An applicant for an Illinois broker license has to show 75 hours of approved real estate instruction, and 15 of those hours must be situational and case studies. The Real Estate License Act of 2000 sets that number, and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) publishes the curriculum that fills the hours. This guide walks through the course topic by topic, using the Act, the state's rules and the IDFPR curriculum document. If you are still weighing where to hang your license afterward, read our guide on how to choose your first brokerage alongside it.

How The 75 Hours Are Built

The requirement lives in Section 5-27 of the Real Estate License Act. It lists what a broker applicant must do: be at least 18, be of good moral character, hold a high school diploma or an Illinois High School Diploma verified under oath, provide satisfactory evidence of 75 hours of instruction in real estate courses approved by the Department, personally take and pass the written exam, and file an application with the fees set by rule. The 75 hours are one line in that list, and the same list also names the 15 hours of situational and case studies. Those 15 hours have to be presented in a classroom, by live interactive webinar or through online distance education.

One exception sits in the same section. The high school requirement and the 75-hour requirement do not apply to an applicant who is currently admitted to practice law by the Supreme Court of Illinois and is in active standing. Everyone else takes the course.

The state rule on broker pre-license education is short. An applicant must complete 75 credit hours of instruction, and the education stays valid for 2 years after the satisfactory completion of all the required pre-license education. The rule was amended effective July 7, 2025.

IDFPR's curriculum document states its own goal in one sentence: to give prospective licensees the knowledge necessary to prepare for the Illinois Real Estate Broker examination. It then splits the 75 hours into three parts inside two courses. The first course is 60 hours of Real Estate Topics, which covers parts 1 and 2 at 30 hours each. The second is 15 hours of Applied Real Estate Principles, which is part 3. The arithmetic is simple. Thirty plus thirty plus fifteen is seventy-five.

The rules back this up from the school's side. A licensed education provider that offers pre-license courses must offer a 60 credit hour course that includes, but is not limited to, introduction to license law, real property, current state and federal law, real estate transactions and real estate career paths. It must also offer the 15 credit hour Applied Real Estate Principles course. The words "not limited to" are in the rule, and a separate provision says the Division may approve courses that incorporate additional real estate topics. A school's outline can therefore carry more than the state's minimum list. The rules also say each school's outline has to conform to the standardized curriculum the Division provides.

Format is where the two courses differ. The 60-hour course may be provided in any format. The 15-hour course may be provided only in a classroom, through a live interactive webinar or by online distance education. Credit for a classroom, webinar or online distance course does not require an exam. Credit for a course taken by correspondence or home study requires passing an in-person, proctored exam. For those home study courses, the rule says the final exam must have at least 25 questions for every 15 credit hours, the minimum passing score is 75%, and the hours of the course do not count the time spent taking the exam. The rule also says any remote proctoring has to follow state and federal law, and that the school's registration material must tell the student in writing whether the exam is electronic, on paper or both.

Live webinars and online courses carry their own proof of participation. In a webinar, every participant has to answer or respond to at least one polling question per 50 minutes of instruction. In an online distance course, participants show proficiency through verifiable responses to questions built into the course content. For more on how those formats work in practice, see our article on getting your Illinois license online.

Two more rules shape how the hours are counted. A school must verify attendance, and a student gets credit only for time actually spent attending the course or, where it applies, for a passing score of at least 75% on the final exam. A school must also provide make-up classes for absent students, but no more than 10% of the total credit hours may include make-up hours. A student who misses any make-up credit hours fails the course. If you want to confirm that a particular school and course count at all, our guide on checking that a pre-license school is approved covers that step.

Part 1: The First 30 Hours, Introduction To Real Estate

Part 1 is the 30-hour Introduction to Real Estate. It has six subjects, and the hours add up to 30. The curriculum assigns them as 30 minutes of license law, 4.5 hours of real property, 3 hours of federal laws, 6 hours of the structure of agency, 9 hours of seller relationships and counseling, and 7 hours of buyer relationships and counseling.

License law gets the shortest block, 30 minutes. It covers the history and purpose of licensing, the licensure requirements, and the Real Estate License Act with its rules and regulations. Illinois law gets its own 3-hour block in Part 2.

Real property gets 4.5 hours. It starts with land characteristics: land measurement, mineral, air and water rights, and measuring structures and counting rooms. Legal descriptions follow, in three forms: metes and bounds, lots and blocks, and governmental surveys. The encumbrances unit names liens, easements, encroachments and title encumbrances. Ownership types include severalty, the types of co-ownership, common-interest ownership and life estate ownership.

The land use controls unit splits into government controls and private controls. Government controls are zoning, special land types, and environmental hazard regulations and disclosures. Private controls are deed conditions or restrictions, covenants, conditions and restrictions, and homeowners association regulations. The block closes with material defects and disclosures, and with personal property and fixtures.

Federal laws get 3 hours across three subjects. The first is fair housing together with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The second is antitrust. The third is disclosures. Fair housing appears again later in the curriculum, in the advertising block, the leasing block and the applied principles scenarios.

The structure of agency block runs 6 hours. It begins with agency relationships and lists four: designated agency, single agency, dual agency and no agency. It then separates a client from a customer and walks through the statutory responsibilities, confidentiality requirements, required disclosures, latent defects and stigmatized properties, and the disclosure of an ownership interest or a conflict of interest.

Seller relationships and counseling gets 9 hours, the biggest block in Part 1. It opens with agency disclosure, the duties owed to seller clients, and dual agency consent or denial. The core is the listing appointment, which the curriculum breaks into nine pieces: gathering data, proof of title, qualifying the seller, determining seller equity, property condition, short sale and foreclosure, compensation, listing agreement issues and disclosure forms. The block finishes with ongoing communications by oral, email, text and social media channels, and with the termination of agency.

Buyer relationships and counseling gets 7 hours and mirrors the seller block. It covers agency disclosure, buyer representation and dual agency consent or denial. It then covers qualifying a buyer by motive, urgency and financial qualifications. The duties to buyer clients are statutory and ethical duties, material facts disclosures, the buying process and offers of compensation. Showing property conduct has its own line. The block ends with the same communications channels and the termination of agency.

Part 2: The Next 30 Hours, State Laws And Transactions

Part 2 is the 30-hour State Laws and Transactions section. It has eight subjects. Illinois law gets 3 hours, advertising and technology 2, appraisal and comparative market analysis 3, financing 6, real estate calculations 3, contracts 8, transfer of title 3, and leasing and property management 2. Those add to 30.

The Illinois law block lists seven items. They are obtaining a real estate license in Illinois, administration of the license law, state and local disclosures, the Illinois Human Rights Act, unauthorized practice of law with reference to Quinlan and Tyson, licensed activities versus unlicensed activities, and disciplinary actions.

Advertising and technology gets 2 hours. Advertising and marketing practices cover truth in advertising, fair housing issues in advertising, and the requirements for print, electronic and social media. The technology half covers the Do Not Call Registry, the CAN-SPAM Act and phishing, and the requirements for handling confidential information.

The appraisal and comparative market analysis block gets 3 hours. The appraisal side covers the purpose and general steps of the appraisal process and how value is estimated. The comparative market analysis side covers selecting and adjusting comparable properties, historical sales and expired listings, market conditions and value, and understanding and communicating statistics.

Financing gets 6 hours, the longest block in Part 2 after contracts. It begins with concepts and terminology: points, interest, LTV, PMI and PITI. It then covers financing instruments, types of loans and the lending process. A full unit covers financing and credit law: Truth in Lending, Equal Credit Opportunity, the CFPB and TRID rules, predatory lending and mortgage fraud, and RESPA. The block ends with foreclosure, redemption and bankruptcy, and with credit scores, credit history and debt ratios.

Real estate calculations gets 3 hours and has three parts. Area calculations come first, then financing calculations, then calculations for transactions. The transaction list is property tax, prorations, commissions and commission splits, the seller's sale proceeds, the buyer's down payment and closing costs, PITI, and the transfer fee, revenue stamps or conveyance tax.

Contracts in real estate gets 8 hours, the largest block in Part 2. The curriculum lists fourteen items: basics of contract law, listing agreements, purchase agreements, addendums and contingencies and their effects, electronic signatures and paperless transactions, letters of intent, earnest money and escrow rules, presenting and negotiating offers, multiple offers, contemporaneous offers, terminating a contract, closing transactions, leases and security deposits, and employee and independent contractor agreements.

Transfer of title gets 3 hours. Title insurance covers its purpose, title searches, abstracts and chain of title, marketable versus insurable title, and potential title issues and remedies. Deeds cover their purpose, their types, their elements and recording. Closing covers the responsibilities of the title company or escrow agent, prorated items, closing statements and TRID disclosures, estimated closing costs and property taxes. The special process unit names foreclosure and short sale. The block ends with warranties, meaning the purpose and scope of home and construction warranties.

Leasing and property management closes Part 2 with 2 hours. It covers the basic duties of property management, lease agreements by type and key element, landlord and tenant rights and obligations, the property manager's fiduciary responsibilities, and fair housing and ADA compliance. The rules let a licensed education provider offer a separate 15 credit hour course for pre-license residential leasing agents, and we compare the two licenses in our article on the leasing agent license versus the broker license.

Part 3: The 15 Hours Of Applied Real Estate Principles

Part 3 is the 15 hours the Act describes as situational and case studies. The curriculum labels it an interactive course and calls it a practicum that reviews all the learning objectives. It is the part of the 75 hours with a restricted format.

The role play, situational and case study examples are seven in number. They are a listing presentation with the agreement and disclosures, buyer representation with agency and disclosures, designated agency disclosure and dual agency, writing purchase agreements and offers, presenting, negotiating and countering offers, handling multiple offers and counteroffers, and managing assistants.

The demonstration examples are three: a market analysis, a seller net sheet and a buyer's closing costs.

The curriculum lists seven "what if" situations. They are confronting fair housing violations and the proper handling of failing contracts by a seller or buyer, proper handling and disbursing of escrow money, distressed property issues, fair housing questions, antitrust scenarios, and inspection and repairs issues. The curriculum labels all of the Part 3 items as examples.

After the license is issued, a new broker also owes 45 hours of post-license education, which the rules set as three 15 credit hour courses on applied brokerage principles, risk management and discipline, and transactional issues. We cover that next stage in Illinois post-license education: the 45 hours explained.

The Bottom Line

The Illinois broker pre-license course is 75 hours. Sixty are real estate topics in two 30-hour parts, and 15 are applied principles taught through role play, demonstrations and "what if" situations. The 60 hours can be taken in any format. The 15 hours must be in a classroom, a live webinar or online distance education. The education is valid for 2 years after you complete it, so the exam and application have to fit inside that window.

Before you enroll, confirm that the school and the course are approved, and read the outline against the topic list above. The curriculum's stated goal is preparing you for the exam. Sponsorship is a separate step, because no applicant may engage in licensed activity until a valid sponsorship is registered with the Department. Our guide on how to choose your first brokerage covers that decision. Gambino Realtors has been in business in Rockford since 1923.

Those are the numbers and topics as the state publishes them. Here are quick answers to the questions the course list raises.

Frequently Asked Questions