Where to take the 40-hour Vermont course
Your course has to be approved by the Vermont Real Estate Commission, and Vermont is small enough that most national schools skip it. These are the two that sell it.
The CE Shop
- Named on the Commission's published approved education provider list, which is the only documentary confirmation available for a Vermont course
- Covers all 40 hours in one purchase, clearing the whole pre-licensing requirement
- Sells the Vermont post-licensing course too — the 8 hours you owe within 90 days of your licence, which most schools do not carry for Vermont at all
- Four package tiers, so you can leave out exam prep for a state whose own exam is free and open-book
- Self-paced online, which suits a 40-hour course you can realistically finish in a couple of weeks
Colibri Real Estate
- Sells a 40-hour Vermont pre-licensing course in four tiers, so it is a complete alternative on paper
- Carries Vermont post-licensing and exam prep as separate products if you want to buy them piecemeal
- Does not appear on the Commission's published provider list — that list is visibly out of date, so this is a flag rather than a disqualification, but confirm approval before you pay
- Deep-link into its Vermont pages specifically: its generic course URLs serve another state's content
How to get your Vermont licence
Five steps — and the state exam is not the one you are expecting.
Complete the 40-hour course
Forty hours in a course approved by the Vermont Real Estate Commission. The course itself carries no stated expiry — the two-year clock in the rules attaches to your exams, not your coursework.
Pass the national exam with PSI
Vermont still uses PSI for the national portion, booked through the state's own PSI link. Fail one part and you may retake it within six months; after six months or two failures you retake the whole thing.
Sit the state exam at home, free
Since 27 February 2021 there is no proctored Vermont state exam. It is a 50-question open-resource paper covering the statutes, the Commission's rules and the sign law, delivered by a link inside your online application. You need 75 to pass and you upload only the answer sheet. Everyone takes it — there are no exceptions, including for applicants coming in from another state.
Join a brokerage, then apply
Being employed by or associated with a registered brokerage firm and its principal broker is one of the six eligibility conditions, not a later step. Applications are online only — Vermont no longer accepts paper — and cost $100, usually processed in three to five business days.
Do the 8 post-licensure hours within 90 days
Within ninety days of your licence being issued you must complete eight hours of Commission-specified post-licensure instruction, on distinct topics — you cannot use two courses on the same subject. This is separate from continuing education and is owed even at a first renewal where you owe no CE at all.
From the Vermont Real Estate Commission at the Office of Professional Regulation, its salesperson FAQs, 26 V.S.A. §§ 2255, 2292, 2293 and 2297, the Commission's administrative rules 2.4, 2.7, 3.1 and 5.1–5.2, OPR's fee and renewal-date schedule, and the May 2026 edition of the state jurisprudence exam, verified August 2026. We have deliberately not published a national exam fee, question count or passing score. PSI publishes no Vermont candidate bulletin we could reach and OPR publishes none — confirm those with PSI when you book. The Commission's currently designated 4-hour mandatory CE topic is likewise not published, and late renewal penalties are referenced but never quantified.
Vermont FAQs
Is there still a proctored Vermont state exam?
No, and this is where most pages about Vermont are years out of date. The Secretary of State's own page states it plainly: "As of February 27, 2021 the Vermont State Real Estate Examination for Brokers and Salespersons will no longer be administered through an exam service." What replaced it is a 50-question open-resource paper covering the Commission statutes, its administrative rules and the on-premises sign law, delivered by a link inside your online application. There is no fee and no test centre. If a page quotes you a Vermont state-portion question count from PSI, or a combined national-plus-state exam fee, it is describing a system that stopped existing five years ago.
How many hours of pre-licensing does Vermont require?
Forty. 26 V.S.A. § 2292 requires a salesperson to have "completed a course of instruction, approved by the Commission, of at least 40 hours", and the Commission's rules repeat it. Vermont sets no high school diploma requirement and no residency requirement — the eligibility list is age 18, the course, the exams, a brokerage association, and no disqualifying conduct.
What is the 8-hour post-licensure requirement?
Within ninety days of your initial salesperson licence being issued, you must complete eight hours of instruction on topics the Commission specifies for newly licensed practice — and you cannot satisfy it by taking multiple courses on the same topic. It is entirely separate from continuing education, and the FAQ makes the awkward combination explicit: a salesperson renewing for the first time owes no CE, but still has to upload proof of the post-licensure hours. Buy a course that carries it, or budget for it separately.
When does my Vermont licence expire?
31 May of an even-numbered year — a fixed common date for all salespersons, not two years from when you were licensed. Brokers renew on 31 March instead, so a page quoting one Vermont renewal date is wrong for half the state's licensees. The catch is OPR's 90-day rule: a licence issued 91 or more days before that 31 May must be renewed at it, and the $220 renewal falls due possibly within weeks of your licence arriving. Issued inside the last 90 days and you get the full two years. If you are close to the line, the timing of when you submit is worth thinking about.
I'm licensed in another state — what can I skip?
Possibly the course and the national exam, but never the state exam. If your state is deemed equivalent to Vermont you skip the 40-hour course — Indiana and Rhode Island are named as not equivalent. A separate equivalency list waives the national exam, and it names California, New York, Puerto Rico and West Virginia as not equivalent. Those two lists are different, which comparison pages routinely conflate. The Vermont state exam is never waived: "All applicants must take the state exam. There are no exceptions." Licensees who endorse in owe neither CE nor the post-licensure hours at their first renewal.