Where to take South Carolina's 90 hours
The Commission approves providers course by course, not just state by state — a school cleared for Unit I is not automatically cleared for Unit II. All three below are approved for both on the Commission's current course calendar.
The CE Shop
- Approved for Unit I and Unit II, so one school takes you all the way to a licence rather than most of the way
- Also sells Unit II on its own, which is what you need if you have already done the 60 hours somewhere else
- Packages run from courses-only to premium, so you can leave out exam prep if you do not want it
- Uses South Carolina's current licence name — associate, not salesperson — so the paperwork matches
AceableAgent
- Prices and presents the course as the full 90 hours, split into Unit I and Unit II, so you can see exactly what you are buying
- Approved for both units on the Commission's course calendar
- Mobile-first and self-paced, which South Carolina permits for the whole 90 hours
- Sold in three tiers so exam prep is optional rather than bundled
Colibri Real Estate
- Approved by the Commission for both Unit I and Unit II, so the school itself can legally get you there
- Four package tiers, including a study-heavy option if you want more than the bare course
- Self-paced online, with exam prep sold as part of the upper tiers
- Before you pay, confirm the package contains all 90 hours — see the warning below
How to get your South Carolina licence
Five steps — and the order of the two courses is more flexible than it looks, which is exactly what makes it risky.
Complete Unit I — 60 hours
Fundamentals of Real Estate Principles and Practices. This is the one you must finish before you are allowed to sit the licensing exam. Both units have to fall within the five years before your application.
Pass a proctored course final
Separate from the state exam and easy to miss: Commission regulation sets a minimum passing score of 70% on a proctored final examination for the course itself. Even a fully online student sits this under supervision.
Apply and pass the PSI exam
Send the Commission your $25 application, then sit the national and state portions with PSI. You get a twelve-month eligibility period to pass all portions, with retakes allowed inside it.
Complete Unit II — 30 hours
Advanced Real Estate Principles, in five six-hour modules. You are permitted to sit the exam before finishing it — but the licence cannot be issued until it is done, and your application is only good for one year from the date the Commission receives it.
Clear the background check and pay the licence fee
A fingerprint-based SLED and FBI check is required, with the cost falling on you. Then the $50 initial licence fee — or $25 if you are coming in under the Georgia or North Carolina reciprocity arrangement.
From S.C. Code § 40-57-320, § 40-57-340 and § 40-57-115, S.C. Regulations 105-6 and 105-8, the South Carolina Real Estate Commission at LLR, its Unit II curriculum and Pre-Licensing Course Calendar (8 June 2026), and the PSI candidate bulletin updated 1 January 2026, verified August 2026. We have not published a background-check fee: § 40-57-115 places the cost on the applicant but LLR publishes no figure.
South Carolina FAQs
Does South Carolina require post-licensing education?
No — and this is the single most common error about South Carolina licensing. Before 1 January 2017 the state had a 60-hour pre-licence course plus a 30-hour post-licensing course taken after you were licensed. That structure was abolished. The 30 hours became Unit II, a pre-licence requirement: § 40-57-320(A)(1)(a) puts both the "sixty hours of classroom instruction in fundamentals of real estate principles and practices and thirty hours of classroom instruction in advanced real estate principles" inside the five years before the application. The Commission's current course calendar lists no post-licensing course type at all. If a page tells you to budget for post-licensing in South Carolina, it is nine years out of date.
So how many hours do I actually need — 60 or 90?
Ninety, all of it before you can be licensed. Sixty hours of Unit I and thirty of Unit II. Sixty is the figure you need to sit the exam, which is probably why it circulates as though it were the whole requirement — one of the national schools states it that way on its own South Carolina pages. Buy a 60-hour package on its own and you will pass the exam and then be unable to get licensed.
Can I sit the exam before finishing Unit II?
Yes, and the Commission says so explicitly in its Unit II curriculum: "Applicants may take the license examination before completing the required thirty hours." The catch is on the other side. The licence will not issue until Unit II is submitted, and LLR states the application is good for one year from the date it is received. Pass the exam, then let Unit II drift past that year, and you lose the application and the fee with it.
Can I do the whole thing online?
Yes. Regulation 105-8(A) permits pre-licensing "via in-person or distance learning", and distance learning expressly includes asynchronous self-paced courses. There are two conditions worth knowing before you shop: the provider and the course must hold ARELLO or IDECC certification, which is why South Carolina's approved list is shorter than you might expect; and you still have to sit a proctored final examination for the course itself at 70% or better, before you ever get to PSI.
Is it a salesperson licence or an associate licence?
Associate. The entry-level licence was renamed by Act 204 of 2024, and the chapter of the Code is now titled "Real Estate Brokers, Brokers-in-charge, Associates, and Property Managers". LLR's own file names and some of its older FAQ pages still say "salesperson", so both terms are in live circulation — but associate is the current legal term, and the schools that have updated their wording are the ones reading the statute rather than each other.
When does my South Carolina licence expire?
On 30 June, every two years — a fixed calendar date rather than an anniversary of when you were licensed. § 40-57-340(A)(3) splits licensees into two cohorts: "Approximately one-half of the licensees must renew in even-numbered years and the remainder in odd-numbered years." Miss it and a $15-per-month late fee runs from 1 July, and a licence left unpaid six months after expiry is cancelled by law.