Arkansas · AR
Arkansas Real Estate License Checklist (2026)
Every step, fee, and deadline on one page — designed to print cleanly to PDF and check off as you go.
Before you start
- You are at least 18 years old
- You hold a high school diploma or GED
- You can pass a criminal background check / fingerprinting
Education
Arkansas requires 60 classroom hours of real estate education, and at least 30 of those hours must be in basic principles of real estate. The course must come from an accredited postsecondary school or an AREC-licensed provider. Nice quirk: your 60-hour certificate never expires for salesperson applicants, and AREC will even accept your exam application before you finish the course.
- Confirm you've reached age 18 (the age of majority in Arkansas).
- Enroll in a 60-hour pre-licensing course from an accredited postsecondary school or AREC-licensed provider — at least 30 hours must cover basic principles of real estate.
- You can submit your exam application to AREC before finishing the course, but your Certificate of Exam Eligibility won't be issued until AREC has your course completion certificate.
- Keep your certificate of completion — for salesperson applicants it never expires.
Application & exam
- Submit your exam application to AREC with the $50 application fee (cashier's check or money order — no personal checks) plus the Background Check Acknowledgment (BCA) form.
- Complete the state and FBI criminal background check through the Arkansas State Police — about $36.25 total ($22 state + $14.25 FBI). Important: Arkansas residents must WAIT for AREC's authorization email before getting fingerprinted.
- Once AREC issues your Certificate of Exam Eligibility, schedule and pass the Pearson VUE exam ($75).
- Within 90 days of passing, send AREC your full score report, the $50 license fee, the $25 Recovery Fund fee, and a signed post-license requirement notice — miss the 90-day window and you start over as a new applicant.
- Choose active or inactive issuance: an active license requires a sponsoring principal broker, but Arkansas will issue your license inactive if you haven't picked a brokerage yet.
- Complete the 18-hour AREC post-license course within 6 months of your initial license date — if your license sits inactive past that, you can't activate until the post-license course is done.
Budget
| Item | Estimate | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 60-hour pre-licensing course (typical online package) | $300 | |
| AREC application fee | $50 | |
| State + FBI background check | $36.25 | |
| Pearson VUE exam fee (both portions together) | $75 | |
| License fee ($50) + Recovery Fund fee ($25) | $75 | |
| Estimated total | $536.25 |
Key deadlines
- Nice quirk: your 60-hour certificate never expires for salesperson applicants, and AREC will even accept your exam application before you finish the course.
- Annually, on a calendar-year basis — $60 salesperson renewal, due by September 30 to avoid a $20 penalty.
- You'll need 7 hours of continuing education each year starting with your second renewal cycle.
- You can submit your exam application to AREC before finishing the course, but your Certificate of Exam Eligibility won't be issued until AREC has your course completion certificate.
- Keep your certificate of completion — for salesperson applicants it never expires.
- Important: Arkansas residents must WAIT for AREC's authorization email before getting fingerprinted.
- Within 90 days of passing, send AREC your full score report, the $50 license fee, the $25 Recovery Fund fee, and a signed post-license requirement notice — miss the 90-day window and you start over as a new applicant.
- Complete the 18-hour AREC post-license course within 6 months of your initial license date — if your license sits inactive past that, you can't activate until the post-license course is done.