Best online real estate schools in Arizona

Ninety, plus a separate six. A.R.S. § 32-2124(B) requires a course of "at least ninety classroom hours, or the equivalent". Subsection (L) then requires an applicant, "after completing the requirements of subsection B", to certify six hours of instruction in real estate contract law and contract writing — including actually drafting purchase contracts, listing agreements and lease agreements. Some schools bundle the two and advertise 96, which is convenient but is not how the statute frames it. They are separate requirements with separate certificates, and that matters because of the next question.

Different lengths, which is the trap. The 90-hour course must have been completed within ten years of the date you submit your application. The 6-hour Contract Writing course must have been completed within two. It is entirely possible to sit on a perfectly valid 90-hour certificate while your Contract Writing certificate quietly expires — and Contract Writing is the one you are more likely to take early and then forget about.

It is a Level One card issued by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and it is the single biggest scheduling risk in Arizona licensing. It costs $67, lasts six years, and ADRE's own guidance says processing averages five to eight weeks. Crucially it sits before your exam booking in the official sequence, so if you leave it until you have finished the course you will spend over a month waiting to be allowed to book. Apply for it in your first week of study, not your last.

Yes — Arizona sets no minimum for in-person hours, and the statute's own wording contemplates "the equivalent" of classroom hours. But the end-of-course exam is where online students hit a wall. The Department's distance learning policy requires the final school examination to be taken "in a proctored online or in person environment", delivered on a lockdown browser, and states that "the exam shall not be taken on any device provided by the student, i.e. personal computer, tablet, or phone", with a minimum score of 75%. Approved proctors include school administrators, testing-centre staff, college faculty, military education officers and real estate association employees. Ask a prospective school exactly how it handles this before you pay.

No. A.A.C. R4-28-401(E) is blunt: "A person shall not receive credit for more than 10 hours of prelicensure education classes per day." That puts a hard floor of nine days on the 90-hour course, no matter how fast you read. Arizona's distance learning policy adds pacing controls on top — courses must be built to prevent students moving through too quickly, modules run roughly 12 to 50 minutes, and a course must log you out after fifteen minutes of inactivity.

Twenty-four hours per two-year renewal, not thirty. A.R.S. § 32-2130 and A.A.C. R4-28-402(A)(2) both say 24, and the same figure applies to salespersons, associate brokers and designated brokers alike. The hours are spread across six mandatory categories with a minimum of three hours each: Agency Law, Contract Law, Commissioner's Standards, Real Estate Legal Issues, Fair Housing and Disclosure. Since 1 January 2025 the Department has also mandated an hour each of Firewise, Deed Fraud and Arizona Water — recent enough that most continuing education pages have not caught up.