Ohio Real Estate Salesperson Exam — Complete Study Guide (2026)

State-portion supplement to the shared national real-estate manuscript. This chapter covers only the Ohio material tested on the state portion of the salesperson licensing examination. It does not repeat the national principles (contracts, financing, agency theory, math) covered earlier in the book.

How to use this chapter. Ohio real-estate practice is governed primarily by Ohio Revised Code (ORC) Chapter 4735 (the "License Law"), by the administrative rules in the Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) Chapter 1301:5, and by related conveyance, disclosure, and civil-rights statutes cited throughout. Everything below is grounded in those authorities. Because the legislature and the Division amend dollar amounts, hour requirements, and fees regularly, this chapter marks its figures two different ways, and the difference matters: - A figure followed by a dated citation — for example (ORC 4735.09; checked 2026-09-05) — was read from that source on that date. It is as good as the source, and no better: the legislature can change it the week after. - A figure still carrying a bracketed verify-current flag was not confirmed from a primary source. Treat it as unconfirmed and check it with the Ohio Division of Real Estate & Professional Licensing before you rely on it. Learn the rule and the structure, which are exam-stable; treat every number as perishable.

1. Who regulates real estate in Ohio

Two bodies share authority, and the exam expects you to know which does what.

The Ohio Division of Real Estate & Professional Licensing is a division of the Ohio Department of Commerce. The Division is the day-to-day administrative agency: it processes license applications, issues and renews licenses, maintains licensee records, receives and investigates consumer complaints, audits broker trust accounts, and administers the Real Estate Recovery Fund. The Division is led by a Superintendent appointed within the Department of Commerce. When a consumer files a complaint, staff investigators at the Division do the fact-finding.

The Ohio Real Estate Commission consists of five members appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. Four must have been engaged in the real estate business as licensed real estate brokers in Ohio for the ten years immediately preceding the appointment; one member represents the public. Terms are five years, running July 1 to June 30, and no member may hold office for more than two consecutive full terms. No more than three members may belong to any one political party (ORC 4735.03; checked 2026-09-05). The Commission is the quasi-judicial and rule-making body. It:

• adopts the Canons of Ethics and other administrative rules,
• hears appeals and holds formal hearings on disciplinary matters,
• imposes sanctions (suspension, revocation, fines) after hearing, and
• administers the licensing examination framework and continuing-education standards through rule.

A useful mental model: the Division administers and investigates; the Commission adjudicates and makes rules. The Superintendent may issue citations and, for many violations, the Commission renders the final disciplinary decision after a hearing conducted under Ohio's Administrative Procedure Act (ORC Chapter 119).

There is also a Real Estate Appraiser function and a separate Ohio Real Estate Appraiser Board within the same Division, but appraisal licensing is distinct from the salesperson license and is not the focus of the salesperson state exam.

2. Salesperson licensing — eligibility, education, and exam

2.1 Baseline eligibility

The salesperson qualifications live in ORC 4735.09, not 4735.07 — ORC 4735.07 is the broker's examination and license-qualification section (codes.ohio.gov section headings, checked 2026-09-05). Trap: an exam item that hangs a salesperson requirement on "4735.07" has given you the broker section.

To qualify for an Ohio real estate salesperson license, an applicant generally must (ORC 4735.09(F); checked 2026-09-05):

• be at least eighteen years of age;
• if born after the year 1950, hold a high school diploma or a certificate of high school equivalence issued under ORC 3301.80. Note the carve-out precisely: the statute conditions the diploma requirement on birth year, so an applicant born in or before 1950 is not subject to it;
• be honest and truthful (the Superintendent reviews criminal history and any prior disciplinary or fraud findings);
• not have been convicted of a disqualifying offense as determined under ORC 9.79 — the statute delegates the offense list to that general licensing section rather than enumerating it here;
• not have been finally adjudged by a court to have violated municipal, state, or federal civil-rights laws relevant to the protection of purchasers or sellers of real estate — or, if so adjudged, at least two years must have passed since the decision and the Superintendent must have disregarded it because the applicant proved by a preponderance of the evidence that the applicant is honest and truthful and will not offend again;
• not have violated the chapter or its rules while previously licensed (or have satisfied the Superintendent it will not recur);
• complete the required pre-licensing education (below); and
• pass the licensing examination.

2.2 Pre-licensing education

Ohio requires prescribed pre-licensing coursework completed at an institution of higher education, by classroom instruction or distance education, before sitting for the exam. The current requirement is 100 total hours in four named courses (ORC 4735.09(F)(6); checked 2026-09-05):

Recent change — the single most misquoted Ohio number. Ohio's requirement was 120 hours until April 9, 2025, when House Bill 238 (135th General Assembly) cut appraisal from 20 hours to 10 and finance from 20 hours to 10, bringing the total to 100. The 120-hour figure held from before 2019 through April 8, 2025, so it is still printed on a great deal of third-party prep material (compared the pre-April-2025 and current versions of ORC 4735.09(F)(6)(c)–(d) on codes.ohio.gov; checked 2026-09-05). The Division's own requirements page now lists 40 / 40 / 10 / 10 (Ohio Division of Real Estate & Professional Licensing, "Requirements for an Ohio Real Estate Salesperson's License"; checked 2026-09-05). If a practice question or an older textbook tells you 120, it is quoting repealed law.

Three further wrinkles the statute adds, all testable:

• Your coursework is judged by the law in force when you took it. Successful completion "shall be determined by the law in effect on the date the instruction was completed" (ORC 4735.09(G)(1); checked 2026-09-05) — so a candidate who finished 120 hours under the old rule is not short-changed, and a candidate finishing today needs 100.
• A staleness rule. Anyone not licensed as a salesperson or broker in the four years immediately preceding the application must have completed the pre-licensure instruction within the ten years immediately preceding it (ORC 4735.09(I); checked 2026-09-05).
• An applicant who already holds a valid Ohio real estate appraiser license or certificate is excused from the ten-hour appraisal course (ORC 4735.09(G)(2); checked 2026-09-05).

2.3 The examination

The salesperson exam has a national (general) portion and an Ohio state-law portion, and both must be passed. The Division has contracted with PSI to deliver the examination, at PSI test centers and by remote online proctoring; the passing score is 70 (Ohio Division of Real Estate & Professional Licensing, "Requirements for an Ohio Real Estate Salesperson's License" and "Salesperson & Broker Candidate Information Bulletin"; checked 2026-09-05).

Two points candidates routinely get wrong:

• Retakes are unlimited. "There shall be no limit placed on the number of times an applicant may retake the examination" (ORC 4735.09(C); checked 2026-09-05). Any answer choice imposing a lifetime cap on attempts is wrong as a matter of Ohio statute.
• The $81 is the application fee, not the exam fee. A nonrefundable $81 accompanies the Salesperson Examination Application and covers the initial year of the licensing period; $81 is charged again for each successive application. Where the Superintendent requires it, the candidate pays PSI's examination fee directly to the testing service, plus a separate processing fee set by the Commission (ORC 4735.09(B) and (D); Division salesperson-requirements page; checked 2026-09-05). So the application fee and the exam fee are two different numbers.

[Verify the current number of questions and the time limit for each portion, and PSI's current examination fee and rescheduling rules, with the Division's Candidate Information Bulletin or PSI directly.] These were not confirmed for this edition: the Division links out to PSI's bulletin, and PSI serves it from an application that did not return the document text on 2026-09-05. Never quote a pass rate or a scaled score from memory — those are vendor-specific and change.

2.4 Affiliation with a broker

An Ohio salesperson license is inactive until the salesperson is affiliated with a licensed Ohio broker. A salesperson may only perform licensed real-estate activity (listing, negotiating, showing for compensation, etc.) under the supervision of, and in the name of, the affiliated broker. Key structural points:

• A salesperson cannot accept compensation for a real-estate transaction from anyone except his or her affiliating broker (ORC 4735.20/4735.21). Payment must flow through the broker, not directly from a buyer, seller, or another agent.
• When a salesperson changes brokers, or leaves the business, the broker must return the license to the Division / notify the Division as required, and the salesperson's license goes on inactive status until reaffiliated.
• The broker is responsible for supervising affiliated licensees and for the brokerage's trust-account compliance, advertising, and recordkeeping.
• A newly licensed salesperson typically must complete post-licensing education within the first period of licensure (see below) before the first renewal.

2.5 Post-licensing and continuing education (CE)

Ohio imposes two distinct education obligations after licensure:

1. Post-licensing education for newly licensed salespersons — 20 hours, completed not earlier than the date the license is issued and not later than twelve months after that date, in schools and institutions approved by the Commission. The curriculum must cover, among other things, commercial real estate, property management, short sales and land contracts, contract law, federal and state programs, economic conditions, and fiduciary responsibility. This is separate from ordinary CE (ORC 4735.09(J); checked 2026-09-05).

The enforcement mechanism is worth memorizing: if proof is not submitted within those twelve months, the license is suspended automatically, with no action by the Superintendent, who must immediately notify the salesperson's broker. The licensee then has another twelve months to submit proof; failing that, the license is revoked automatically (ORC 4735.09(J); checked 2026-09-05).

1. Continuing education (CE) for renewal — 30 hours every three years, due on or before the licensee's birthday occurring three years after the date of initial licensure, and on or before that birthday every three years thereafter. A licensee who is a broker, broker on deposit, or acting as a management-level licensee must include a three-hour course on the duties of a principal broker and operating a brokerage. A licensee seventy years of age or older within a reporting period may instead complete nine hours, covering Ohio real estate law, recently enacted state and federal law affecting the industry, civil-rights law, and the Canons of Ethics (plus the three-hour principal-broker course if a broker or management-level licensee) (ORC 4735.141(A); checked 2026-09-05).

[Verify the current mandatory core-topic hour split within the 30 hours — Core Law, Civil Rights, and Canons of Ethics — with the Ohio Division of Real Estate & Professional Licensing.] The 30-hour total and the three-year cycle are fixed by statute, but the statute delegates the content breakdown to Commission rule adopted under ORC 4735.10, and that rule's current hour split was not confirmed from a primary source for this edition.

Failure to complete CE on time carries an automatic suspension with no action by the Superintendent, and the license remains suspended until reactivated; if the requirements are not met within twelve months of the suspension date, the license is revoked automatically (ORC 4735.141(C); checked 2026-09-05). Separately, a licensee who misses the renewal filing deadline is suspended automatically and may reactivate within twelve months by paying the renewal fee plus a penalty of fifty per cent of the renewal fee; failure to do so results in automatic revocation (ORC 4735.14(C); checked 2026-09-05). Note the structure the exam likes: the penalty is a percentage of the renewal fee, not a flat dollar amount. [Verify the current dollar renewal and reactivation fee amounts with the Division.]