Where to take the 60-hour Maryland salesperson course
Your course has to be approved by the Maryland Real Estate Commission, which publishes a readable list of approved education providers. Both schools below appear on it.
The CE Shop
- On the Commission’s approved education provider list as “THE CE SHOP”, so you can confirm its standing at the source before you pay
- Its Maryland course is titled to match the regulation exactly — 60-Hr. MD Principles and Practices for Salespersons — which is the course COMAR actually names
- Four tiers including course-only, so you can skip exam prep if you would rather not pay for it
- Self-paced online, which Maryland’s statute expressly authorises alongside classroom study
Colibri Real Estate
- Also on the Commission’s approved provider list, so it is a complete alternative rather than a fallback
- Sells the 60 hours plus Maryland continuing education, useful if you want one account for the course and the 15 CE hours that follow
- Correct on the parts that matter most — 60 hours, PSI as the exam vendor, 70% on each portion, and one year to apply after passing
- Note before you buy: its Maryland page states the course “must be completed within six (6) months of the start date”. No Maryland law imposes that — see below
How to get your Maryland licence
Four steps — and the thing to plan around is that you do not need a broker to get licensed, but you do need to beat two separate one-year clocks.
Complete the 60-hour course
COMAR 09.11.01.09 requires a Commission-approved course of at least 60 clock-hours covering fifteen prescribed topic areas, and § 17-303(d)(1)(ii) requires a 3-hour real estate ethics course inside those 60 hours rather than in addition to them. Statute expressly permits delivery by computer, internet or home study.
Pass both PSI portions within a year
Eighty national questions in 90 minutes needing 56 to pass, and thirty state questions in 30 minutes needing 21 — both 70%, both scored independently. The fee is $44 for every registration, first attempt or repeat. Fail to clear both within one year of your course completion date and COMAR says you “must complete a new prelicensing course” before you may even re-sit.
Apply within a year of passing
A second, separate clock. Passing both portions gets you a registration number by email in three to five business days, and the Commission gives you one year from the exam to apply before the score expires. The original salesperson licence costs $98 — a $78 biennial fee plus a $20 Guaranty Fund payment.
Find a broker at your own pace
You can apply without one. The Commission’s application tells unaffiliated applicants to write “inactive” on the broker licence line, and its FAQ then gives you three years on inactive status to affiliate. So the sensible Maryland order is to apply immediately, lock the licence in, and interview brokerages afterwards.
From the Maryland Real Estate Commission, its education requirements page and its fee schedule effective 27 April 2026, Md. Code, Business Occupations & Professions § 17-303 and § 17-315, COMAR 09.11.01.09, and the State of Maryland candidate bulletin published by PSI, verified August 2026. One conflict worth knowing: the Maryland OneStop portal still gives the application cost as $90, while the Commission’s own fee schedule and its current application form both say $98. We publish the Commission’s figure.
Maryland FAQs
What happens if I do not pass the exam within a year?
You retake the whole 60-hour course. COMAR 09.11.01.09 is explicit: “An applicant who does not pass both portions of the licensing examination within 1 year of the course completion date must complete a new prelicensing course in order to be eligible to take or retake the examination.” Most comparison pages compress this into a vague “your results are good for a year”, which understates the penalty badly — it is a fresh course and fresh tuition, not a re-sit. And it is a different clock from the one that follows: once you have passed both portions, you have a further year to apply for the licence before the score expires. The practical advice is to book both portions close together and soon after finishing the course.
Do I need a sponsoring broker before I can apply?
No — and this is where Maryland guidance most often gives the wrong advice. Section 17-303(f) reads as though a broker commitment is mandatory, and it is quoted that way across the internet. But the Commission’s own application says: if you are not affiliated with a broker, write “inactive” on the Broker’s License Reg. Cert. No. line. Its FAQ then confirms that once you have applied and placed the licence on inactive status you have three years to affiliate with a broker. So do not delay your application while brokerage-shopping and risk the one-year score expiry. Apply, take the inactive licence, and interview at leisure.
How many hours does Maryland require — and why do sources say different things?
Sixty, but statute and regulation arrive there from opposite directions and it is worth knowing which is which. Section 17-303(d) requires a basic course that “does not require more than 60 clock hours” — a ceiling. COMAR 09.11.01.09 requires “a minimum of 60 clock-hours” — a floor. The net effect is exactly 60, but a page that cites the statute for “Maryland requires a minimum of 60 hours” has cited the wrong authority for the claim.
Does Maryland require fingerprints or a background check?
No fingerprint requirement exists. It appears nowhere in § 17-303’s list of qualifications, nowhere in COMAR 09.11.01.09, nowhere on the Commission’s original salesperson application, and nowhere in its licensing FAQs. Maryland uses self-disclosure instead: the application requires you to disclose prior felony or misdemeanour convictions with supporting documentation, and an applicant with a conviction is directed to a paper application, a letter from the sponsoring broker acknowledging awareness, and court documents. Any page quoting you a Maryland fingerprint fee has invented it.
Does Maryland have post-licensing education?
No, and the Commission says so in its own words: “Maryland does not recognize post-licensing education.” That is a verified negative from the agency itself rather than an absence of evidence. You go straight from your initial licence into the 15-hour continuing education cycle.
Does Maryland require errors and omissions insurance?
No. Business Occupations & Professions Title 17 contains exactly one errors and omissions section — § 17-527.1 — and it is a notice duty, not a mandate: it applies to a broker “who purchases” E&O covering their affiliated salespersons, and requires that broker to give immediate notice if the cover is discontinued. There is no obligation on anyone to buy it, and none on salespersons at all. That section’s title is almost certainly why the false claim circulates. The $20 Guaranty Fund payment bundled into your $98 application is a different thing entirely — a state consumer-recovery fund that pays claims against licensees, not insurance that covers you.
What continuing education will I owe at my first renewal?
Fifteen hours, all of them prescribed. For anyone initially licensed as a salesperson on or after 1 October 2023 whose first renewal it is, the Commission’s chart sets Contracts 3 hours, Principles of Brokerage Relationships and Disclosure 3, Principles of Real Estate Practice 3, Property Management and Landlord and Tenant Laws 3, Professionalism 1.5 and Real Estate Financing 1.5. There are no electives at all on a first renewal, and the Commission states these topics may not be substituted with other education or with continuing education from another state. Later renewals mix eleven mandatory hours with four electives. Note also that continuing education must be completed at least 30 days before you submit the renewal application.
Does Maryland publish exam pass rates by school?
Yes, and very few states do. The Commission links a spreadsheet of student success rates by school from its education page, with the disclaimer that the data “is being provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as an endorsement by the Commission of any particular institution.” It is a better signal than any school’s own advertised pass rate, because the Commission compiled it rather than the school. We have not reproduced the figures here — download the file and read them for yourself.