Where to take Tennessee's 90 hours
Two courses, both before licensure: the 60-hour Basic Principles course and the 30-hour Course for New Affiliates. All three schools below sell both — which matters, because a bare 60-hour package leaves you stranded after the exam.
The CE Shop
- Sells the full 90 hours as one package, so you are not left discovering the second course after you have passed the exam
- Also sells the 30-hour Course for New Affiliates on its own, which is what you need if you took the 60 hours elsewhere
- Files that 30-hour course under pre-licensing rather than post-licensing, matching how the Commission actually treats it
- Packages from courses-only upward, so exam prep is a choice rather than a default
Colibri Real Estate
- All four packages are built on the full 90 hours, so the hour count on the tin is the hour count you need
- Its Tennessee requirements page states the timing correctly — the 30 hours may be done before the exam but must be done before a licence issues
- Self-paced online, with a study-heavy top tier if you want more than the bare course
- Carries Tennessee continuing education for when the 16 hours come due
AceableAgent
- Lists the two components separately by name and hour count, so you can see the 30 hours is included rather than hoping it is
- Mobile apps with synced progress, useful across a 90-hour requirement
- Self-paced online, which Tennessee permits for the whole requirement
- Uses Tennessee's licence name — affiliate broker — throughout
How to get your Tennessee licence
Six steps — and two of them are purchases most people do not know about until they are asked for the paperwork.
Complete the 60-hour Basic Principles course
This is the one you need before you can sit the exam. A Tennessee classroom hour is fifty minutes of actual instruction, and the course itself carries a 70% pass mark and an 80% attendance minimum.
Line up a principal broker
Not optional and not later. Your exam application must be signed by the principal broker you will work under, and the licence application needs their sworn statement that they will "actively supervise and train" you.
Pass the exam with PSI
Forty questions in 80 minutes for the state portion, eighty in 160 minutes for the national, and 70% passes each. PSI's bulletin puts the fee at $63 for both portions, or $26 and $37 if you are sitting only one. Once you pass, the clock starts: the application must be filed within six months or you retake the exam.
Complete the 30-hour Course for New Affiliates
You may take it before or after the exam, but it must be done before the licence is issued, and a certificate of completion goes in with the application. This is the step the six-month-deadline myth hides.
Buy errors and omissions insurance
Tennessee makes E&O cover a condition of licensing, not a condition of practising. Proof of the policy is submitted with the application, so it is a cost that lands before you have earned anything.
Get fingerprinted and file
Fingerprints through IdentoGO under TREC's service code, plus proof of high school graduation and the $91 application fee.
From Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-13-303 and § 62-13-112, Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1260-01-.15, 1260-05-.03, 1260-05-.12 and 1260-05-.18, and the Tennessee Real Estate Commission, including its pre-licensing and exam FAQs, verified August 2026, with the exam figures added September 2026. The question counts, time limits, passing marks and fees are PSI's, from its Tennessee candidate information bulletin dated 7/1/2025, which the Commission links from its own exam page. The Commission itself publishes none of those figures, so we attribute them to the bulletin rather than to the state, and you should confirm the fee when you register. The fee is worth watching. TREC's live exam page prints $63.00 full, $26.00 state only and $37.00 national only, while a superseded PSI bulletin still hosted on tn.gov and marked effective 24 February 2021 says $39 for one or both portions. We publish no retake fee, because the current bulletin sets none and the only retake price anywhere is in that 2021 document.
Tennessee FAQs
Is the 30-hour Course for New Affiliates due before or after I'm licensed?
Before. The Commission states it plainly: "Affiliate brokers licensed after 12/31/04 must have completed the 30-hour 'Course for New Affiliates' prior to their license being issued and a letter or certificate of completion… must also be submitted with the license application." The confusion is genuine and comes from the statute itself. Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-13-303(a)(3)(A) still contains the old rule — 30 hours "within six (6) months of obtaining their affiliate broker's license", with the licence automatically expiring if missed. But subsection (a)(3)(B), added in 2003, requires the same education "prior to the original license being issued", and that is the version TREC has applied to everyone licensed since 1 January 2005. The old text has never been repealed, which is why it keeps getting quoted.
So is Tennessee a 60-hour state or a 90-hour state?
Ninety, if what you care about is holding a licence. Sixty is what you need to sit the exam; the remaining thirty is what you need before the Commission will issue anything. Buy a 60-hour package on its own and you will pass the exam, apply, and be told the file is incomplete — with a six-month clock running on your exam pass.
Does Tennessee really require errors and omissions insurance?
Yes, and unusually early. Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-13-112(a) requires that "each licensee who is licensed under this chapter shall, as a condition to licensing, carry errors and omissions insurance", and Rule 1260-01-.15 repeats it. TREC's application checklist asks for proof of the policy alongside the application, so this is a cost you carry before you have a licence, let alone a commission. TREC contracts a group policy through a named provider, and principal brokers can face civil penalties for each uninsured affiliate broker — which is why your broker will ask about it too.
Do I need a broker lined up before I can even take the exam?
Yes. Tennessee ties you to a principal broker earlier than most states. The PSI exam application has to be signed by the principal broker you intend to work under, and § 62-13-303(e)(3) requires a sworn statement from that broker certifying that you are honest and trustworthy and that they "will actively supervise and train the applicant". Treat finding a brokerage as something you do during the 60 hours, not after them.
Can I take the courses entirely online?
Yes, with two conditions that shape what a compliant Tennessee course looks like. Asynchronous online courses must be certified by ARELLO or another body the Commission accepts, and approval is withdrawn automatically if that certification lapses. And Rule 1260-05-.18(7) requires the distance version of the affiliate broker principles course to include "at least one (1) student interaction with a Commission-approved instructor for every five (5) hours of credit" — twelve interactions across the 60 hours. Self-paced in Tennessee does not mean unattended. Distance courses also have to be finished within a year of enrolment.
How much continuing education will I owe?
Sixteen hours every two years: six hours of the mandatory TREC CORE course and ten elective. Worth knowing while you are still studying — the Commission allows continuing education credit for approved classroom hours completed in the twelve months immediately before your original licence date, so timing your coursework can occasionally do double duty. Whether the 30-hour Course for New Affiliates itself counts toward that first renewal is not stated anywhere official, so do not assume it does.
What does the Tennessee exam cost, and why do I keep seeing $39?
Sixty-three dollars for both portions, according to PSI's Tennessee candidate information bulletin dated 7/1/2025 — the document the Commission links from its own exam page — with $26 if you are sitting the state portion alone and $37 for national only. TREC's live exam page prints the same three figures. The $39 is real but five years out of date: TREC also still hosts an older PSI bulletin, marked "Effective 2/24/2021", which says "The fee is $39 for 1 or both examination portions." So the state is publishing two fee tables at once and the cheaper one is superseded. Budget $63. That 2021 document is also the only place any retake price appears, so we publish none — the current bulletin sets no retake fee at all, and a fee that only exists in a superseded document is not a fee.