Real estate exam cost: the fee per attempt and what a retake adds
Choose a state and a number of attempts: the calculator shows the exam spend alone, the price of each extra sitting and the full first-license bill around it.
Real estate exam fees in Florida
$74
2 attempts
| First attempt | $37 |
| Each retake adds | $37 |
| All first-license fees | $131 |
Compiled by Radif Partners · How the totals are built · fees read on board pages and exam handbooks, October 20, 2026
The state real estate exam costs between $15 in New York and $210 in Washington per attempt, with a median of $61.50 across the 20 states priced here. The fee is paid to whoever delivers the test: Pearson VUE in 9 of those states, PSI in 9, and the licensing agency itself in California and New York. In Florida, a sitting with Pearson VUE costs $36.75, so two attempts come to $73.50; in Texas each sitting is $58; in Georgia $175. Every handbook read here bills a failed attempt again, usually at the full price, though Connecticut lists a cheaper retake of $51 and Louisiana a dearer repeat price of $96. North Carolina also collects its application fee again with each retake. A pass does not last forever: most states give you about a year to file the license application before the score lapses and the exam must be bought again.
Who sells the exam seat
The real estate commission writes the rules, but in most states it does not sell the test. It hires a testing company, and the candidate pays that company directly when booking a seat. In the states priced on this site the split is even: Pearson VUE delivers the exam in Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin, while PSI does so in Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia and Washington. Two agencies keep the exam in house. The California Department of Real Estate charges $100 for the original salesperson examination, and the New York Department of State only $15 for its written test, the lowest price of the group. The vendor matters for more than the logo on the confirmation email: it publishes the candidate handbook, sets the booking and cancellation terms and decides how a retake is priced.
Many of the vendor exams have a national portion and a state portion. Several handbooks price the two together when they are booked at once. Ohio's PSI bulletin lists $66 for the state and national portions taken at the same sitting, Oklahoma's Pearson VUE handbook $75 when both are scheduled on the same order, and Pennsylvania $52 for the combined sitting. North Carolina's two-part comprehensive exam costs $63, while a single section is $53, the price of sitting one part on its own.
Exam fees side by side
The table lists the first-attempt price in each priced state, what a second sitting adds in the calculator, and the exam's weight in the whole first-license bill. The weight varies a lot. In Connecticut the exam is about 8 % of the state fees, because the license itself is expensive; in Georgia it is about 51 %. A candidate in a state where the exam is a large share has more to lose from a failed attempt.
| State | Exam given by | First attempt | Second attempt adds | All first-license fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | State agency | $15 | $15 | $80 |
| Florida | Pearson VUE | $36.75 | $36.75 | $94.50 |
| New Jersey | PSI | $38 | $38 | $198 |
| Colorado | PSI | $44.95 | $44.95 | $127.95 |
| Pennsylvania | Pearson VUE | $52 | $52 | $149 |
| Indiana | Pearson VUE | $55 | $55 | $115 |
| Illinois | PSI | $58 | $58 | $208 |
| Texas | Pearson VUE | $58 | $58 | $301 |
| Connecticut | PSI | $59 | $51 | $709 |
| Virginia | PSI | $60 | $60 | $356.50 |
| North Carolina | Pearson VUE | $63 | $168 | $168 |
| Wisconsin | Pearson VUE | $65 | $65 | $140 |
| Ohio | PSI | $66 | $66 | $147 |
| Minnesota | PSI | $68 | $68 | $208 |
| Oklahoma | Pearson VUE | $75 | $75 | $280 |
| Louisiana | Pearson VUE | $81 | $96 | $186.75 |
| California | State agency | $100 | $100 | $499 |
| Nevada | Pearson VUE | $100 | $100 | $225 |
| Georgia | PSI | $175 | $175 | $345 |
| Washington | PSI | $210 | $210 | $443 |
Washington stands apart at $210 for its broker exam with PSI, and Georgia follows at $175, a fee its PSI bulletin applies to the salesperson, broker and community association manager exams alike. At the other end, Florida's Pearson VUE fee is $36.75 and New Jersey's PSI fee $38. Colorado's PSI exam costs $44.95 and Illinois $58, both for the entry-level broker license those states issue in place of a salesperson license.
What a failed attempt really costs
In most handbooks an extra sitting costs the same as the first one. California's fee table shows it plainly: the re-examination fee is $100, the same as the original. Three states depart from that pattern in their own documents. Connecticut's PSI bulletin prices the first attempt at $59 and each retake at $51, and the calculator charges that lower price from the second try. Louisiana's Pearson VUE handbook prints two prices for the state and national combination, $81 and $96, the higher one applying to repeat attempts, which is what the calculator counts from the second try. North Carolina is the sharpest case: the commission collects its $105 application fee again each time a candidate retakes the exam, on top of the Pearson VUE seat, and the calculator adds both at each attempt.
The hidden cost of a retake is time. Each extra sitting means a new booking at the next free date, and in several states the clock on your course certificate or on your exam eligibility keeps running while you wait. Set the attempts field to two or three to see the spend in your state, then read the next section before you book a date.
Every priced state with one failed attempt
Real estate license fees, median of 20 states
$279
| Lowest: New York | $95 |
| Highest: Connecticut | $760 |
| States priced | 20 |
How long a pass stays good
Passing the exam is not the finish line; the score expires if the license application does not follow. The windows read on official pages are short. Colorado keeps a passing score valid for one year. In Georgia you have one year after passing to apply. Virginia wants the application and its fee within one year of the original exam date, and Nevada wants passing results dated within the last twelve months when you apply. Connecticut requires both portions to be passed within one year of eligibility, then gives two years from the pass to pay the license fee.
Other states run the clock from the course or from the booking. Washington asks you to sit the exams within two years of finishing your education, to pass both within six months of each other and to apply within one year of passing. Ohio wants both portions passed within twelve months of the first PSI bulletin. In Illinois the pre-license education stays valid for two years, and a PSI exam fee is forfeited if you do not test within one year of paying it. New Jersey course eligibility expires one year after it is issued, and Pennsylvania counts courses taken within five years before the pass. Missing one of these windows usually means paying for the exam again, and sometimes repeating the course as well.
Keeping the exam bill to one sitting
A few habits keep the spend at the first-attempt figure. Book the state and national portions together where the handbook prices them as one sitting, since splitting them can cost more. Read the rescheduling and cancellation terms in your vendor's handbook before you book, since they decide what happens to the fee if your plans change. File the license application soon after the pass, before the state's window closes. For the full first-license bill around the exam, with the course hours and fingerprints, see the real estate license page, and for one state in detail the Florida page or the Texas page.