Michigan real estate exam
Michigan is the one state on this site where the licence requirements are fully documented and the examination is not. LARA publishes a dated licensing guide covering every hour, fee and condition; PSI, which delivers the examination, publishes no candidate bulletin for this programme at all. So this page carries the first in full and says so about the second.
The two portions
You apply to LARA in MiPLUS before you may test — the 40-hour certificate is uploaded at application, and PSI e-mails a Candidate ID afterwards. Passing is not the last step either: a salesperson licence is only issued once a licensed Michigan broker has accepted you as an employee, and under MCL 339.2505(4) the application itself must be signed by that broker.
Delivered by PSI, under contract to LARA. Every figure here comes from the documents listed at the foot of this page, with the date each was read.
Requirements and fees
- Minimum age
- 18
- Qualifying education
- 40 hours, of which at least 4 are civil rights law and equal opportunity in housing
- The lightest salesperson requirement of any state on this site — a quarter of Ohio’s hundred hours next door. The certificate is uploaded to MiPLUS before eligibility to test is granted.
- Application and first licence
- $88, covering the application and a three-year licence
- Card only. Relicensure after a lapse is $108, and renewal is $78.
- Renewal cycle
- Three years
- Continuing education
- 18 clock hours per three-year cycle
- At least 2 hours a year on laws, rules and court cases, and at least 1 hour a year on fair housing. Evidence must be kept for four years; LARA does not keep it for you.
- Employing broker
- Required before a licence issues
- MCL 339.2505(4): a salesperson application must be signed by the broker who will employ the applicant. After you pass, you enter the broker’s ten-digit licence number in MiPLUS and they approve it.
- Life of a passing score
- One year from the examination date
- MCL 339.2505(6)(b), and it applies portion by portion where an examination is given in parts.
- Lapsed under three years
- 6 hours of continuing education for each year missed
- At least 2 of those hours on law per year and 1 on fair housing. No re-examination.
- Lapsed three years or more
- Re-examine, or produce a 40-hour certificate under twelve months old
- Or the accumulated continuing education. Any one of the three, not all.
- Disqualifying conviction
- Embezzlement or misappropriation of funds, for a broker licence
- MCL 339.2505 forbids issuing a broker licence to a new applicant convicted of either. Other convictions are reviewed case by case against the good moral character standard.
- Out-of-state applicants
- Allowed, with a Consent to Service of Process form
- Salespersons and non-principal associate brokers may hold an out-of-state address; brokers and branch offices may not.
What this page does not tell you
- How many questions the Michigan examination has, how long the appointment is, and what score passes. LARA’s guide says only that you must show “a passing score on the Real Estate Salesperson examination administered by PSI”, and PSI publishes no candidate information bulletin for Michigan real estate — its programme page for this contract links to none, while every other PSI state on this site links to one. The figures widely quoted for Michigan (115 questions, 180 minutes, 70 percent) come from schools rather than from LARA or PSI, so they are not on this page.
- The examination fee. Same reason: no bulletin, and PSI publishes its fee only inside the scheduling flow. The $88 above is LARA’s application and licence fee and is a different payment to a different payee.
- Whether Michigan splits the examination into national and state portions. MCL 339.2505(6)(b) refers to “a portion of an examination if the examination is given in separate parts”, which allows for a split without establishing one, and neither body publishes the structure.
Practice the material this exam is built on
These questions cover the general real estate principles every state tests — the eight content areas of the national outline. They do not cover Michigan statute and commission rule, which no national bank does; for that, the state’s own published material is the source.
Which is true of a tenancy in common?
Why this page is half empty, and what that is worth
Every other state here has two documents behind it: a commission page that owns the licence facts, and a candidate handbook or bulletin that owns the examination facts. Michigan has the first and not the second. PSI’s Michigan real estate programme page carries a marketing block for its own practice tests and a notice about licence cards, and no bulletin link — where its Ohio, Illinois, Virginia and Georgia pages all carry one.
The temptation is to fill the gap from the first search result, and the numbers are easy to find. They are also unattributable: no page reproducing them names a LARA document or a PSI document, and Michigan’s own statute deliberately delegates both the content and the passing score to the Department without publishing either. A named gap is worth more here than a confident sentence that nobody can check.
Forty hours is the real Michigan story
Michigan asks for 40 hours of prelicensure education, at least 4 of them on civil rights law and equal opportunity in housing. Ohio, across the border, asks for 100 under R.C. 4735.09; Illinois asks for 75; Florida asks for 63 fifty-minute hours. Michigan is the cheapest and shortest route to a real estate licence of any state on this site.
What it does not shorten is the sponsorship. The employing broker signs your application, and the licence does not issue until that broker approves the request in MiPLUS. In practice the broker search runs in parallel with the studying, not after it.
The three-year cycle catches people out
Michigan renews on three years rather than two, and the continuing education is written per year inside the cycle: at least 2 hours of law and 1 hour of fair housing in each of the three, with the remaining hours free to fall anywhere. You attest to it at renewal — LARA does not hold the records, and you must be able to produce evidence for four years afterwards.
Let it lapse and the ladder is graded rather than absolute. Under three years, 6 hours of continuing education for each year and part-year missed. Three years or more, one of three routes: re-examine, produce a 40-hour prelicensure certificate less than twelve months old, or supply the whole accumulated continuing education.
Frequently asked
- How many questions are on the Michigan real estate exam?
- Neither LARA nor PSI publishes the number. PSI delivers the examination but issues no candidate information bulletin for the Michigan real estate programme, and LARA’s licensing guide says only that a passing score is required. The figures circulating for this state come from schools, not from either body, so this page does not repeat them.
- How many hours of education does Michigan require?
- 40 hours of approved prelicensure education, including at least 4 hours of civil rights law and equal opportunity in housing. The completion certificate is uploaded to MiPLUS before you become eligible to test.
- How much does a Michigan real estate salesperson licence cost?
- $88 to LARA, which covers the application and a three-year licence. The PSI examination fee is separate and is not published outside the scheduling flow.
- Do I need a broker before I can get licensed in Michigan?
- Yes. Under MCL 339.2505(4) a salesperson application must be signed by the broker who will employ you, and after you pass the examination the licence is not issued until that broker approves your request in MiPLUS.
- How long is a Michigan passing score good for?
- One year from the date of the examination, under MCL 339.2505(6)(b). The same one-year life applies to a portion of the examination where it is given in separate parts.
Other states
Sources
Key factual claims on this page are grounded in the documents below, with the day each was read. Rules and requirements change — open the source if you need today's wording.
- Michigan LARA — Real Estate Salesperson Licensing Guide & FAQ (revised 26 January 2026) Read September 3, 2026
- MCL 339.2505 — Occupational Code (Act 299 of 1980), application and examination Read September 3, 2026
Page facts last verified September 3, 2026.
Independent exam preparation. Real Estate Exam Bank is not a state-approved pre-licensing course and completing anything here does not satisfy any state education requirement. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by any state real estate commission, Pearson VUE, or PSI. Practice questions here are original study material, not the official exam.