Where to take the 77-hour New York course
All three national schools sell New York qualifying education. Watch the hour count as you shop, because the change from 75 to 77 has not fully worked its way through every catalogue.
Colibri Real Estate
- States 77 hours correctly and is the only one of the three we found that tells you outright that the final exam requires a proctor — the single most important thing to know before you buy in New York
- Offers livestream cohorts on fixed schedules as well as self-paced study, which suits a course whose seat time is enforced by the platform anyway
- Four packages, with an entry tier covering the required coursework and no exam prep
- Correctly makes no post-licensing claim — New York has none
AceableAgent
- States 77 hours correctly, with no trace of the old 75-hour figure on its New York page
- Mobile-first self-paced delivery, which fits a 77-hour requirement you are working through around a job
- Three package tiers with optional live exam-prep webinars in the upper ones
- ⚠️ We could not find the proctored school exam mentioned on its New York page. It is a state requirement regardless of school, so confirm how they administer it before you enrol
The CE Shop
- Sells New York qualifying education in tiers with a dedicated New York pricing page
- ⚠️ Check the hour count carefully before paying: its New York product URLs still read 75-hr while several current titles read 77-Hr. New York requires 77, and a 75-hour certificate leaves you needing a further two-hour fair housing or implicit bias course to qualify
- Runs a free trial before you commit
- Also sells New York continuing education, which you will need at your first two-year renewal
How to get your New York licence
Four steps, and the second one is the surprise — your course does not end when you finish the material.
Complete 77 hours of qualifying education
Nineteen subject areas set by DOS, including six hours of Human Rights and Fair Housing, eleven of Law of Agency and ten of Legal Issues. If you study by distance learning you must finish within twelve months of starting, and the platform enforces seat time — there is a time-default mechanism so you are not credited while inactive.
Sit your school's proctored final
Separate from the state exam, and required. The rule says the distance-learning final "must be held at a location within New York State approved by the department," and DOS collects those locations from providers on its course-approval form. Failing the school final means failing the course.
Pass the state exam
Run by the Department of State itself — there is no national portion and no third-party vendor. It is multiple choice, drawn from the 77-hour curriculum, with 90 minutes allowed and a $15 fee. Results come back pass or fail with no numerical score, and stay valid for two years.
Apply with a sponsoring broker
Sixty-five dollars for a two-year licence. A salesperson cannot operate independently in New York, so the broker attaches at application and is required again at every renewal.
From the New York Department of State, Real Property Law §§ 440-a, 441 and 441-b, the DOS 77-hour salesperson curriculum, and 19 NYCRR §§ 176.6, 176.9, 176.22, 176.23 and 176.25, verified August 2026. The 77 hours were set by Chapter 697 of the Laws of 2021; DOS publishes no plain-English switchover date, so none is given here. No exam question count, retake fee or school-exam passing score appears on this page — DOS publishes none of them, and every figure circulating for those comes from schools rather than the state. New York does not publish pass rates by school; DOS reported a statewide salesperson pass rate of 52% across 19,558 candidates in its February 2025 Board summary.
New York FAQs
Is the New York course really 100% online?
The instruction can be, but the ending is not. New York permits DOS-approved distance learning, and the platform enforces seat time rather than letting you skim. But the regulation requires the course to "include a proctored final examination which must be held at a location within New York State approved by the department," and DOS asks providers to list those locations on its own course-approval form. That is a real journey for an out-of-state student, and it is rarely mentioned in the marketing. A temporary remote-proctoring accommodation existed during the pandemic and we could not confirm whether it was ever extended — so confirm the current format with your provider before you enrol.
How many hours does New York require — 75 or 77?
Seventy-seven. The increase came in under Chapter 697 of the Laws of 2021, and DOS states plainly that an applicant "must have satisfactorily completed 77 hours of salesperson qualifying education." If you hold an older 75-hour certificate you are not stranded: DOS says you need a further two-hour continuing education course on fair housing and/or implicit bias. Check the hour count on the product page before you pay — at least one national school still has 75-hour New York URLs in its catalogue.
Does the 77-hour course include implicit bias training?
Not as a separate block, despite what several comparison pages say. The DOS curriculum has 19 line items summing to 77 hours, and there is no implicit bias entry among them — the anti-bias material sits inside the six hours of Human Rights and Fair Housing. The standalone two-hour implicit bias requirement applies to the broker 152-hour course and to continuing education. It is a case of the CE topic list being copied into a description of the pre-licensing course.
Who runs the New York exam?
The Department of State runs it directly, at its own exam sites. There is no PSI, no Pearson VUE, and no separately scored national portion — it is a single New York paper drawn from the 77-hour curriculum. Two consequences worth knowing: national exam prep is aimed at content this exam does not contain, and your result comes back as pass or fail with no number, so there is nothing to compare against a target score.
Does New York fingerprint real estate salespersons?
No. DOS maintains one page listing which of its licence types require electronic fingerprinting — security guards, private investigators, alarm installers and others — and real estate brokers and salespersons are not on it. The salesperson application contains no fingerprint or background-check step. What New York does have is a conviction-disclosure and character standard, which is a different thing: a disclosure regime, not a fingerprint-based criminal history check.
Is there a post-licensing course in New York?
No. New York has qualifying education before you are licensed and continuing education at each two-year renewal, with nothing in between. There is one first-term wrinkle worth diarising: of the 22.5 CE hours, the law of agency component is two hours in your initial two-year salesperson term and one hour thereafter.