Where to take Course I, II and III
Both schools sell Minnesota's three-course sequence at the correct hour counts. Because Minnesota's approved-course register is a live query tool rather than a published list, neither is described here as state-approved.
The CE Shop
- Sells the Minnesota sequence at the correct hour count and under the correct licence name, in tiers from courses-only upward
- A courses-only tier is useful in Minnesota specifically, because you can test after Course I and decide about exam prep later
- Self-paced online with a free trial, so you can see the platform before paying
- Note: its pages could not be read from here, so this reflects its Minnesota product range rather than a review of its copy — including its self-published pass-rate page, which no state data exists to check
Colibri Real Estate
- Correctly lists the three-course structure and the 75% pass mark on both portions of the state exam
- Builds the eight-hours-a-day cap into the product — it states the proctored final for each 30-hour course is not available until the fourth day, which is the rule working as intended
- Four tiers, so exam prep is optional
- ⚠ Two of its Minnesota pages tell you to take your Course I certificate to Pearson VUE. Minnesota's vendor is PSI — and Colibri's own Minnesota exam page says PSI. Book with PSI.
- ⚠ It does not mention the mandatory module, which is due every licence year and is the requirement Minnesota licensees fail most often.
How to get your Minnesota licence
Five steps, in an order that surprises people: the exam comes third, with sixty hours of education still to go.
Take Course I — 30 hours
Introduction, title closing, real estate law, contracts, financing, property types and environmental issues, with the hours prescribed topic by topic. Each course ends in a closed-book proctored final, and an hour in Minnesota means fifty minutes.
Sit the PSI exam
The statute requires 30 hours "before taking the examination" — that is all Course I gates. You need 75% on the uniform portion and 75% on the state portion, scored separately.
Then Courses II and III — 60 hours
Course II is prescribed; Course III is a 30-hour elective you choose from ten specialities, so this is where providers genuinely differ. Both must be finished "before filing an application for the license."
Get hired by a broker
You cannot file your own application in Minnesota. Only a licensed primary broker can submit it, so the brokerage search is a step in the licensing process, not something that happens afterwards.
Have the licence issued inside one year
$110 covers the licence, the recovery fund and the technology surcharge. Watch the wording of the deadline — the statute wants the licence obtained, not merely applied for, within a year of passing.
From the Minnesota Department of Commerce, its Guide to Real Estate Licensing (August 2025), Minn. Stat. §§ 82.57, 82.58, 82.59, 82.60, 82.61 and 82.86, and §§ 45.29, 45.30 and 45.305, verified August 2026. Course prices are omitted because neither school publishes confirmable Minnesota package pricing. Exam question counts, exam fees and retake fees are also omitted: Minnesota publishes none, and every figure in circulation traces back to school marketing rather than to the state or its testing vendor.
Minnesota FAQs
Do I need all 90 hours before the Minnesota exam?
No — only Course I. Minn. Stat. § 82.59, subd. 8(a) requires 30 hours of instruction "before taking the examination" and a separate 60 hours "before filing an application for the license." The Department's own guide says the same in plain terms: complete Course I before the examination, Courses II and III before applying. The common American pattern is all education, then exam, then apply; Minnesota inverts it, and someone who waits to finish 90 hours delays their exam for no legal reason.
What is the one-year deadline after passing, exactly?
This is worth reading closely, because two official sources word it differently. Minn. Stat. § 82.58, subd. 5 says an applicant "must file an application and obtain the license within one year of the date of successful completion of the examination or a second examination must be taken." The Department's consumer guidance says only that you must apply within a year. The statute is the stricter text, and inside that year you have to fit 60 hours of education, two more proctored finals, finding a brokerage, your broker filing for you, and the Department approving it.
What is Course III?
A 30-hour elective, not a fixed syllabus. The statute lets it be one of ten specialities — appraisal, closing procedures, farm and ranch brokerage, finance, investment, law, management, business brokerage, commercial real estate or residential architecture — and the Department's course-approval form allows a combination of up to three subjects at a minimum of ten hours each. Providers differ substantially in which they offer, which makes Minnesota a three-part purchase rather than one package decision.
Which company runs the Minnesota exam?
PSI Services. The Department's Guide to Real Estate Licensing states it directly and its scheduling page lists PSI's Minnesota candidate site and phone number, along with nine test centres. If a school's page tells you to take your Course I certificate to Pearson VUE, that page is wrong — it is a different testing organisation entirely.
Does Minnesota require post-licensing education?
No. There is no post-licence course, no first-year requirement and no separate credential. Course III is sometimes described as something you can finish during your first year — that is not the law. Your completion certificates for Courses I, II and III all have to accompany the application, so there is no lawful route to a Minnesota licence with Course III outstanding.
How does Minnesota continuing education work?
Thirty hours per 24-month period, but front-loaded: at least 15 of the 30 must be completed during the first 12 months. On top of that there is a mandatory module of 3.75 or 7.5 hours due every licence year, counted inside the 30 rather than on top — the 2026–2027 module is Cybersecurity in Real Estate. No continuing education is due at the first 30 June after you are first licensed.
Can I finish the 90 hours in a week?
No. The Department's provider rules cap instruction at eight hours a day for any one student, so a 30-hour course cannot lawfully be delivered in under four days and 90 hours cannot be compressed below about twelve. Each of the three courses also ends in a closed-book proctored final, which is always required regardless of delivery method — three proctored exams before you ever reach PSI.
Does Minnesota require errors and omissions insurance?
No. The phrase appears once in the whole of chapter 82, as a topic on the broker course syllabus — not as a coverage mandate. The renewal collects no carrier name, policy number or coverage dates. A full-text search of the chapter can easily be mistaken for a requirement; it is a curriculum line.