Where to take the 75-hour Illinois broker course
Illinois splits the requirement into a 60-hour topics course and a 15-hour Applied Real Estate Principles course. All three national schools sell both — but only one publishes both delivery options clearly.
AceableAgent
- Names the 60-hour topics and 15-hour Applied Real Estate Principles components separately, so you can see you are buying both halves of what IDFPR requires
- Offers the applied component two ways — self-paced interactive, or a series of live webinars at fixed times — which matches the two routes the rule actually allows
- Uses Illinois's correct licence names throughout: Broker for the entry credential, Managing Broker for the senior one
- ⚠️ Its Illinois landing page shows no prices and no purchase controls — the packages live one level down on the Broker page, so do not assume from the hub that it does not sell here
The CE Shop
- Four tiers from course-only upward, and it sells the 15-hour Applied Real Estate Principles component as a standalone product if you need only that half
- Publishes a schedule page for the applied course, which is useful if you want the scheduled-session route rather than self-paced
- ⚠️ Check the hour count before you pay: 90-hour Illinois broker packages are still indexed alongside the current 75-hour ones. Illinois requires 75 — buying against the old figure means paying for 15 hours you do not need
- Runs a free trial of the Illinois course before you commit
Colibri Real Estate
- Four packages covering the 75 hours, with livestream cohorts on fixed schedules as well as self-paced study
- States the 75-hour requirement correctly on both its licensing and requirements pages
- ⚠️ Its Illinois pages never name the 15-hour Applied Real Estate Principles component or say how it is delivered — the 75 hours are sold as one undifferentiated block. Confirm the applied course is included and in what format before you buy
- Careful with naming: its Exam Preparation tiers are full pre-licensing packages with prep bundled, not standalone exam prep
How to get your Illinois broker licence
Five steps, and three separate clocks running at once — the last of which is the one that costs people their exam result.
Complete 75 hours in two parts
A 60-hour topics course covering licence law, real property, current state and federal law, transactions and career paths, plus the 15-hour Applied Real Estate Principles course of situational and case studies. Your completed education stays valid for two years.
Pass both portions with PSI
One hundred national questions in 150 minutes at 70% to pass, and 40 state questions in 90 minutes at 75%. Note the split passing marks — a strong national score will not carry a weak state one. The broker exam fee is $58, and you get four attempts inside a two-year eligibility period.
Apply to IDFPR within one year of passing
This is the clock people miss. The application fee is $150. Leave it longer than a year after your passing score and you sit the exam again.
Register your sponsoring managing broker
Illinois will licence you without one, but the licence is not active until sponsorship is registered with the Division — and practising on an inactive licence is unlicensed practice.
Do 45 hours of post-licence education before your first renewal
Three 15-hour courses on applied brokerage principles, risk management and transactional issues, each with its own 50-question examination. If you were licensed within 180 days of the renewal deadline, it rolls to your second renewal instead.
From IDFPR's Division of Real Estate, the Real Estate License Act of 2000 (225 ILCS 454/5-27 and 5-50), 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1450.1105, 1450.100, 1450.130, 1450.140, 1450.400, 1450.410 and 1450.450, and the PSI Illinois candidate bulletin, verified August 2026. ⚠️ IDFPR's own online-licensing instruction sheet is out of date — the version we found is stamped Rev. 8/2018 and still gives 90 hours, a $125 fee and a minimum age of 21. The current rule says 75 hours, $150 and 18. Illinois does not publish exam pass rates by school, so any pass rate a school advertises is its own marketing figure.
Illinois FAQs
Does the 15-hour applied course have to be taken live?
No, and this is the most common error written about Illinois. The rule permits the Applied Real Estate Principles course "presented in the classroom, by interactive webinar, or by online distance education" — and Illinois defines online distance education as coursework that is "interactive, but not in real time." So a self-paced interactive online version is expressly allowed; the Illinois REALTORS association sells one. What the applied course may not be is correspondence or home study. If a school tells you Illinois forces you into scheduled live sessions, it is describing its own product, not the law.
Is Illinois a salesperson state?
No. Illinois eliminated the salesperson credential — the entry-level licence is a Broker licence, and Managing Broker is the senior one, requiring further education and experience. It matters when shopping, because a page titled "broker licence" on a national school's site may be selling the 45-hour Managing Broker upgrade rather than the 75-hour entry course. Check the hours, not the title.
When does my Illinois licence expire?
Broker licences expire on 30 April of each even-numbered year — a fixed statewide date, not an anniversary. Managing broker licences expire 30 April of each odd-numbered year. Because the date is fixed, a licence issued in early 2026 came up for renewal within months, which is why Illinois has a rule pushing post-licence education to the second renewal for anyone licensed within 180 days of the deadline.
How much continuing education does Illinois require?
Twelve hours per two-year term — six core and six elective — and the core must include at least two hours of fair housing training. That split changed on 7 July 2025; it was previously four core and eight elective, and a lot of published guidance has not caught up. In your first term you do the 45-hour post-licence education instead of any CE.
Does Illinois require fingerprints or E&O insurance?
Neither. The words "fingerprint" and "criminal history record" do not appear anywhere in the Real Estate License Act, real estate brokers are absent from IDFPR's own list of professions requiring prints, and the application asks only for criminal-history disclosure. On insurance, neither the Act nor Part 1450 contains any errors-and-omissions provision, and the rule setting out what you must certify at renewal asks only about continuing education. Note that Illinois real estate appraisers are a separate licence that does involve fingerprinting — that is where the confusion starts.
What are the deadlines that actually catch people out?
Three, running at once. Your completed education is valid for two years. Your PSI eligibility gives you four attempts within a two-year window. And once you pass, you have one year to file your application with IDFPR or you sit the exam again. The third is the expensive one, because by then you have paid for everything and simply run out the clock.