Licensing Requirements
Six of the forty state items ask who needs a license, how a license is renewed and maintained, what happens when its status changes, and what education keeps it current.
Activities Requiring a License, and the Exemptions
ORC 4735.01(A) makes a broker of anyone who, for another and for compensation, sells, exchanges, purchases, rents or leases real estate, negotiates or offers to negotiate such a transaction, lists or auctions property, deals in options, operates or manages or rents buildings to the public as tenants, holds out as being in the business, procures prospects, or charges tenants a fee for rental referrals. ORC 4735.01(I)(1) then exempts owners dealing with their own property or property acquired on their own account, court-appointed executors, administrators and trustees, public officers on official duty, attorneys at law performing their duties, brokers of business assets not involving real estate, sellers of manufactured or mobile homes, out-of-state commercial brokers complying with ORC 4735.022, and oil and gas land professionals.
Renewal and Maintenance
Licenses renew on a three-year cycle, due on the licensee's birthday three years after initial licensure and every three years after (OAC 1301:5-1-22, ORC 4735.14(B)). Miss the deadline and the license is suspended automatically; it may be reactivated within twelve months on payment of the renewal fee plus a penalty of fifty per cent of that fee, and is revoked automatically if that window closes (ORC 4735.14(C)). Separately, a licensee must notify the superintendent within thirty days of a change of personal residence address or e-mail address, a broker within thirty days of a change of business location (ORC 4735.13(D)), and any licensee within fifteen days of a felony conviction, a crime of moral turpitude, or a civil-rights or housing-discrimination finding (ORC 4735.13(C)).
Change in License Status
Ohio defines each status in ORC 4735.01: inactive (a salesperson's license held by the Division, renewed, not associated with a broker), broker's license on deposit, suspended, revoked (void and not eligible for reactivation), and resigned. A licensee entering the armed forces may deposit the license with the Commission and need not renew until the renewal date following discharge, with a continuing-education extension matching the length of active duty; a licensee whose spouse's service took them out of state gets a comparable extension (ORC 4735.13(G)). Permanent resignation is available under ORC 4735.142, and a broker whose resignation will close the brokerage must notify affiliated salespersons in writing within three days.
Post-Licensure and Continuing Education
A new broker owes ten hours of commission-approved instruction, not earlier than the date of issue and not later than twelve months after it; failure suspends the license automatically, and a further twelve months without proof revokes it (ORC 4735.07(G)). The parallel figure for a new salesperson is twenty hours (ORC 4735.09(J)). Continuing education is then thirty hours every three years, reported on the birthday that ends the cycle, and a broker, broker on deposit, or management level licensee must include a three-hour course on the duties of a principal broker (ORC 4735.141(A)). Licensees aged seventy or older report nine hours instead, plus that three-hour course if they are brokers.
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State-specific details
State exam facts
- Exam vendor
- PSI
- Prelicensing education
- 240 hours of eligible courses at an institution of higher education (40 real estate practice, 40 Ohio real estate law and civil rights, 20 appraisal, 20 finance, and 30 each in financial management, human resource management, applied business economics and business law)
- Passing score
- 75%
- Scored questions
- 115
- Time limit
- 180 minutes
Who regulates real estate brokers in Ohio?
The Ohio Division of Real Estate & Professional Licensing, within the Ohio Department of Commerce, licenses brokers and salespersons. The Division contracts with PSI to deliver the licensing examinations, and the five-member Ohio Real Estate Commission adopts the canons of ethics and decides discipline.
What experience do I need before the Ohio broker exam?
Under ORC 4735.07(B)(5) an applicant must have been "a licensed real estate broker or salesperson for at least two of the five years preceding the person's application" and have completed either at least twenty real estate transactions in which property was sold for another while acting as a broker or salesperson, or equivalent experience, which OAC 1301:5-3-04(D) leaves to Commission review. Watch how those transactions are counted: under OAC 1301:5-3-04(A) a completed sale counts as one-half transaction to the procuring agent and one-half to the listing agent, so twenty "transactions" is not twenty closings. ORC 4735.07(B)(6)(b) then requires 240 hours of eligible courses at an institution of higher education — 40 hours of real estate practice, 40 of Ohio real estate law and civil rights, 20 of appraisal, 20 of finance, and 30 each in financial management, human resource or personnel management, applied business economics and business law. No degree is required; these are course hours. (2025's HB 238 cut the appraisal and finance hours for the salesperson license only — the broker figures are still 20 and 20.)
How is the Ohio broker exam structured?
PSI delivers two portions in one session: a national portion of 75 items scored to 80 points in 120 minutes, and an Ohio state portion of 40 items worth 40 points in 60 minutes — 115 questions and 120 points over 180 minutes in total. A broker must score at least 75% on each portion, and there is no limit on retakes under ORC 4735.07(F). The state portion is weighted 4 items on state governance, 6 on licensing requirements, 16 on license law and Commission rules, and 14 on brokerage relationships (agency law).
What must a new Ohio broker do in the first year?
ORC 4735.07(G) requires a new broker to submit proof of ten hours of Commission-approved post-licensure instruction no later than twelve months after the license is issued. Missing that suspends the license automatically, and a further twelve months without proof revokes it. Thereafter the license renews on a three-year cycle on the licensee's birthday, with 30 hours of continuing education that must include a three-hour course on the duties of a principal broker (ORC 4735.141).
Sources: https://com.ohio.gov/divisions-and-programs/real-estate-and-professional-licensing/salespersons-and-brokers/guides-and-resources/salesperson-and-broker-candidate-information-bulletin, https://test-takers.psiexams.com/api/content/bulletin/1001, https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-4735.07
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