Virginia real estate exam
Virginia splits its exam into a national portion and a Virginia portion, and it does something most states do not: it publishes the passing score as a number of correct answers. A salesperson needs 56 of 80 on the national portion and 30 of 40 on the state portion, and those are the Board’s own figures rather than a percentage someone converted.
The two portions
Both portions must be passed to apply for a licence, and each is scored on its own — fail one and you retake only that one. If you already hold an unexpired licence in another state you sit the Virginia portion alone, which is the shortest legitimate route into this licence that exists.
| Exam | Items | Time | To pass |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesperson — national portion | 80 | 105 min | 56 correct answers |
| Salesperson — Virginia portion | 40 | 45 min | 30 correct answers |
| Broker — national portion | 75 | 105 min | 60 of 80 points |
| Broker — Virginia portion | 50 | 55 min | 38 correct answers |
Delivered by PSI, under contract to the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation. 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 to sit the examination
- Qualifying education
- 60 hours — one course, “Principles of Real Estate”
- From a Board-approved provider. It is the shortest salesperson requirement of any state on this site, and it is required even of reciprocity applicants.
- Broker education and experience
- 180 classroom hours, and 36 of the preceding 48 months actively engaged
- At least three broker-specific courses, one of which must be a 45-hour Real Estate Brokerage course. A principles course used for the salesperson licence does not count again.
- Examination fee
- $60
- Good for one examination and one year. Not refundable, and cash and personal cheques are not accepted.
- Fingerprinting
- $52, taken at a PSI site in Virginia
- $27 to the Commonwealth and $25 to PSI. Processing takes four to six weeks and results are valid for 90 days, so the order of operations matters more here than the amount.
- Salesperson licence
- $230 — a $210 fee plus a $20 Recovery Fund assessment
- 18VAC135-20-15, a section that only came into effect on 1 April 2026. Renewal is $100.
- Broker licence
- $285 — $265 plus the $20 Recovery Fund assessment
- Renewal is $120. A firm licence is $370 including the assessment.
- Experimental items
- One to ten per examination, roughly 10 percent
- Unscored and unmarked, and they do eat into your time. Leaving anything blank is strictly worse than guessing.
- Deadline after passing
- One year
- Scores expire after a year, and the completed application and fee must reach the Board inside it. If you passed both portions on different days the clock runs from the first examination date.
- Reciprocity
- Virginia portion only, if your out-of-state licence is current
- Reciprocity candidates cannot register online — e-mail, fax or post only — and must supply certifications from every jurisdiction where they have been licensed.
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 Virginia statute and commission rule, which no national bank does; for that, the state’s own published material is the source.
A contract signed by a person the court has declared mentally incompetent is:
Virginia tells you how many answers you need, and almost nobody does
The bulletin’s score-reporting table is four numbers: salesperson national 56, salesperson state 30, broker national 60, broker state 38. Those are raw counts against 80, 40, 80 points and 50 items. A salesperson can therefore work out the margin exactly — 24 wrong on the national portion and 10 wrong on the state portion, and no further.
That is a genuinely different thing from Pennsylvania’s or Ohio’s reported figure. A scaled 75 or a 70 percent cannot be converted back into a number of questions, because the conversion changes with the form. Virginia’s number does not move, which makes it the one state on this site where a practice score maps directly onto the real target.
What is actually in the 40-item Virginia portion
The Board’s outline gives item counts rather than percentages: licensing 8, escrow accounts 2, disclosure requirements 10, agency definitions and relationships 12, Virginia fair housing 4, and specific acts — the Condominium Act, the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, the Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act, the Property Owners’ Association Act — 4.
Agency and disclosure are 22 of the 40 between them. The disclosure list is Virginia-specific in a way no national bank covers: the Chesapeake Bay Act, aircraft noise and crash zones, septic disclosure, stigmatised property, and the review-and-cancellation timing on association disclosure packets.
The fee schedule moved house on 1 April 2026
Until that date Virginia’s real estate fees lived in 18VAC135-20-80. That section was repealed and the schedule reissued as 18VAC135-20-15, with the Recovery Fund assessment broken out as a separate $20 line under § 54.1-2113 of the Code of Virginia. The figures on this page are from the new section.
It is worth knowing because a page that quotes the old section is quoting a repealed rule, and nothing on such a page will say so.
Frequently asked
- How many questions are on the Virginia real estate exam?
- A salesperson sits 120 questions: 80 on the national portion in 105 minutes and 40 on the Virginia portion in 45. Booked together the appointment is 150 minutes. A broker sits 125 — 75 national questions worth 80 points, and 50 state questions.
- What score do you need to pass the Virginia real estate exam?
- A salesperson needs 56 correct on the national portion and 30 correct on the Virginia portion. A broker needs 60 of 80 points on the national portion and 38 correct on the state portion. Virginia reports raw scores, not percentages.
- How much does the Virginia real estate exam cost?
- $60 per examination, valid for one attempt and one year. Fingerprinting is a further $52, and the salesperson licence itself is $230 including the $20 Recovery Fund assessment.
- How many hours of education does Virginia require?
- 60 hours for a salesperson — a single Board-approved “Principles of Real Estate” course — and 180 hours for a broker, together with 36 months of active practice out of the preceding 48.
- If I am licensed in another state, do I have to take the whole Virginia exam?
- No. If your out-of-state licence is current and unexpired you sit only the Virginia portion. You still need the 60-hour Principles course and certifications from every state where you have held a licence, and reciprocity applicants cannot register online.
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 — Commonwealth of Virginia Real Estate Candidate Information Bulletin (last revised 18 February 2026) Read September 3, 2026
- Virginia Real Estate Board (DPOR) — Board page and licensure FAQ Read September 3, 2026
- Virginia Real Estate Board — Pre-License Education Read September 3, 2026
- 18VAC135-20-15 — Fee schedule (Virginia Administrative Code) 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.