Learn How to be a Real Estate Agent in New York

Real estate agents are the individuals working for and supervised by a real estate broker at the brokerage. If you are interested in knowing how to be a real estate agent in the State of New York, you’ll need to pass its examination for candidates before you can pick up the license.

Education and Licensing

You must be licensed as a real estate salesperson by the Division of Licensing Services of New York’s Department of State before you can become a real estate agent in New York. A number of options are available to you depending on your circumstances.

The most common option is for you to take a course that qualifies you to become a salesperson in New York. These courses will begin to teach you how to be a real estate agent. Said course must provide you with at least 75 hours of instruction and must come from an educational institute that has been approved by the Department of State. Once you’ve completed your education, you can then take the examination offered by the Department of State. This examine will test your knowledge on how to be a real estate agent. Pass that examination and you will become eligible to receive your license in New York.

Alternatively, if you’ve completed a real estate course with 45 hours of instruction that qualified you to become a salesperson prior to July 1 of 2008, you can take a remedial course with 30 hours of instruction in lieu of the educational requirement to learn how to be a real estate agent that came into effect after that date.

You may also be able to secure a waiver for the educational requirement if you’ve had previous education on the topic. At a minimum, you’ll need to submit a written request for a waiver that includes proof of your completion of an appropriate course in real estate, a description of the course, and detailed information about both its course content and the hours spent on each topic. Be warned that this course must have offered at least 75 hours of instruction on how to be a real estate agent. Alternatively, if you’ve completed a Bachelor’s Degree while specializing on the topic of real estate, you might be able to secure a waiver for the educational requirement so long as you provide the Department of State with an official transcript of the time you spent in college.

Renew Your License

Once you’ve completed your education on how to be a real estate agent and received your license to do so in New York, be warned that you’ll need to renew your license on a regular basis. You’ll be contacted through either post or email, depending on if you’ve signed up for eAccessNY before this happens, so you’ll have time to get it done. Each time you get your license renewed, you’ll need to pass a continuing education course with 22.5 hours of instruction to prove that you are up to date with new laws and rules on how to be a real estate agent. The only people who are exempt from this rule are attorneys with a real estate broker’s license who have been admitted to the New York State Bar or real estate brokers who have been in the business for 15 years prior to July 1 of 2008.

Getting the Position

Once you’ve secured your license, you can start working as a real estate agent in New York. However, you’ll be better off if you’ve already made arrangements before you took the examination. One of the best ways to get your foot in the door and get hands on experience on how to be a real estate agent,  is to work at a real estate office as something other than a salesperson to familiarize yourself with the work and build contacts before you get your license. Remember that your education as a salesperson should not end with the course, and that you’ll get further ahead if you can find someone to mentor you.