Online Real Estate License Courses: Compare by State
Advertiser disclosure: Required Courses may earn a commission when you buy a course through links on this site. It never changes your price, and it never changes which providers we list — a provider appears for your state only if it's on your state's official approved list, and we link that list so you can check us.
Independent real-estate course comparison — not a licensing authority.
The short answer. There is no single best online real estate license course for every state, because online real estate courses are approved state by state, not brand by brand. Your state's real-estate licensing authority — a commission, department or licensing division — decides which schools and which exact courses count as qualifying education, meaning the specific hours the state will credit toward a salesperson license, and whether a self-paced online or livestream format is accepted. So the safe order of operations is: choose your state and license track (salesperson or broker) first, open the authority's current approved-school or course record, and only then compare schools on cost, format, support and terms. Optional exam prep, tutoring and career add-ons do not change whether a course is accepted.
In the official records checked for this page on August 9, 2026, the New York Department of State lists Aceable Agent, CE Shop Inc and 360training as approved qualifying schools for salesperson applicants — alongside community colleges and public school districts on the same list — and Texas runs an approved-course search that is the controlling record for any Texas course. Minimum course outlays observed on July 22, 2026 ran $223–$315 in New York and $449–$579 in Texas, before New York's $65 application and $15 exam fees. If your state is not New York or Texas, start from your state's authority rather than from any shortlist.
No state sets a deadline for starting the education step, but three clocks run once you move, and each one costs money if you miss it. A school's course access expires, and repurchase is the usual remedy. In New York, a passed state-exam result is valid for two years; let it lapse and you retake the exam and pay the fee again. And in Texas, filing the licence application starts a twelve-month window to finish everything — education, fingerprints, both exam sections and sponsorship — after which the application expires and you refile and repay.
On this page
- Which online real estate course fits your situation?
- Approved for what? The match to confirm before comparing schools
- What does approval mean for an online real estate course?
- How we selected and excluded schools
- Verified Texas and New York snapshot
- Which school fits after you verify your state?
- Which authority approves real estate courses in your state?
- What will you really pay for the course?
- Final exam, certificate, access and refunds
- Five checks before you enroll
- Frequently asked questions
- Your next step
- Sources and last verified date
Which online real estate course fits your situation?
Official sources reviewed August 9, 2026; provider prices and terms observed July 22, 2026. Each row and profile below carries its own status; prices are observed figures, not quotes.
- Lowest-cost accepted route to check first (New York): public colleges and school districts sit on the same Department of State qualifying-school list as the commercial brands — including Nassau Community College, Suffolk County Community College, Kingsborough Community College and Lehman College, plus eleven public high schools and school districts among them Bethpage, Farmingdale, Islip, Jericho and Levittown (verified August 9, 2026). These are accepted qualifying education, not free: each institution sets its own fee and schedule, and the state list publishes neither, so call before you compare.
- Best for New York learners who want mobile, self-paced study: Aceable Agent — listed in the qualifying-school section of the NY Department of State's course-provider page as of August 9, 2026.
- Best for New York learners choosing on budget who accept a separate proctoring fee: 360training — listed qualifying school; Basic package observed at $169 plus a disclosed $54 online-proctoring fee (July 22, 2026).
- Best for learners who want structured packages and detailed written policies: The CE Shop — listed NY qualifying school as "CE Shop Inc."
- Texas — no verified pick yet: Aceable Agent and The CE Shop both publish TREC provider numbers on their own course pages (#701048-QP and #701046-QP). Neither was confirmed against the Texas Real Estate Commission's own course search for this snapshot, so neither is recommended here. Run the search yourself — it takes about ninety seconds — and choose from the result.
Choose Aceable Agent if you are a New York salesperson applicant who studies best in short lessons on a phone and the exact 77-hour course in your cart matches the state's listing. Choose 360training if you are a New York applicant whose deciding factor is the lowest total course outlay and you accept its $54 proctoring fee, two course-final attempts and a narrow 72-hour refund window. Choose The CE Shop if you want the most explicit written access, reporting and refund terms. If your state is not New York, or if you cannot find your exact school and course on the authority's current list, choose no provider yet: a paid course without an exact official match risks being unusable for your application.
Approved for what? The match to confirm before comparing schools
Approved for what? A real-estate school can be legitimate and still be unusable for your state, license track, required hours or delivery mode. Before paying, match five things against the state authority's current record: the state, the salesperson or broker track, the exact school or provider, the exact qualifying course or approval number, and the online format. A continuing-education or supplemental-broker listing does not automatically count for initial salesperson education. Call this the Five-Point Match; it is the check every section below comes back to.
Check lower-cost routes first. Two states say so on their own pages. New York puts community colleges, a CUNY senior college and eleven public high schools and school districts on the same qualifying list as the commercial brands. California's Department of Real Estate states on its approved statutory and pre-license course list that pre-license courses can also be taken at any accredited institution, naming the University of California, the California State University system and the community colleges. No free accepted national option was confirmed in this snapshot — that means none was confirmed, not that none exists — and no public-institution route was confirmed for Texas here. Employers and brokerages also reimburse accepted courses in some cases. Ask before treating a paid national brand as the default.
Once the official match is confirmed, seven fields decide most choices:
| What to compare | Why it decides |
|---|---|
| Official status | Is the exact school and course on the authority's current list or search? |
| License track and hours | Salesperson qualifying hours for your state — not broker, post-license or CE hours |
| Format | Self-paced online, livestream or classroom, as the state actually accepts |
| Required course price and fees | The cheapest package that contains the full qualifying course, plus mandatory fees |
| Course final and proctoring | Final-exam rules, proctoring fees and attempt limits |
| Completion and reporting | What certificate you get and who submits it |
| Refund, access and support | Refund window, course expiration and help when you get stuck |
Before you buy: are you eligible?
Education is the expensive thing to redo, so settle eligibility before you pay for it. New York requires salesperson applicants to be at least 18. Texas applies a statutory honesty, trustworthiness and integrity standard and publishes a route for checking it early: a Fitness Determination, which the Commission describes as an optional first step that lets you find out whether you are eligible to be licensed before you take qualifying education courses, pay for an application or take the exam. A prior criminal offence, an unpaid judgment, discipline against another professional licence or past unlicensed activity are the usual reasons to use it. Other states run character or fitness reviews under their own names; if your background raises a question, ask your authority before you enrol.
What does approval mean for an online real estate course?
Approval in real-estate education is narrower than most shopping pages suggest. A school's brand can be well known nationally while only specific state, license-track, course-version and delivery-mode combinations actually count. Four things are commonly collapsed into one word, and they are not interchangeable: approval of the school, approval of the exact course, the license track the approval covers, and the license itself — which no course issues. The practical consequence lands at checkout: the state's record names a school and, in many states, an exact course or approval number, while your cart names a package with a marketing title.
Three states, three different approval mechanisms — which is why "state approved" cannot mean one thing. New York approves the school: the Department of State's course-provider page is divided into sections, one for approved qualifying-education schools for salesperson applicants, one for schools approved to offer the 32-hour supplemental broker course, and one for continuing-education providers. In the qualifying section reviewed on August 9, 2026, Aceable Agent, CE Shop Inc and 360training appear; Colibri Real Estate appears in the supplemental-broker section. A school listed for continuing education or a broker supplement is not automatically approved for initial salesperson qualifying education — that distinction is the one this page exists to make. The state separately requires 77 hours of approved qualifying education for salesperson applicants who are at least 18, followed by a state exam and sponsorship by a licensed broker.
Texas approves both a provider and each course, and publishes them through a live search rather than a static list: the Texas Real Estate Commission's approved qualifying-course search returns currently approved courses at the moment you run it, which is why the result you generate today — not a provider's badge or provider number — is the decisive check. California narrows further still: the Department of Real Estate states in its course provider handbook that it approves individual courses and not course providers, assigning each approved course its own approval number. No California provider rows appear on this page yet because exact DRE course records have not been captured.
Track boundaries matter as much as school names, because the same brand often sells several of them side by side. Salesperson prelicensing is the initial education this page covers. Broker qualifying education is for licensees upgrading to a broker license; a supplemental broker course, like New York's 32-hour course, sits within that path. Post-license or SAE courses — sales agent apprentice education, in the states that use that name — are education some states require after the first license issues. Continuing education keeps an existing license renewed, and exam prep is an optional study product that satisfies no requirement at all. An approval in one category does not carry to another, and a storefront that mixes them on one page is where the track boundary is easiest to miss.
Who actually approves or accepts an online real estate course?
Two acceptance models are in play on this page, and readers often mix them up:
| Model | Who decides | What it changes for you |
|---|---|---|
| State approval or licensing | The state real-estate commission, department or licensing division | Whether the exact course counts as qualifying education. Verify on the authority's current list or course search; the result is a course completion the state will credit. Ignore it and you can hold a certificate that does not satisfy the requirement. |
| Employer or brokerage acceptance | A brokerage, employer or sponsor | Whether a company will recommend, reimburse or accept your training internally. This is separate from state approval — a brokerage's preferred school still has to be on the state's record for your track. |
On this page, "approved" and "listed" refer to a school's or course's status on the named state authority's current official source, for the stated license track — never to a brand as a whole.
How we selected and excluded schools
This page is a conditional shortlist, not a national ranking. A school appears positively only where a current official state source confirms it for the qualifying-education scope shown — the state, the salesperson track and, where the authority publishes it, the exact course or approval number. Provider websites are used solely for product terms: prices, packages, proctoring, access and refunds. A provider's marketing page can prove what it sells; it cannot prove that a state accepts it.
Every row and profile carries one of the site's standard statuses: Verified (a current official source directly confirms the row), Verified with limitation (confirmed for a narrower scope than the headline may suggest, with the limitation stated), Partial, Pending official confirmation (a provider claim exists but the governing source has not been confirmed), or Blocked (missing or conflicting evidence prevents a recommendation). Only Verified and prominently qualified Verified-with-limitation rows support a positive recommendation. A Pending row is published so you can see what was and was not checked; it is not a recommendation. There is no scoring, star rating or ranked order on this page: schools are presented by state and then alphabetically, and no rubric or weighting is applied beyond the inclusion gate described here. Reviews, pass rates and star counts are not used as evidence, and a school is downgraded or removed the same way it was added — by what the official record shows, so a listing that lapses moves to Expired or Blocked regardless of how the comparison then looks. Comparison fields are the seven listed above, plus verification date.
Each row carries its own verification date rather than a single page-wide "updated" badge, because the underlying facts move at different speeds: a state list can change with one regulatory action, a live course search can change overnight, and provider prices change with every promotion. Official sources for this snapshot were reviewed on August 9, 2026 and provider pages on July 22, 2026; approval statuses are rechecked at least quarterly and immediately after a known regulator or provider change, and prices before publication.
Independent-publisher disclosure. Required Courses is an independent publisher and is not affiliated with any real-estate commission, licensing department, school or course provider, and it is not a school, a licensing authority or a law firm. We link to official state sources first, and the standard every listing on this site has to clear — what counts as an official source, and what does not — is set out in full in our guide to checking whether a course provider is state approved. How this page is funded: Required Courses is supported by advertising and, on some pages, disclosed referral links. No provider has paid for placement, ordering, or inclusion on this page, and compensation never determines what is included or how it is ranked. If a compensated link is added to this page, it will be disclosed here.
Found a status that has changed? Approved-provider lists change without notice, and a row here can go stale between reviews. If you check an authority's list and find something different from what this page shows — a school added, removed or moved between sections — tell us at hello@requiredcourses.com with the state, the school and the page you checked, and the row will be re-verified and re-dated. Corrections are recorded on the row rather than applied silently.
Considered but not included
- Colibri Real Estate (New York salesperson): not found in the qualifying-school section of the NY Department of State course-provider page reviewed on August 9, 2026; it appears in the supplemental-broker section. Status: Blocked for salesperson qualifying education, with a documented conflict on a second state page — see Where the official records disagree.
- 360training (Texas): not checked against the TREC approved-course search for this snapshot as of August 9, 2026. The provider states TREC provider number 4591-QP on its own Texas page; like the Aceable Agent and The CE Shop numbers below, that is a provider claim rather than a Commission record, so no Texas row is published for any of the three until the search is run.
- California providers (all): Pending official confirmation — no exact DRE course records captured as of August 9, 2026.
- Kaplan Professional, Hondros College, Real Estate U and other schools: these appear on the New York qualifying-school list checked August 9, 2026, but were not researched for course-level match, price, access or refund terms in this snapshot, so they carry no row here. Their absence from the matrix is a scope decision, not a status finding — check them yourself on the state list if a price below the three profiled schools matters to you.
Verified Texas and New York snapshot
Online real estate courses for salesperson prelicensing: exact school and course status against the official New York and Texas records. Official sources verified August 9, 2026; prices observed July 22, 2026.
Track boundary: every row below is salesperson prelicensing only. Broker qualifying, supplemental broker, post-license/SAE, continuing-education and exam-prep records are different categories and are not shown.
| State and authority | School and official record | Hours and online mode | Status | Minimum observed course price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York — Department of State qualifying-school list | Aceable Agent — listed qualifying school | 77 hours, self-paced online | Verified at school level (Aug 9, 2026); confirm the exact course at checkout | $239 Basic (provider page, Jul 22, 2026) |
| New York — Department of State qualifying-school list | CE Shop Inc — listed qualifying school; approval number D01070 stated by the provider, not published on the state list | 77 hours, self-paced online | Verified at school level (Aug 9, 2026); confirm the exact course at checkout | $315 course-only / $339 package (provider page, Jul 22, 2026) |
| New York — Department of State qualifying-school list | 360training — listed qualifying school | 77 hours, self-paced online with online-proctored final | Verified at school level (Aug 9, 2026); a second state page omits it — see below | $169 Basic + $54 mandatory proctoring (provider page, Jul 22, 2026) |
| New York — Department of State supplemental-broker list | Colibri Real Estate — not in the qualifying-school section; listed for the 32-hour supplemental broker course | Not applicable for salesperson track in this snapshot | Blocked for the salesperson track (Aug 9, 2026); conflicting entry on a second state page | Not shown |
| New York — public and college route | Nassau Community College, Suffolk County Community College, Kingsborough Community College, Lehman College and eleven public high schools and school districts | 77 hours; format set by each institution, not published on the state list | Verified at school level (Aug 9, 2026); course, format and fee must be confirmed with the institution | Not published by the state — call the institution |
| Texas — TREC approved qualifying-course search | Aceable Agent — TREC #701048-QP stated by the provider, not confirmed against the Commission's search | 180-hour qualifying package as sold (provider page) | Pending official confirmation (Aug 9, 2026) — run the search for each course before paying | $449 Basic (Jul 22, 2026) |
| Texas — TREC approved qualifying-course search | The CE Shop — TREC #701046-QP stated by the provider, not confirmed against the Commission's search | 180-hour qualifying package as sold (provider page) | Pending official confirmation (Aug 9, 2026) — run the search for each course before paying | $579 Standard (Jul 22, 2026) |
| Texas — TREC approved qualifying-course search | Colibri Real Estate — current TREC search result required | Pending exact record | Pending official confirmation (Aug 9, 2026); price conflict on provider page unresolved | Not shown — provider page displays conflicting "from" pricing and a $627–$1,227 explanatory range (Jul 22, 2026) |
| All rows — what a listing does not mean | Not a recommendation, and not approval of everything that school sells | Not confirmation that the exact course in your cart is the listed one | Not verified for any state or track this row does not name | Not a promise the price or the listing is current on your enrollment day |
How to read the table. The New York rows are verified at the qualifying-school level: the state names the school as approved for salesperson qualifying education, which is real evidence but deliberately one step short of course-level proof, because schools revise packages and course titles more often than states revise their lists. New York does publish a course-level lookup — the Department's Find a Real Estate School search in eAccessNY, searchable by name, city or county. Watch brand names too: the official list uses "CE Shop Inc" for the school that markets itself as The CE Shop, and that kind of alias must be matched by record, not assumed by resemblance.
Texas requires 180 classroom hours of qualifying education in six named 30-hour courses — Principles of Real Estate I and II, Law of Agency, Law of Contracts, Promulgated Contract Forms and Real Estate Finance — followed by fingerprints filed with the Texas Department of Public Safety, an application, the state exam and sponsorship by a Texas broker, as the Commission sets out for sales agent applicants, who must also be at least 18, a citizen or lawfully admitted alien, and able to meet the Commission's honesty, trustworthiness and integrity standard. The TREC search lists every approved provider by name, so run it against a local college before assuming the commercial brands are the only option — no public-institution route was confirmed for Texas here. Aceable Agent and The CE Shop publish TREC provider numbers on their own course pages, which is good evidence of what is sold and no evidence at all of approval: a provider number on a provider's own page is the provider's claim. No Texas row here is verified, and none is recommended. Colibri's Texas row additionally shows a price-presentation conflict on the provider's own page, so no single Colibri Texas price is published.
Where the official records disagree
Two New York Department of State pages list approved qualifying-education schools and they do not match. The Real Estate Course Providers page — the one the Department links directly from its own salesperson requirements page — lists 360training as an approved qualifying school and places Colibri Real Estate only under the 32-hour supplemental broker course. A separate Approved Real Estate Qualifying Education Schools page omits 360training entirely and lists "American School of Real Estate Express," a St. Louis address, as a qualifying school. Both pages were checked on August 9, 2026.
The mismatch runs the other way as well, and it matters most to the cheapest route on this page. The second page names institutions the governing page omits, including Baruch College, Queens College and Pace University — two of them CUNY institutions, in a state where the public and college route is the lowest-cost accepted option. If you are pricing that route, check both pages and ask the Division to confirm the record for the specific institution and course before you enrol. An institution that appears on one page and not the other is exactly the case to raise.
Three St. Louis entity names appear across those sections and pages — Colibri Real Estate under the broker supplement, Real Estate Express among the continuing-education providers, and American School of Real Estate Express as a qualifying school on the second page — and the Department does not state whether any of them are the same school. This page treats the Real Estate Course Providers page as governing, because the Department links it from the salesperson requirements page and its section headings distinguish qualifying education from the broker supplement and from continuing education. Confirmation has been requested from the Division of Licensing Services. Until it arrives, this is the practical reading: 360training's qualifying listing is supported by the governing page, Colibri's is not, and if you intend to enroll with either one in New York, ask the Division to confirm the record for your exact course before you pay.
How do you check a Texas course on the TREC search?
The Texas search is a live tool, so no saved result can be linked here — you run it, and the result is yours to keep. It takes about ninety seconds.
- Open the Commission's approved qualifying real estate courses page. It needs JavaScript enabled, so use a current browser rather than a work terminal that blocks scripts.
- In Provider Search, enter the school name or the provider number — 701048 for Aceable Agent, 701046 for The CE Shop, 4591 for 360training, all as stated by those providers rather than by TREC.
- Set Course Delivery Method to the online or distance option you intend to buy, and use Filter Providers By Course Offered to check each of the six 30-hour course titles in your package.
- Screenshot the result with the date visible before you pay, and keep it with your receipt.
If a course title in your cart does not appear in that result, that is the answer: do not buy it yet. Ask the school which TREC-approved course the package actually delivers, and confirm with the Commission if the answer is unclear.
Which school fits after you verify your state?
The matrix above answers "is it accepted?" The table below answers "what am I actually buying?" and the profiles answer "is it right for me?" Every profile is conditional on the official match for your state and track, and every one includes the situations it is not ideal for.
Commercial terms as published by each provider and observed July 22, 2026. "Not published" means the reviewed provider pages did not state it — it is an absence of evidence, not a zero. Approval status is not a commercial term and is carried in the matrix above.
| Course term | Aceable Agent | The CE Shop | 360training | Colibri Real Estate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verified jurisdiction and track | NY salesperson (school level); TX not verified | NY salesperson (school level); TX not verified | NY salesperson (school level) | None verified for salesperson |
| Delivery format | Self-paced online | Self-paced online | Self-paced online, proctored final | Self-paced or livestream, as sold |
| Minimum course price observed | $239 NY / $449 TX | $315 NY course-only / $579 TX | $169 NY | Not published — page values conflict |
| Mandatory extra fees | None recorded | None recorded | $54 online proctoring | Unresolved |
| Minimum course outlay | $239 NY / $449 TX | $315 NY / $579 TX | $223 NY | Not published |
| Course final and attempts | Not published | Not published | Two attempts | Not published |
| Time to complete | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Who submits the completion certificate | Not published | The student, per its NY pages | Not published | Not published |
| Course-access window | Not published | Six months plus one free month (NY) | Not published | Not published |
| Refund window | Not published | 30 days, before expiration, no more than 50% complete | 72 hours with restrictions | 30 days self-paced |
| Subscription or auto-renewal | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Guarantee terms | Not published | Not published | Not published | Conditional pass-guarantee programme |
The public and college route carries none of these fields, and that is not an oversight: the state list publishes no commercial terms, and each institution sets its own fee, schedule, exam arrangements and refund rules. It is a phone call, not a comparison — which is why it is worth making before you buy a package you can compare.
Aceable Agent
Best for: self-paced learners who study primarily on a phone and want short lessons with audio narration, in New York. Not ideal for: anyone in a state or track combination without an exact official match; readers who want livestream instruction, since its verified formats here are self-paced; and anyone who needs published access, retake or reporting terms before paying, because it publishes none of them. Its New York status is clean at the school level on the Department of State list; its Texas provider number is its own claim, not TREC's. App features and package tiers are product features, not approval evidence. Confirm before you enroll: (1) whether the New York proctored final is included in the $239 or billed separately; (2) how long you have to finish before access lapses, and what restoring it costs; (3) how the school reports or hands over your completion certificate.
The CE Shop
Best for: learners who want structured package choices and unusually explicit written policies — its New York pages state the approval number, that the student submits the completion certificate, and that the NY course expires after six months plus one free month. Not ideal for: readers who would be better served by a public or college route, or anyone who cannot meet its refund conditions — refunds generally require a request within 30 days, before expiration, with no more than 50% of the course complete. Confirm before you enroll: (1) whether the $315 course-only or $339 package fits your needs and what each excludes; (2) whether the free extension month is automatic or has to be requested; (3) the attempt limit on the course final and what a failed attempt costs.
360training
Best for: New York salesperson applicants choosing primarily on total course outlay who accept the trade-offs it discloses: a $54 online-proctoring fee, two course-final attempts, and a 72-hour refund window with restrictions. Not ideal for: anyone outside New York — no Texas or other-state record was confirmed, and a national footprint is not evidence — readers who want generous retake and refund terms, and anyone unwilling to act on a listing that one state page carries and another omits. Confirm before you enroll: (1) whether the $54 proctoring fee is charged per course or per attempt; (2) what happens after two failed final attempts — a paid retake, or repurchase; (3) whether its qualifying listing is current, given the conflict noted above.
Colibri Real Estate
Best for: self-paced or livestream learners in state and track combinations where a current official qualifying record is confirmed — livestream availability is a genuine differentiator among these four formats, and it is the only reason this profile exists. Not ideal for: New York salesperson applicants in this snapshot, since Colibri appears in the supplemental-broker section of the governing state list rather than the qualifying-school section, and not for Texas readers who need a dependable price, since its Texas page showed conflicting figures on July 22, 2026. Its refund policy includes a 30-day self-paced refund window and a conditional pass-guarantee programme; treat the guarantee as a commercial term with eligibility conditions and state exclusions, never as an outcome promise. Confirm before you enroll: (1) a current official qualifying record for your exact state, track and course; (2) the actual checkout price for the package you want; (3) which guarantee and refund conditions apply to your state and format.
Which shortlist should you evaluate first?
| Your situation | Shortlist move | Confirm before paying |
|---|---|---|
| New York salesperson applicant, lowest total outlay | Price the public and college route first — call one of the named community colleges — then compare it against 360training's Basic package plus the $54 proctoring fee | The institution's current course fee, schedule and exam arrangements; for 360training, total price including mandatory fees, final-exam attempt limits and the 72-hour refund window |
| New York salesperson applicant, self-paced or mobile-first | Compare the three New York–listed commercial qualifying schools in the matrix above | Current listing on the state page; exact 77-hour course; any proctoring or certificate fee; refund and access terms |
| New York salesperson applicant who needs written terms before paying | Start with The CE Shop, which publishes the most, and treat unpublished terms elsewhere as questions to ask | Access window against your realistic pace; refund conditions; who submits your certificate |
| Texas salesperson applicant, self-paced | No shortlist yet — run the TREC course search first, then compare only the schools whose six 30-hour courses come back in the result | A current TREC result for each of the six courses; the twelve-month application clock before you file; total package price; access window; refund terms |
| Any other state, or an employer or brokerage is paying | No shortlist yet — start from your state authority's record in the table below, and treat employer preference as separate from state approval | The authority's current record for your track; who pays which fees; whether the sponsored course is the accepted one |
Which authority approves real estate courses in your state?
If your state is not New York or Texas, nothing on this page should be inferred for it, and no shortlist of online real estate courses exists here yet. What does exist is the starting point: the body that decides which schools and courses count, in every state and the District of Columbia. Open it, find its approved-school or approved-course list, and run the Five-Point Match there before you compare a single price.
What a completed match looks like, in a third state. Georgia publishes its approvals at course level, which makes it a useful worked example. The Georgia Real Estate Commission's own course-approval record, generated June 21, 2026, lists school #8070 ACEABLE REAL ESTATE SCHOOL with approved course #71239 GEORGIA SALESPERSONS PRELICENSE, and school #8066 REAL ESTATE U ONLINE LLC with approved course #74666, a 75-hour online Georgia salesperson course. Note what that record does and does not settle. It confirms the school and the exact course for the Georgia salesperson track — stronger evidence than the school-level New York rows above. It also shows the alias problem in the open: the Commission's string is "ACEABLE REAL ESTATE SCHOOL," not the "Aceable Agent" brand name used at checkout, so match by record. No Georgia price, access window, refund term or proctoring rule was captured in this snapshot, so no Georgia row appears in the comparison tables and no Georgia school is recommended here.
Agency identification from the ARELLO regulatory-agency directory, checked August 9, 2026. Rows marked † link the authority's own course, school or education page, confirmed on the check date; all other rows link the agency's main entry point, where the list is usually filed under education, licensing or "approved providers." ARELLO updates agency entries annually, so some unmarked addresses are legacy ones that redirect; agency names change rarely, so if a link fails, search the agency name — the name is the durable part. One naming note: North Carolina's entry-level licence is called Broker rather than salesperson, and its row links the Commission's list of approved distance prelicensing providers for that course. This table routes you to the authority. It does not verify any school in your state.
Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Canadian provinces are not covered above; their regulators are listed in the same ARELLO directory. One caution applies to every row: being on an authority's list means a school or course is accepted for that state and that track, which is not the same as a recommendation and not the same as approval of everything that school sells. If you cannot find your state's list on its authority's site, call the authority rather than trusting a school's own approval badge. If you are not certain which body governs the credential you need, find the right authority for the requirement you are meeting.
What will you really pay for the course?
The advertised price is rarely the whole course cost, and the course cost is never the whole licensing cost. For this page's purpose — choosing a school — use this formula:
Total required course outlay = minimum approved qualifying course or package + mandatory course-final or proctoring fee + mandatory certificate, shipping or materials fees + tax.
Licensing fees sit outside that formula. New York charges $65 for the initial salesperson application and $15 for the written exam, published by the Department of State and verified August 9, 2026. Texas charges its own application fee and requires fingerprints filed with the Department of Public Safety. Both are separate from anything a school collects; calculate the full cost of getting licensed before committing to a timeline.
Dated examples from this snapshot (all observed July 22, 2026; sale prices are volatile, so verify at checkout):
| State | School and package | Observed course price | Known mandatory extras | Observed minimum course outlay (before tax) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 360training Basic ($209 Premium also observed) | $169 | $54 online proctoring | $223 |
| New York | Aceable Agent Basic | $239 | None recorded in this snapshot — confirm at checkout | $239 |
| New York | The CE Shop course-only ($339 package also observed) | $315 | None recorded in this snapshot — confirm at checkout | $315 |
| New York | Public college or school-district route | Not published by the state | Set by the institution | Call the institution |
| Texas | Aceable Agent Basic | $449 | None recorded in this snapshot — confirm at checkout | $449 |
| Texas | The CE Shop Standard | $579 | None recorded in this snapshot — confirm at checkout | $579 |
| Texas | Colibri Real Estate | Not published — conflicting page values | Unresolved | Not published until reconciled |
The band, in one line. New York: low $223 (360training Basic plus its required proctoring fee) · base $239 (Aceable Agent Basic) · high $339 (The CE Shop package). Texas: low $449 (Aceable Agent Basic) · base $579 (The CE Shop Standard) · high not published. Public and college route: not priced by the state. All figures observed July 22, 2026, salesperson track, self-paced online, before tax.
Mandatory extras can reorder a comparison: 360training's $169 Basic stays the lowest New York total even after its required $54 proctoring fee — but only because that fee is disclosed. Where the table says "none recorded in this snapshot," that is an absence of evidence, not a promise of zero, and the checkout total on your enrollment day is the figure that counts. Advertised prices here are heavily promotional. A "from" price typically describes the smallest package a brand sells somewhere, not the package you need in your state, and sale banners can sit alongside contradictory figures on the same page — the reason the Colibri Texas row publishes no single price.
Two mistakes recur. Overpayment: buying a premium package for exam prep, tutoring or career tools under the impression that they affect approval — they do not. Underpayment: buying the cheapest advertised package without checking that it contains all required qualifying hours and the mandatory final or proctoring component; a package missing either is not a bargain, because the certificate will not satisfy the requirement. No market average is claimed here — these are dated samples of specific packages in two states.
Final exam, certificate, access and refunds
Completing the course is one stage in a longer sequence, and each stage has its own owner and its own clock. Call it the Certificate-to-License Chain:
- Verify the state, track and exact course on the official record.
- Complete the required hours — 77 in New York, 180 in Texas across the six named 30-hour courses.
- Pass the provider's course final, under proctoring where required.
- Receive the completion certificate from the school.
- Register for and pass the state licensing exam.
- Submit the license application and any background items.
- Texas only — the twelve-month clock. TREC's sales agent application information sheet states that all requirements for a licence must be met within one year of the application filing date, or the application expires. That single window covers your education, your fingerprints, both sections of the exam and your sponsorship — so the date you file is the date the clock starts, and letting it run out means refiling and paying again.
- Secure broker sponsorship where the state requires it.
- The authority reviews and, if all requirements are met, issues or activates the license.
Two stages deserve a closer look before you buy. The proctored course final is not the state licensing exam: it is the school's own end-of-course exam, taken under identity checks and monitoring where the state or school requires it, sometimes with its own fee and its own attempt limit — 360training's New York terms disclose both a $54 online-proctoring fee and a two-attempt limit on the course final. Failing a course final can mean rescheduling, extra fees or repurchasing, so read the attempt rule as carefully as the price.
The certificate handoff is the other quiet failure point. Who moves the paperwork varies by school and state — some schools transmit completions, others hand you a certificate and step back. The CE Shop's New York documentation states that the student submits the completion certificate, which means your certificate does nothing until you act on it; the other three schools do not publish their process at all, which makes it a question to ask rather than an assumption to make. For how completion documents, reporting and processing work generally, understand what happens after course completion.
What submission actually looks like, in the two states this page covers. New York applicants apply through the Department's eAccessNY system, and the Department states that your principal broker must log in to their own account and authorize your application before the Department reviews it — so a complete application can sit unprocessed while it waits on your sponsoring broker. New York also reports exam results as pass or fail only, and a passed result is valid for two years, which is the outer clock on the rest of the process. Texas applicants upload course-completion documents when they apply online through the Commission's REALM portal, and fingerprints must be on file with the Department of Public Safety before a license can issue; fingerprints held by another agency are not accepted. Course completion, exam pass, application, broker authorization and authority review are separate events on separate clocks, and no school controls any of them after the first.
Two commercial terms in the matrix above change fit as much as price does. Course access is finite, so a slow study pace can cost a repurchase, and the three schools that publish no access window should be asked directly. Refund windows range from 72 hours to 30 days and carry completion conditions, so read the current policy before paying — and treat any pass guarantee as a refund-style programme with conditions, not as an assurance that you will pass anything.
Five checks before you enroll
Run this stop/go list — the Five Checks — for any school, in any state:
- State and track. Confirm you are buying salesperson prelicensing for your state — not broker, supplemental broker, post-license/SAE, CE or exam prep. If a storefront page mixes tracks, find the track label on the specific course before adding it to a cart.
- Exact official match. Find the exact school or course name — or the approval, provider or course number — on the authority's current list or search on the day you plan to buy, and confirm it matches your cart word for word, allowing only for a documented brand alias.
- Hours and format. Confirm the course carries your state's full required qualifying hours in an online or livestream mode the state actually accepts, not just a mode the school offers.
- Real price and terms. Record the minimum qualifying package price plus mandatory proctoring or certificate fees, the refund window and its conditions, and the access period against your realistic study pace.
- Save your evidence. Save or screenshot the official page with its date, the exact course name and number, your checkout details and the receipt, so any later dispute with a school or question from the authority starts from proof rather than memory.
If any check fails — especially the exact official match — stop. Contact the licensing authority, choose no provider yet, and verify the exact school, course and online mode before spending anything. A short delay is cheaper than an unusable certificate.
Who to call when a check fails
New York course approval, school records and application questions go to the Department of State's Division of Licensing Services on (518) 474-4429, or through the licensing contact form. Texas course and provider questions go to the Texas Real Estate Commission at information@trec.texas.gov or 512.936.3000. In any other state, use the authority in the table above. The division of labour is worth keeping straight: ask the authority about approval and acceptance, ask the school about price, access and refunds, ask your sponsoring broker about authorization timing, and ask a licensed attorney only if your question is about a disclosure or a past record rather than about the course.
Frequently asked questions
Is an online real estate school approved in every state where it sells courses?
No. Approval attaches to specific state, license-track, course and delivery-mode combinations, not to a brand. The same school can be an approved qualifying school in one state, listed only for a broker supplement in another, and absent from a third. Always match the exact school and course against your state authority's current record before paying.
Does completing an online course guarantee a real estate license?
No. The course satisfies only the education requirement. You must still pass the state licensing exam, submit an application, clear any background review, and — in states like New York — secure sponsorship by a licensed broker before the authority decides on the license. No school, package or guarantee changes those steps or their outcomes.
How long after finishing the course can you actually use the certificate?
It depends on the slowest step in your state's chain: the proctored course final, the school issuing the certificate, whoever submits it, state-exam scheduling, application and background processing, and sponsorship. An instant certificate does not mean instant acceptance, exam eligibility on a given date, or a license; each later stage runs on its own clock.
How much does an online real estate course really cost in total?
Count the minimum approved package plus mandatory proctoring, certificate or materials fees, plus tax — not the banner price. In this snapshot (observed July 22, 2026), minimum course outlays ran $223–$315 in New York and $449–$579 in Texas before tax, with the public and college route unpriced by the state. Licensing adds exam, application and background costs on top; estimate the full licensing cost before you budget.
Is the cheapest package enough to qualify?
Only if it contains every required qualifying hour and the mandatory course-final or proctoring component for your state. Cheapest tiers sometimes exclude items you must then buy separately, and premium tiers mostly add optional exam prep and career tools that do not affect approval. Compare packages by required contents first, then by price.
Can a criminal record stop you getting a real estate license?
It can, and the time to find out is before you pay for courses. Texas applies an honesty, trustworthiness and integrity standard and lets applicants request a Fitness Determination as a first step, before qualifying education, application or exam. Other authorities run character or fitness reviews under their own names and rules. Ask your authority first — a prior offence does not automatically disqualify you, but discovering the problem after 180 hours of coursework is the expensive order to do it in.
What if you already paid for a course that is not on the list?
Do not discard the certificate, the receipt or the course record. Contact the licensing authority before assuming the hours are lost and ask what its rules allow — New York, for example, operates an education-waiver route for applicants who completed education outside the state, and other authorities have their own equivalency processes. Ask specifically what documentation would be reviewed, and get the answer before you buy a replacement course.
What happens if your course access expires before you finish?
Treat the access window as a real deadline with a financial consequence. The CE Shop's New York course runs six months plus one free month, and the other three schools reviewed here do not publish an access window at all — where none is published, repurchase rather than extension is the outcome to plan around. Ask what an expired course costs to restore before you pay, and match the window to the pace you will actually keep, not the pace you intend.
Can completed prelicensing education transfer to another state?
Do not assume it. Each state authority sets its own qualifying-education rules, and treatment varies and changes: credit for hours already completed, a waiver of some requirement, or reciprocity — an agreement under which one state recognises another state's licence or education, usually only in part. If you move, start from the new state's licensing authority in the table above and its current rules for out-of-state education before enrolling in anything or discarding what you have completed.
Your next step
Open your licensing authority's current approved-school or course record and copy the exact school or course name or approval number before you compare a single price. In New York, price the public and college route alongside the three listed commercial schools. In Texas, run the ninety-second TREC search first and treat every school as unverified until it comes back in your result. Anywhere else, start from your authority in the table above. The right course is the one your state can already see.
Sources and last verified date
Last verified: August 9, 2026 (official sources). Provider prices, packages and commercial terms were observed July 22, 2026 and are dated as such throughout.
Next review: November 9, 2026
- Real Estate Course Providers — New York Department of State — the governing New York list; qualifying-school listings for Aceable Agent, CE Shop Inc and 360training, the community-college, CUNY and public-school-district entries, and Colibri Real Estate's placement in the 32-hour supplemental-broker section.
- Approved Real Estate Qualifying Education Schools — New York Department of State — the second, conflicting New York page that omits 360training, lists American School of Real Estate Express, and adds Baruch College, Queens College and Pace University.
- Become a Real Estate Salesperson — New York Department of State — the 77-hour qualifying-education requirement, age 18 minimum, state exam, broker sponsorship, two-year exam-result validity, eAccessNY application and broker authorization, and the $65 application and $15 exam fees.
- Find a Real Estate School (eAccessNY) — New York Department of State — the Department's course-level school lookup.
- Licensing contact form — New York Department of State — the Division of Licensing Services contact route.
- Approved Qualifying Real Estate Courses — Texas Real Estate Commission — the live Texas approved-course search and its Provider Search, Course Delivery Method and course-offered filters.
- Become a Real Estate Sales Agent — Texas Real Estate Commission — the 180-hour requirement in six named 30-hour courses, Department of Public Safety fingerprints, and REALM portal document upload.
- Application for Inactive Real Estate Sales Agent License, information sheet (ISL-10) — Texas Real Estate Commission — that all requirements for a licence must be met within one year of the application filing date or the application expires.
- Fitness Determination — Texas Real Estate Commission — the optional pre-education eligibility check for applicants with a criminal offence, unpaid judgment, prior discipline or unlicensed activity.
- Required Statutory / Pre-License Real Estate Courses — California Department of Real Estate — California's approved pre-license course list and its statement that courses may be taken at UC, CSU and the community colleges.
- Course Provider Handbook — California Department of Real Estate — that DRE approves individual courses rather than course providers, with an approval number per course.
- Approved Schools List — Georgia Real Estate Commission — the Georgia authority's own list of approved real estate schools.
- Course Approvals — Georgia Real Estate Commission — the Commission's course-level approval record, generated June 21, 2026, naming schools #8070 and #8066 and their approved Georgia salesperson prelicense courses.
- Distance Prelicensing Education Providers — North Carolina Real Estate Commission — the Commission's list of providers approved to offer online, self-paced prelicensing courses.
- Real Estate and Professional Licensing — Ohio Department of Commerce — the current Ohio division entry point for licensing and education requirements.
- Regulatory Agencies directory — Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO) — agency identification and contact records used to build the state authority table.
- Texas Individual Pre-License Courses — Aceable Agent — provider-stated TREC provider number, Texas 180-hour course set and observed pricing.
- New York Real Estate Courses — Aceable Agent — New York 77-hour product, package tiers and observed pricing.
- Texas Pre-Licensing Courses — The CE Shop — provider-stated TREC provider approval number, 180-hour package and observed Texas pricing.
- New York Pre-Licensing Courses — The CE Shop — provider-stated New York approval number, 77-hour course, certificate-submission and course-expiration terms, and observed pricing.
- FAQ and Refund Terms — The CE Shop — refund conditions and support terms.
- Texas Real Estate License Courses — Colibri Real Estate — the Texas price-presentation conflict documented in the snapshot.
- Refund Policy — Colibri Real Estate — self-paced 30-day refund window and conditional pass-guarantee terms.
- New York Real Estate License — 360training — 77-hour packages, observed prices, $54 online-proctoring fee and two course-final attempts.
- Texas Real Estate License Courses — 360training — the provider-stated TREC provider number recorded in the considered-but-not-included block.
- Refund Policy — 360training — the 72-hour refund window and its restrictions.
The CE Shop
Pre-licensing with the best pass-rate reputation in the category, plus the CE you'll need every renewal cycle after.
Start pre-licensingAceableAgent
Real-estate pre-licensing built mobile-first — the pick for career-switchers studying on lunch breaks.
See your state's packageColibri Real Estate
One of the largest real-estate schools in the country, with livestream class options and exam-prep bundles.
Compare Colibri packages