Ohio real estate exam
Ohio splits its exam into an 80-item national portion and a 40-item Ohio portion, both passed at 70 percent for a salesperson. The figure worth checking before you enrol anywhere is the education one: R.C. 4735.09 asks for a hundred hours, not the hundred and twenty that a great many pages about this state still print.
The two portions
Both portions can be taken at one sitting — 120 items in 180 minutes for $66 — or separately at $46 and $43. Both must be passed inside the twelve-month eligibility window printed on your bulletin label, and a failed portion is retaken by sending a service request and fee to the Division rather than straight back to PSI.
| Exam | Items | Time | To pass |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesperson — national portion | 80 | 120 min | 70% |
| Salesperson — Ohio portion | 40 | 60 min | 70% |
| Broker — national portion | 75 | 120 min | 75% of 80 points |
| Broker — Ohio portion | 40 | 60 min | 75% |
Delivered by PSI, under contract to the Division. 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
- General education
- A high school diploma or equivalent, if you were born after 1950
- Ohio is the only state on this site whose diploma requirement has a date attached to it.
- Qualifying education
- 100 hours — 40 real estate practice, 40 Ohio real estate law, 10 appraisal, 10 finance
- R.C. 4735.09(F)(6). The 40-hour law course includes civil rights law, housing discrimination case law and desegregation, and is waived only for an applicant admitted to practise before the Supreme Court of Ohio.
- Where the courses must come from
- An institution of higher education
- And if you have not held a real estate licence in the four years before applying, the coursework must be within the preceding ten years and from an institution awarding at least a two-year degree.
- Examination application fee
- $81 to the Division
- Paid with the Salesperson Examination Application, separate from anything PSI charges.
- Examination fee
- $66 for both portions at one sitting
- $46 for the national portion alone and $43 for the state portion alone — so splitting them costs $23 more.
- Sponsorship
- An Ohio broker must sponsor you
- It is a condition of the licence itself, not of the examination.
- Background check
- State and FBI records checks, fingerprints within 10 days of applying
- Submitted to the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation; the applicant pays the fee.
- Eligibility window
- Twelve months, printed on the bulletin label
- Both portions must be passed inside it. Overrun it and the application process starts again from the beginning.
- Post-licensure education
- 20 hours within twelve months of the licence issuing
- R.C. 4735.09(J). Miss it and the licence suspends automatically — no action by the superintendent required — and is revoked automatically twelve months after that.
- Experimental questions
- 5 to 10 per examination
- Unscored, unidentified, and they count against examination time.
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 Ohio statute and commission rule, which no national bank does; for that, the state’s own published material is the source.
A survey shows that a neighbor’s garage extends two feet over the boundary line. This is:
Ohio is a hundred-hour state
R.C. 4735.09(F)(6) lists four courses and their hours: forty of instruction in real estate practice, forty covering Ohio real estate law together with civil rights law, housing discrimination case law and desegregation, ten in real estate appraisal and ten in real estate finance. That is a hundred, and the Division’s own requirements page and PSI’s bulletin both print the same four rows.
A hundred and twenty is nonetheless the figure in wide circulation for this state. If a school quotes it, ask which twenty hours it means and under what statute — the answer decides whether you are buying a requirement or an upsell.
Two fees, two payees, and one of them is refundable
The $81 goes to the Division with the Salesperson Examination Application. The $66 goes to PSI when you schedule, and it is neither refundable nor transferable — it is forfeited if you do not test within a year of PSI receiving it. Taking the two portions at separate sittings costs $89 rather than $66, which is the clearest argument for booking them together.
The retake route runs back through the Division rather than PSI: a service request and a further fee, which is slower than rebooking and worth building into the plan if you are near the edge of the twelve-month window.
What is in the 40-item Ohio portion
Item counts rather than percentages: state governance of the profession 4, licensing requirements 6, licence law and the rules of the Ohio Real Estate Commission 16, and brokerage relationships — agency law — 14. Thirty of the forty sit in those last two.
The Licence Act sixteen is where Ohio is most specific: team advertising, the broker or salesperson employment and independent contractor agreement, commissions payable through the broker only, document handling and record keeping, inducements, the ancillary trustee procedure if a broker dies, and Ohio fair housing. The agency fourteen covers the Ohio-specific disclosure of agency relationships, waiver of duties, and the canon of ethics.
Frequently asked
- How many questions are on the Ohio real estate exam?
- A salesperson sits 120 scored items: 80 on the national portion in 120 minutes and 40 on the Ohio portion in 60. Taken together at one sitting the appointment is 180 minutes. Each portion also carries 5 to 10 unscored experimental questions.
- What score do you need to pass the Ohio real estate exam?
- 70 percent on each portion for a salesperson — 56 of the 80 national items and 28 of the 40 Ohio items. A broker needs 75 percent on both.
- Does Ohio require 120 hours of real estate education?
- No. R.C. 4735.09(F)(6) requires 100: forty hours of real estate practice, forty of Ohio real estate law including civil rights, ten of appraisal and ten of finance. The Division’s own requirements page prints the same four courses.
- How much does the Ohio real estate exam cost?
- $66 to PSI for both portions at one sitting, or $46 and $43 taken separately. The Salesperson Examination Application to the Division is a separate $81.
- What is the 20-hour post-licensure requirement in Ohio?
- Twenty hours of instruction that must be completed and proved within twelve months of your licence being issued. Miss the deadline and the licence is suspended automatically, and revoked automatically a further twelve months later.
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.
- PSI — Ohio Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing, Real Estate Salesperson and Broker Candidate Information Bulletin Read September 3, 2026
- Ohio Division of Real Estate & Professional Licensing — Requirements for an Ohio Real Estate Salesperson’s License Read September 3, 2026
- R.C. 4735.09 — Ohio Revised Code, salesperson application and prelicensure instruction 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.