Where to take the 60-hour Mississippi course
Mississippi licensing takes two purchases, not one — the 60-hour pre-licence course and, within your first year, a 30-hour post-licence course from a provider specifically certified for it. Both schools below appear on the Commission's approved lists for both, which is the thing worth checking before you buy.
The CE Shop
- Sells both required courses, so the mandatory second purchase inside your first year does not send you looking for another school under a deadline
- Named on the Commission's approved pre-license and post-license provider lists, both revised 3 July 2025
- Pre-licence course sold in tiers including a course-only package, so you can leave out exam prep if you would rather not pay for it
- Self-paced online, which matters in Mississippi because your temporary licence is already ticking while you take the post-licence course
Colibri Real Estate
- Also approved for both the 60-hour pre-licence and the 30-hour post-licence course, so it is a complete alternative rather than half a solution
- One of the few school sites that states the deadline the way the statute does — from issuance of your temporary licence, not from some vaguer notion of "getting licensed"
- Publishes the correct 60-hour figure and the correct 16-hour, two-year CE cycle on its Mississippi requirements page
- Its Mississippi pages do not mention errors and omissions insurance at all, so budget for that yourself — it is compulsory within 30 days of licensure
How to get your Mississippi licence
Five steps — and the Commission gates the exam, so you cannot just book a test when you feel ready.
Complete the 60 hours
Sixty hours in approved real estate courses. You must be 18 or over and a bona fide resident of Mississippi before you file, or take the non-resident route instead.
Apply to the Commission — before PSI
This is the step people get backwards. The application, your certificate of completion, the $100 fee and two photographs go to the Commission first. Only after it approves you and sends a letter of approval do you contact PSI to book. The background check is currently free.
Pass both portions inside one two-month window
Approval starts a two-month eligibility period, and both portions must be passed inside it. The state portion may be attempted only twice in that window. Fail it twice and your national pass dies with the window, and you wait three months before re-applying.
Take delivery of a temporary licence — and sort E&O
Passing gets you a temporary licence, not a permanent one. The Commission requires proof of errors and omissions insurance from new licensees within 30 days of licensure; leave the deficiency uncorrected for 30 days and your licence goes inactive.
Finish the 30-hour post-licence course within twelve months
From a provider specifically certified to offer it. Miss twelve months and the temporary licence "shall automatically be placed on inactive status." Miss the outer deadline and it "shall automatically expire and lapse." No notice, no hearing — it just happens.
From the Mississippi Real Estate License Law as published by the Commission (rev. 15 August 2025) — Miss. Code Ann. §§ 73-35-7, 73-35-14.4, 73-35-14.5, 73-35-16 and 73-35-18 — 30 Miss. Code R. 1601-1.1, the Commission's notice of fee changes and the Mississippi candidate information bulletin published by PSI, verified August 2026. One source note worth carrying: the fee-change notice sits at a web address ending "effective-july-1-2024" but announces changes effective 1 October 2026 — the address was reused, and anyone citing the date in it will publish a two-year-old date for a future change. Two things we have not published: a shelf life for the 60-hour course certificate, because the statute and the rules set none and we would rather say nothing than tell you it never expires; and any course passing score or proctoring rule, because Mississippi keeps its pre-licence education standards in statute rather than in the Commission's rules, and the statute sets neither.
Mississippi FAQs
How many hours of pre-licensing does Mississippi require?
Sixty. Miss. Code Ann. § 73-35-7 lists the salesperson requirements exhaustively in one sentence: an applicant "shall be age eighteen (18) years or over, shall be a bona fide resident of the State of Mississippi prior to filing his application, shall have successfully completed a minimum of sixty (60) hours in courses in real estate as hereafter specified, and shall have successfully completed the real estate salesperson's examination." A high school diploma is not among them, despite how often that appears on licensing guides. The college-credit language people quote belongs to the broker route, which is 120 hours — or 150 classroom hours if you have not held an active salesperson licence for 36 months.
Do I get a real licence when I pass the exam?
No — you get a temporary licence, and this is the single most misreported thing about Mississippi. Miss. Code Ann. § 73-35-14.5(3) says the holder "shall not be issued a permanent license until he has satisfactorily completed a thirty-hour post-license course," and it sets two automatic consequences rather than one. Miss twelve months from issuance and the temporary licence "shall automatically be placed on inactive status." Fail to have the permanent licence issued within one year following the first day of the month after issuance and it "shall automatically expire and lapse." Note the wording: it is not revoked and there is no hearing. It happens by operation of the statute.
Can I book the exam as soon as I finish my course?
No. Mississippi runs the sequence in the opposite order to most states: your application goes to the Commission first, and PSI will not schedule you until it has approved you. As the candidate bulletin puts it, "after the application has been approved, you will receive a letter of approval from the commission," and "upon approval of eligibility, you will be responsible for contacting PSI to schedule an appointment." Build the Commission's processing time into your plan, because the clock in the next answer starts at approval, not at your first test date.
What score do I need, and how many attempts do I get?
Two different scores: 70% on the national portion and 75% on the state portion, set both by PSI's bulletin and by 30 Miss. Code R. 1601-1.1(B). Anyone quoting Mississippi as a single percentage has it wrong either way. The attempts rule is tighter than the scores: "you may sit for the state portion of the examination only twice during the 2 months immediately following the approval of your application," and "BOTH state and national portions must be passed in the SAME 2-month eligibility period." So a passed national portion does not bank — fail state twice and you lose both, then wait three months to re-apply.
Can I take the Mississippi course online?
Yes, and the statute is explicit that distance learning is available for pre-licence, post-licence and continuing education alike. There is a hard filter behind it, though, and almost no comparison page mentions it: § 73-35-14.4(2) provides that "if ARELLO or its successor(s) operate a certification program for distance learning courses, a distance learning course must be certified by ARELLO or its successor(s) before the commission may approve the course." That is why the approved pre-license list runs to eleven providers rather than fifty — a useful signal when you are weighing a school you have not heard of.
Does Mississippi require errors and omissions insurance?
Yes, and the timing is not what most guides say. It is not an application prerequisite — the Commission "shall require receipt of proof of errors and omissions insurance from new licensees within thirty (30) days of licensure," and "licensees who do not correct the deficiency within thirty (30) days shall have their licenses placed on inactive status." Any active individual broker, broker-salesperson or salesperson must submit proof. The statutory minimums are a per-claim limit of not less than $100,000 and an annual aggregate of not less than $100,000, with a maximum deductible of $2,500 per licensee per claim for damages and $1,000 for defence costs. Mississippi runs a competitively bid group policy, and you can buy independently if your policy meets the terms.
Do I need continuing education for my first renewal?
No — and Mississippi exempts you twice over, which is why so few pages mention it at all. § 73-35-14.5(5) exempts a licensee who has completed the post-licence course and had a permanent licence issued from "the sixteen-hour continuing education requirement… for the first renewal of his permanent license," and § 73-35-18(2) separately exempts "an applicant for first renewal who has been licensed for not more than one (1) year." After that it is 16 clock hours per two-year renewal, with the Commission's required subjects capped at eight of the sixteen and the core categories being agency law, contract law and licence law.