63 Hours in Florida, Almost a Year Here: What a Real Estate Licence Actually Tells You
Florida licenses a real estate agent after a 63 hour course. Ontario’s program takes roughly nine to eighteen months and costs several thousand dollars before you have sold anything. Neither number tells you whether the agent in front of you is any good. A licence is the floor you should expect, not the reason to hire someone.
I asked Lauren Cohen a throwaway question on my podcast and it turned into the part of the conversation I have thought about most since.
Lauren is a lawyer licensed in Canada and the U.S., and a realtor in Florida. She grew up in Thornhill and has been in South Florida for 25 years. I asked how long it takes to get a real estate licence down there.
“63 hours.”
Sixty three hours. Here, the program runs closer to a year for most people.
What the two systems actually cost
In Ontario, the pre registration program is the bulk of it, and then registration and errors and omissions insurance sit on top. Realistically you are looking at somewhere between $6,500 and $9,200 to get to the point where you can legally represent anybody, and the annual costs continue after that. Between board and MLS access, registration renewal and insurance, holding a licence here runs me in the range of three to four thousand dollars a year.
Lauren on the Florida renewal cost:
“It’s very nominal every other year. It’s not like here.”
So the obvious conclusion is that Ontario’s system is more rigorous and therefore protects consumers better. That is where I would have landed too, until she pushed back on both sides of it.
The argument for a low barrier, and the argument against
Lauren does not think 63 hours is a good thing. She thinks it goes too far in the other direction:
“Now, that does create a little challenge because a lot of realtors are less professional because you don’t need any criteria to get in.”
But then she said the thing that complicated it for me:
“But there’s also a very quick weeding out process because you’re not going to survive if you’re not really good.”
That is the honest version. A long program filters at the front door. A brutal market filters continuously. Both filter. They just do it at different times, and only one of them keeps filtering after somebody has your listing.
She also pointed out something most Canadians do not know: the job itself is not the same job.
“In Florida in particular, realtors do a lot more in terms of legal type tasks than here. So here, real estate attorneys are like the highest level of malpractice insurance. In the U.S., the realtor does a lot more. And then there’s a title company, which is overseen by a lawyer, but not always owned by a lawyer.”
And her verdict on her own state:
“I think they go a little too far. And I think they give realtors in Florida too much latitude. And there’s a lot more room for errors, unfortunately, because there’s less checks and balances.”
So what does a licence actually do for you?
Here is where I landed, and I say this as somebody who paid for the long version.
A licence is a floor. A real one, and worth having:
The person completed a required program and passed the exam.
They carry errors and omissions insurance, so there is something behind a mistake.
They answer to a regulator, which gives you somewhere to go if things go badly wrong.
They are bound by rules on disclosure and handling your deposit.
That is genuinely valuable and I would not want to buy or sell without it. But notice what is not on that list: any indication that the person is good at this.
“It’s not whether or not you have a license which is protecting the consumers. It’s actually how good your reviews are.”
Lauren agreed and added the part that matters:
“Yes, how good your reviews are, how well you interact with the client, the rapport that you build. I mean, it’s like any business, right? So a real estate license is just a prerequisite in order to be able to sell or to work with buyers or sellers.”
Lauren’s version: “It’s not a license to print money because you have to still build your reputation and your relationships.” The licence is the thing every candidate has. Judge on the things that differ.
How to actually vet the person you are about to hand your largest asset to
If the licence is table stakes, here is what I would ask if I were hiring me. None of this is clever. It is just the stuff people skip because it feels awkward.
Ask what could go wrong with your sale and what they would do about it. Someone who has done this for real will have a list ready. Someone who tells you it will be fine has told you how much they have seen.
There are no solutions, only trade-offs
This whole thread reminded me of Thomas Sowell’s line, and I said so on air: there are no solutions, there are only trade-offs.
“If you’re going to have real estate agents doing more legal work, you’re going to have problems. If you’re going to have lawyers doing more of the legal work, they’ll create… there’s always different problems.”
Ontario picked the lawyer heavy version with a long licensing path. Florida picked a 63 hour course and hands agents more of the transaction. Both systems have a failure mode. Ours mostly protects people, and I would not trade it.
But a system cannot pick your agent for you. It sets a minimum. Everything above the minimum is your job, and it is worth an afternoon of asking uncomfortable questions.
Frequently Asked Questions About Real Estate Licensing
How long does it take to get a real estate licence in Ontario?
How long does it take to get a real estate licence in Florida?
Does a real estate licence protect the consumer?
How should I choose a real estate agent?
Do Ontario agents do less than agents in the U.S.?
Related Reading
- The Advantages of Buyer Representation, which is really about what the person is doing for you.
- 3 Things to Know When Selling Your Home, including how listing decisions actually get made.
- Your Home Is Not Selling. Now What?, usually a pricing conversation that should have happened earlier.
- Is It a Buyer’s or a Seller’s Market?, so you can check an agent’s read against the data yourself.
Watch the Full Episode
This came out of my conversation with Lauren Cohen on Supply and Demand. We also get into what a home sale has to fund if you are moving south, and what I have been seeing buyers’ lawyers do on closing day. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
You can find Lauren Cohen at Investing Across Borders.
If you are interviewing agents in Toronto or York Region, ask me those five questions. I would rather you ask everybody than hire anyone, me included, on a licence and a nice brochure.
Written by Adam Nadler, a licensed REALTOR serving Toronto and York Region with RE/MAX Your Community Realty, Brokerage. Licensing timelines, program fees and insurance costs are current at the time of writing and change; confirm with RECO and the relevant program provider. Comments about Florida practice are the guest’s, based on her experience there. Nothing here is legal advice.