Georgia Real Estate Salesperson Exam — Study Guide

This chapter covers only the Georgia-specific portion of the exam. It supplements the national (general) chapters, which cover the principles tested nationwide. On the Georgia salesperson exam you sit two portions — a national portion and a Georgia (state-law) portion — and you must pass each separately. Everything below is state-law material.

How to use this chapter (YMYL notice). Real estate licensing is a "your money or your life" subject: getting the rule wrong can cost a candidate a license or a consumer a home. Every rule below is tied to its legal authority so you can verify it. Numbers change — course hours, fees, renewal cycles, recovery-fund caps, and tax rates are set by statute, by Georgia Real Estate Commission (GREC) rule, or by the legislature, and any of them can be amended. Read the flags literally. A figure followed by a dated citation — for example (GREC, Obtaining a License — Real Estate; checked 2026-09-05) — was read from that named source on that date; it is not a guess and not a round number borrowed from a prep site. A figure that still carries a bracketed verify-current flag was not confirmed from a primary source, and you must check it with the Georgia Real Estate Commission (grec.state.ga.us), the Chapter 520 rules, or the current O.C.G.A. before you rely on it for a transaction or an exam-day answer.

1. The Georgia Real Estate Commission (GREC)

Georgia's real estate industry is regulated by the Georgia Real Estate Commission (GREC), a state agency created under Georgia law to license and regulate real estate brokers, associate brokers, salespersons, and community association managers. GREC's mission is consumer protection: it administers the license law, sets and enforces the rules of practice, approves education, investigates complaints, and disciplines licensees.

Legal authority. GREC's powers and the licensing scheme come from O.C.G.A. Title 43, Chapter 40 — "Real Estate Brokers and Salespersons" (the License Law). The detailed operating rules — what a trust account must look like, how advertising must be worded, what continuing education counts — are in the Rules and Regulations of the Real Estate Commission, Chapter 520 of the Rules of the State of Georgia (commonly "GREC Rules" or "Chapter 520"). When the statute and a rule seem to overlap, remember the hierarchy: the statute (O.C.G.A.) is the law passed by the legislature; the Chapter 520 rules are GREC's regulations that carry out the statute.

Structure. The Commission is composed of six members, each appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate for a term of five years. Five must be licensees who have been Georgia residents and actively engaged in real estate for at least five years; the sixth must have no connection with the real estate industry and is the consumer member (O.C.G.A. § 43-40-2; checked 2026-09-05 — see the sourcing note at the end of this chapter). GREC's own FY2025 Annual Report organization chart states the same split: “Five Licensees & One Public Member Each Appointed by the Governor” (GREC FY2025 Annual Report, p. 9; checked 2026-09-05). Day-to-day operation is run by a Real Estate Commissioner, who is appointed by the Commission, and staff. For exam purposes, know that GREC — not a private board and not the courts in the first instance — is the body that issues, renews, suspends, and revokes Georgia real estate licenses.

GREC vs. GREAB. Georgia also has the Georgia Real Estate Appraisers Board (GREAB), which regulates real property appraisers. It shares administrative support with GREC but is a separate board with separate licensing. Do not confuse a real estate broker/salesperson license (GREC) with an appraiser classification (GREAB).

2. License classifications and who must be licensed

Georgia issues several classes of real estate license under Chapter 40:

• Salesperson — the entry-level license. A salesperson may perform licensed real estate activity only while affiliated with and under the supervision of a broker.
• Associate broker — a person who holds a broker-level qualification but works under another broker rather than operating their own firm.
• Broker — qualified to operate independently, own a firm, and supervise affiliated licensees and trust accounts.
• Community association manager — a narrower license for managing community/homeowner associations.

When a license is required. A license is required to perform, for another and for a fee (or expectation of one), acts such as selling, buying, listing, leasing, auctioning, or negotiating real estate, or holding oneself out as doing so. The precise list of licensed activities and the exemptions (for example, an owner selling their own property, certain attorneys acting within their practice, and certain court-appointed fiduciaries) is in O.C.G.A. § 43-40-1 and § 43-40-29. Recent change: effective July 1, 2025, Georgia narrowed those exemptions — the owner/full-time-employee property-management exemptions in § 43-40-29(a)(7) and (a)(8) no longer apply to an out-of-state landlord that owns or operates single-family or duplex residential rental property in Georgia, which must also employ someone located in this state to handle tenant communications (2025 Ga. Laws Act 315 (HB 399), enacting O.C.G.A. § 44-7-25 and amending § 43-40-29; Georgia Legislative Counsel, Summary of General Statutes Enacted, 2025 Session, p. 42; checked 2026-09-05). Know the concept for the exam: acting as a real estate licensee for others without a license is unlawful and exposes you to penalties, and a broker who pays a commission to an unlicensed person for licensed acts also violates the law.

3. Becoming a salesperson: requirements, education, exam

To obtain a Georgia salesperson license, an applicant generally must:

1. Meet the age and residency/citizenship basics. Be at least 18 years old and meet lawful-presence requirements. Georgia licenses both residents and nonresidents.
2. Meet the education/honesty basics. An applicant must be a high school graduate or the holder of a certificate of equivalency (O.C.G.A. § 43-40-8; GREC, Obtaining a License — Real Estate; checked 2026-09-05). A criminal history report — a Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC) report — must be obtained no more than 60 days before applying and produced before the license is issued; if it shows any conviction or any sanction by a licensing or regulatory agency, GREC investigates and then decides whether to issue the license (Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 520-1-.04(7); GREC, Obtaining a License — Real Estate; checked 2026-09-05).
3. Complete the required prelicense education — the GREC-approved 75-hour Salesperson Prelicense Course (O.C.G.A. § 43-40-8, which requires “at least 75 instructional hours in a salesperson's course of study approved by the commission”; GREC, Obtaining a License — Real Estate; checked 2026-09-05).
4. Pass the Georgia licensing examination — a national portion plus the Georgia Salesperson Supplement — administered for GREC by PSI Services LLC, at an examination fee of $175 (GREC, Obtaining a License — Real Estate; PSI, Georgia Real Estate Commission Candidate Information Bulletin, edition dated 7/1/2026; checked 2026-09-05). Trap: do not assume Pearson VUE. Georgia's real estate vendor is PSI, and you collect the license itself at the PSI test center. The Georgia supplement is built from 52 scored items — 16 on State Laws and Rules, 21 on Real Estate Practice in Georgia, 15 on Finance and Closing — plus roughly 10% additional unscored experimental questions (PSI bulletin, Content Outlines, ed. 7/1/2026). The passing score is set “by psychometrically sound criterion-related methods associated with assessment of minimal competence” and must be published before the examination is administered (Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 520-1-.04(3)(a)); neither GREC's site nor the current PSI bulletin prints a passing percentage, a total question count for the national portion, or a testing time limit, so [verify current passing score and testing time with GREC and PSI]. Georgia does not publish a guaranteed pass rate, and you should never quote one as fact. Once you pass, you have twelve months to apply for the license — after that you must retake the examination (GREC, Obtaining a License — Real Estate; r. 520-1-.04(5)(a)).
5. Submit the application, fee, and a background check (criminal history report). The license fee is $170, and that single payment “covers all fees due for the first four years of licensure” — it is an activation fee of $45 (of which $20 goes to the Real Estate Education, Research, and Recovery Fund) plus the $125 four-year renewal fee (GREC, Obtaining a License — Real Estate; Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 520-1-.04(1)(a)1–2; checked 2026-09-05).
6. Activate the license by affiliating with a broker (see §4).

Prelicense course substitutions. Instead of the 75-hour course, an applicant may present 10 quarter hours or 6 semester hours of college course work eligible for a major in real estate, or law-school course work in real property, agency, or contracts, from a U.S. or Canadian accredited college, university, or school of law; or proof of at least 75 hours of prelicense course work approved by another state's or a Canadian province's real estate regulator. “Continuing education adult education, crash seminars, and special short courses are not acceptable,” and PSI — not GREC — rules on the transcript (GREC, Obtaining a License — Real Estate; PSI bulletin ed. 7/1/2026; checked 2026-09-05). Trap: it is the qualifying course work that substitutes, not the mere fact of holding a law degree.

4. Affiliation with a broker

A Georgia salesperson's license has no independent authority. To practice, the salesperson must be affiliated with a licensed broker, and the license is held/activated under that broker's firm. Key points:

• A salesperson may accept compensation only from their sponsoring/affiliated broker — never directly from a buyer, seller, or another licensee outside the firm. The broker pays the salesperson; the salesperson does not collect commissions independently.
• When a salesperson changes firms, the releasing broker must, on request, “immediately sign the release and forward the wall certificate of licensure of the departing licensee to the Commission” (or notify GREC in writing that it went to the new broker) — and a pay dispute between the licensee and that broker is not a ground for refusing to sign (Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 520-1-.07(5)(a)–(b)). A released licensee “shall not engage in the activities of a real estate broker” until the license is affiliated with a new broker and a Change Application is mailed to GREC (r. 520-1-.05(2)(d)). Failing to notify GREC in writing within 30 days of transferring to a new company — or of going inactive — carries a $25 fee (r. 520-1-.04(1)(a)4; checked 2026-09-05).
• The broker is responsible for supervising affiliated licensees, maintaining the firm's trust account(s), and ensuring compliance. Supervisory failures are a common source of discipline.
• A license that is not affiliated with a broker is typically placed on inactive status; an inactive licensee may not perform licensed activity until reactivated.

5. Postlicense education and continuing education (CE)

Postlicense requirement (critical, and heavily tested). A newly licensed Georgia salesperson must furnish GREC, within one year of the issuance of the original salesperson's license, evidence of satisfactorily completing a Commission-approved postlicense course of at least 25 instructional hours (O.C.G.A. § 43-40-8(d); Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 520-1-.05(1); checked 2026-09-05). This is separate from continuing education, and the postlicense course cannot be the Salespersons or Brokers Prelicense Course. The consequence of missing it is severe and specific to Georgia — in GREC's own words, “Failure to complete a Postlicense course during the first year of being licensed will cause the license to lapse” (GREC, Obtaining a License — Real Estate; checked 2026-09-05); the statute adds that the lapsed licensee's wall certificate and pocket card must be surrendered immediately, so no late fee keeps you practicing. One narrow relief valve: a salesperson who had already enrolled in an approved 25-hour course within that first year may reinstate by completing it within six months of the lapse, which pushes the outside deadline to eighteen months from issuance (O.C.G.A. § 43-40-8(d); r. 520-1-.05(1)(b)2). The requirement also follows a salesperson who goes inactive in the first year. Know both halves for the exam: the requirement and the consequence of noncompliance.

Continuing education (CE). Georgia licenses renew on a four-year cycle, and to renew an active license the licensee must furnish GREC evidence of 36 instructional hours of approved continuing education during the renewal period, of which at least 3 hours must be on the topic of license law (Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 520-1-.05(1)(d)–(e); GREC, Renewing a License — Real Estate; checked 2026-09-05). Trap: 36 is itself a changed number — GREC records that “effective July 1, 2015, the required amount of continuing education (CE) hours increased from 24 to 36 for each four year renewal period,” with the 3-hour license-law slice added effective July 1, 2016; an older book or an older instructor may still say 24. Recent change: effective July 1, 2025, every broker must take at least 18 of those 36 hours in broker-specific topics (GREC, Renewing a License — Real Estate; checked 2026-09-05) — that one is on brokers, not on salespersons. GREC also notes that a licensee whose license number is below 100,000 is not required to complete CE for renewal.

Renewal mechanics. An individual license lapses, unless renewed, on the last day of the month of the licensee's birthday in the fourth calendar year following activation (Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 520-1-.05(3)(a); r. 520-1-.04(1)). The four-year renewal fee is $125, discounted by $25 — to $100 — if you renew through GREC's online system, and you may renew up to 120 days before the due date (GREC, Renewing a License — Real Estate; r. 520-1-.04(1)(a)2; checked 2026-09-05). Reinstating a lapsed license costs $100 on top of the renewal fee if done within four months of lapsing, plus $25 per month for an individual for each month beyond six months from the lapse (r. 520-1-.04(1)(a)3). Let a license stay lapsed more than two years but less than five and you must retake the Salespersons Prelicense Course before reinstating; more than five years and you requalify as an original applicant (r. 520-1-.05(4)(f), (h)).