Ever been curious about what steps are involved in getting your state of Illinois real estate license? It’s easier than you may think.
Essentially, the five steps to achieving your real estate license are:
- (1) see if you meet the real estate license requirements (Listed below)
- (2) take the required course
- (3) pass the real estate exam
- (4) find a Sponsoring Broker
As for the requirements, we have a whole video that talks about them in detail, but simply put, you must:
- (1) be at least 18 years of age,
- (2) have graduated High School or received your GED,
- (3) be of “good moral character, and
- (4) have a valid US Social Security Number.
Meet all those requirements? Then you’re ready for the next step, which is…
Take The Required Course
The state requires that you attend a Pre-license Broker Course from an accredited school, like the Chicago Real Estate School. There are lots of schools that offer the course, at a variety of price points, but we recommend you pay close attention to their pass rate and to what students have said about their school. As for the pass rate, over 90% of Chicago Real Estate School students pass the exam on the first try. And to find out what people say about us, we encourage you to search Google for “reviews of real estate schools in Chicago”.
Take and Pass The State Exam
The exam is administered by a third-party company – in downtown Chicago, as well as some nearby suburbs, on weekdays and some Saturdays. Other schools may be “done with you as soon as you finish your class, but here at CRES [please pronounce C – R – E – S], we’ll support you all the way through the process. That includes helping with the several steps necessary to get signed up for the exam.
Find a Sponsoring Broker
Naturally, we’ll help here as well. We get asked all the time how hard it is to find a job – the answer is, that’s the EASIEST part of the whole process! But the reason is fairly simple: since Real Estate is a commission-based position, agencies have nothing to lose by bringing you on board. They’re hoping that you’re one of the people who will actually make money, for yourself – and for them!
License Application Process
The good news is, once you’ve found a Sponsoring Broker, they’ll walk you through the license application process, then you can START SELLING IMMEDIATELY! You don’t have to wait for the State to approve your application – you’ll be operating under a provisional license until they do. You’ll be a fully-functioning Agent, starting to take control of your own future!
These five steps are part of our “Complete Checklist when Considering a Career in Real Estate – which is a free download, available at the bottom of every page of our website. It also contains a comparison chart, to help you know what to look for when comparing Real Estate Schools.
The Chicago Real Estate School offers a variety of Webinar and Classroom schedules, and most people finish the 10-session course in 3 to 6 weeks. That means you could be an active Real Estate Agent in less than two months! You’ve probably got many more questions now than you did at the start of this video, but the good news is that we have a host of videos and web pages that provide everything you need! Just dig in, and when you can’t find the answer to a question, we’re just a phone call away. We look forward to helping you to achieve your dreams! We also provide residential leasing courses and courses in Spanish!
