New York State Department of State — Real Estate Salesperson FAQs — checked September 2026.
- New York State Department of State — Real Estate Salesperson Exam Sites — checked September 2026.
- New York State Department of State — Salesperson application instructions (DOS-0022) — checked September 2026.
Checked against these Department of State pages in September 2026. Fees, hours and rules can change; the pages above are the authority, not this summary.
Ready to start?
Everything on this site that prepares you for the state exam is free and needs no account: flashcards, math drills, a practice exam and the readiness check.