Real Estate Courses - Prelicense and Postlicense Requirements

Depending on the type of course being offered, there are unique requirements for which approved schools must adhere, including:

• Instructors - only Real Estate Instructors approved by the Commission may instruct Salesperson's Prelicense, Broker's Prelicense, or Community Association Manager's Prelicense courses. Only instructors with appropriate experience and knowledge of the content areas of Salesperson Postlicense or Continuing Education courses may teach those courses.

• Homework, Student Certification, Graded Examinations - In prelicense and postlicense courses, a school must assign homework or assignments to be completed out of class. Schools should assign specific homework assignments or out-of-class exercises that determine part of the student's grade in a course or that must be completed by the student and reviewed by the instructor as a requirement for completion of the course.

• Student Course Completion Certificates - the Commission does not require that a school give certificates to students who pass prelicense courses, since the school transmits passing data for those courses to AMP, the Commission's examination vendor, through the REAL program. A school may, however, present a certificate to its student's if it chooses.

• Examinations - every approved Community Association Manager's Prelicense, Salesperson's Prelicense, Sales Postlicense and Broker's Postlicense course must conclude with an examination administered by the school.
  • Scheduling - schools shall administer final examinations for every approved Salesperson's Prelicense and Broker's Prelicense course on a day when the course holds no in-class instruction. Schools may administer final examinations for every Community Association Manager's Prelicense Course and Sales Postlicense course on the last day of in-class instruction.
  • Passing Score - for all prelicense and postlicense courses, schools must require that students achieve a passing score on the final examination that is consistent with the passing score required on state qualifying examinations for these licenses unless a school has first obtained the written permission of the Commission to require a different passing score.
  • Retaking a Course Examination - schools may elect to allow any student who fails to achieve a passing score to take another examination on another day without repeating instruction. If a student fails to achieve a passing score on the second final examination, the student must repeat all instruction of that course before taking another examination.
  • Security - schools must maintain at least two forms of a final examination for each approved course and must provide the Commission, upon its request, with reasonable assurances that examinations are secure from distribution to students except upon administration of an examination.
  • Content Areas for Salesperson's Prelicense Examination - the final examination for Salesperson's Prelicense must include at least five (5) questions each on (a) brokerage engagements, (b) legal descriptions and legal aspects of contracts, (c) methods of payment and earnest money, (d) special stipulations and writing sales contracts, (e) leases and fair housing, (f) licensees acting as principals, (g) anti-trust laws, (h) basic finance, (i) loan types, (j) pricing property, (k) seller's costs, (l) qualifying purchasers and purchaser's costs, (m) contract closing, and (n) such other matters as the Commission may from time to time require or authorize.
  • Examination Formats - final examination for prelicense and postlicense course should attempt to measure the student's competence in the knowledge or skills taught in the approved course. A school shall not be required to submit a course final examination to the Commission if:
    • the examination consists of multiple choice questions with a minimum of four choices of answers for each question;
    • the final examination for the Salesperson's Prelicense Course and the Broker's Prelicense Course consist of no fewer than one hundred questions; and
    • the final examination for the Community Association Manager's Prelicense Course and the Sales Postlicense Course consist of no fewer than fifty questions.
    A school must submit to the Commission for approval any course final examination that does not meet the above criteria prior to the examination's being administered for the approved course.
  • Proctoring - schools must provide proctors for all final examinations for prelicense and postlicense courses and for any continuing educations courses that require the passing of a final examination in order to receive credit for the course. The school director, coordinator, approved instructor, or other person designated by the school director or coordinator may administer or proctor final examinations in approved courses. The school director or coordinator must ensure that examinations are conducted according to the requirements described in Rule 520-2-.04.

• Curriculum - for prelicense and postlicense approved courses, the Commission has defined the following subject areas that school must introduce and teach in the curriculum:
• Community Association Manager's Prelicense Course - must provide for a minimum of twenty-five (25) hours of instruction. Schools may not count time students spend on breaks as part of in-class instruction time. Time students spend in taking graded exercises and tests or final examinations may not constitute more than ten percent of in-class instruction time. The course must cover fundamentals in the following areas:
  1. property law including Georgia laws on common interest ownership, public rights and limitations, and fair housing laws;
  2. forms of ownership including planned unit development (PUD), home owner's associations, condominiums, cooperatives, timeshares, townhouses, and master association relationships and how to interpret community association governing documents;
  3. contracts and transaction documents including the content and negotiation of management agreements, the nature and content of insurance documents, and resale certificates;
  4. real estate instruments and conveyances including notices, proxies, and liens and amendments to documents and the requirements for reinstatement;
  5. law of agency including identifying and understanding agency relationships and duties between community association managers and association boards, members, and tenants of members; single and dual agency; and agency disclosure;
  6. financing instruments and basic accounting practices including principles of accounting for trust accounts, for common interest associations, and for lender requirements for re-certification;
  7. Georgia real estate license law;
  8. ethics in community association management;
  9. environmental laws;
  10. safety precautions; and/or
  11. such other areas as the Commission may from time to time require or authorize.
• Salesperson's Prelicense Course - must provide for a minimum of seventy-five (75) in-class hours of instruction. Schools may not count time students spend on breaks as part of in-class instruction time. Time students spend in taking graded exercises and tests or final examinations may not constitute more than ten percent of in-class instruction time. The course must cover fundamentals in the following areas:
  1. real estate contracts including completing and presenting form real estate sales contracts with extensive practice with problems involving new FHA, VA, and conventional loans; loan assumptions; brokerage engagements; and leases (students must demonstrate proficiency in completing such form contracts by passing a school developed and administered test or by satisfying such other assessment measurements established by the school as the Commission may authorize);
  2. real estate instruments and conveyances
  3. closing procedures (RESPA) including salesperson's responsibilities at a loan closing conducted by someone else and an explanation of standard closing procedures and documents used in the salesperson's services area;
  4. law of agency including agency disclosure;
  5. pricing real property (students must demonstrate proficiency in preparing forms which document such pricing by passing a school developed and administered test or by satisfying such other assessment measurements established by the school as the Commission may authorize);
  6. real estate financing including extensive practice in estimating costs of selling and purchasing property and estimating monthly payments (students may demonstrate proficiency in completing forms which document such estimates by passing a school developed and administered test or by satisfying such other assessment measurements established by the school as the Commission may authorize);
  7. Georgia's Residential Mortgage fraud law and methods for identifying possible fraud in transactions and properly reporting alleged fraud;
  8. community association management activities and property management activities;
  9. environmental law;
  10. taxation;
  11. city and urban development;
  12. fair housing;
  13. anti-trust laws;
  14. safety precautions;
  15. Georgia's real estate license law; and/or
  16. such other areas as the Commission may from time to time require or authorize.

• Sales Postlicense Courses - must provide for a minimum of twenty-five (25) in-class hours of instruction. Schools may not count time students spend on breaks as part of in-class instruction time. Time students spend in taking graded exercises and tests or final examinations may not constitute more than ten percent of required instruction time. The curriculum of the course must focus on legal fundamentals and/or basic practices in sales or management of residential, agricultural, commercial or industrial properties. If the subject matter of the course addresses residential sales, then the course must include a component on Georgia's Residential Mortgage Fraud law and methods for identifying possible fraud in transactions and properly reporting alleged fraud.
• Broker's Prelicense Courses - must provide for a minimum of sixty (60) in-class hours of instruction. Schools may not count time students spend on breaks as part of in-class instruction time. Time students spend in taking graded exercises and tests or final examinations may not constitute more than ten percent of required instruction time. The course must review all subject areas covered in the Salesperson's Prelicense Course so that students may learn advanced concepts in those areas. In addition, the course must include significant components covering conducting loan closings, real estate office management, personnel policies, trust account record keeping, discharging a broker's responsibility for associate licensees, and/or such other areas as the Commission may from time to time require or authorize.