Helping to sell real estate, whether commercial or private residences is an interesting and potentially lucrative career. You may be wondering how you can start your new career as a real estate broker and it's not as complicated or difficult to gain the education, but it will take some effort to get licensed. Here are the steps required to get your real estate broker's license.

Requirements

Each state will have their own requirements you must have before you can even attempt to get your license. The basic requirements each state all require is you must be at least 18 years old,  have a high school diploma or your GED, and if you want to be a commercial broker, you need to have a few years of experience working with or as a real estate agent or have a bachelor's degree.

Education

If you have the basic requirements for obtaining a broker's license, then you can enroll in a pre-licensing program at an accredited college or university. You will need a certain amount of hours of attendance of classroom lessons and the amount of hours varies between different states. You will learn fair housing laws, titles, different types of property ownership, deeds, contracts and more. Commercial brokers will also learn finance, property development, real estate and business law, appraisals, accounting and more.

You can also take these courses online at private real estate schools as long as they are approved by your state.

The Exam

Once you have completed and passed your pre-licensing course, either online or in a school setting, it's time to take your real estate licensing exam. The majority of states give the length of time you have once you have finished your course until the date you take your exam as anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of years. It's a good idea to take a look at what your state says, so you don't miss your timeframe.

The exam will take you a few hours to complete and it this does vary depending on your state and whether you are going for your private broker's license or a commercial broker license. You will need to pass at a certain percentage; again this varies by state so check that out before taking the course before you will get your license.

License Application

When you have passed the exam, you can then submit your application for your license. There will be a required fee you must pay for the application, and you may need to submit to a criminal background check as well.