Becoming a real estate agent can be a very rewarding career path. It offers a wide range of opportunities. As a real estate professional, you can help people with buying and selling of homes, farmland, commercial or industrial property. You can also be involved in property management, land development, mortgage banking, urban planning, and real estate appraisal.

What many aspiring real estate agents don’t understand is that the job is not nearly as glamourous as TV shows make it out to be. Many who are investigating how to become a real estate agent are coming to the business for a fast buck. Which, as we’ll discuss, not a good idea.

However, the process of becoming a real estate agent does require some formal education. In Ontario, Humber College Real Estate offers a Real Estate Salesperson Program for those who aspire to become a real estate in Ontario. It is a 3 step program that takes students through all aspects of becoming a real estate agent.

How to get your real estate license in Ontario

Step 1: Pre-Registration Phase of becoming a Realtor

This steps involves the future realtor completing 5 courses, 2 week long simulation sessions, and 4 exams through Humber Real Estate. The courses include Real Estate Essentials, Residential Real Estate Transactions (2 courses), Commercial Real Estate Transactions, and Getting Started. First simulation session will be done after both Residential Real Estate Transactions courses. The second session after the completion of Commercial Real Estate Transactions.

You must successfully pass (75%) an exam after exam of the first 4 courses before moving onto the next course. The learning path for this step found here.

This step is roughly 150 hours worth of work depending on how quickly you are able to understand and process the information.

Note that you have to complete this step within 24 months (2 years) of registration or you’ll need to start again.

Step 2: Register with Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO)

Once you have completed step one at Humber Real Estate College, it is now time to find a brokerage to work for. Before registering with RECO, you must be an employee of a brokerage.

Furthermore, you must register with RECO within one year of completing the Pre-Registration Phase. Once registered with RECO, you can start trading in real estate. You are now officially a Real Estate Agent!

Not all real estate brokerages are the same. And, don’t be surprised if they all want to hire you! Unlike a traditional salaried job where you apply and are selected, most brokerages work in a volume method. They more staff they have selling, the larger the income potential of the brokerage. That being said, not all brokerages are like this.

Step 3: Post Registration Phase

To be eligible to renew your registration at the end of your initial two-year registration cycle with RECO, you must complete the Post-Registration Phase.

During the Post-Registration Phase, you can choose two of five electives in addition to the mandatory Compliance course as you complete the final phase in the Real Estate Salesperson Program learning path.

Does becoming a real estate agent interest you? If you aren’t 100% sure if it is a career path you want to go down, a great way to find out is to work for a real estate agent. Not everyone working in real estate is a licensed real estate agent.

There are many non-licensed real estate assistants. Non-licensed assistants help real estate agents with their day to day duties. Becoming a non-licensed assistant allows you to work closely with an agent and get a first hand look at what the profession is like.

How much does it cost to get a real estate license in Ontario?

Registration courses

These courses are the ones that are mandatory in order to get a license, as covered in Step 1 above. There are both pre-registration fees as well as post registration fees.

The total cost, assuming you pass all exams and don’t need to retake anything is $4,110. There are some additional costs related to program fees, retakes and credit card chargebacks, but these may not be applicable to your situation. 

Regarding real estate license Ontario cost

This is just the fee to complete the courses, there are additional startup fees like insurance and local real estate board fees. To be safe, you should estimate a total startup cost of $7500 to get your real estate license in Ontario. A complete fee schedule can be found here

Other things to consider when getting your real estate license

Here are a few of the common questions we get when people are asking how to get their real estate license:

What is passit?

Passit is an online exam simulator product that you can use to help you prepare for exams. Some of the questions on Passit are previous exam questions, while others are not. You can test yourself on certain chapters, increasing in difficulty.

The Passit guides use MCQ (multiple choice questions) just like the Humber real estate exams. There are Passit guides for each course that you can buy individually, ranging in cost from $23- $49 each. Additionally there are also exams for the real estate broker course.

Not all real estate brokerages are the same

Real estate brokerages work on a model of recruiting agents, that then contribute to the brokerage expenses. And, in order to have a brokerage you must be a real estate broker designation.

So, a brokerage would like an office of top performing individuals who routinely sell houses so that they have a constant income stream. Alternatively, if a brokerage has a number of non-performing agents, they are likely going to become a failing business model.

What should I look for in a real estate brokerage?

Many new brokerages (and some existing) have started to move to a model of “low cost”. This is mainly attractive for agents who are not producing, as it means their overall expenses are less. These low cost brokerages are often online based and therefore do not have office/desk fees, lower overhead and centralized administration staff. These savings get passed on to their agents.

However, most successful realtors prefer to stay with an established brand. They believe in the “you get what you pay for” model and don’t mind paying a little bit more to get more. These benefits could include more support staff, brokerage marketing and client events, a managing broker that you can get advice from. Additionally, training is also a key component, especially for a new agent.

Shop around when looking for brokerages. No two are the same and you will want to find one that fits your style and unique needs

How much does a real estate agent make in Ontario?

According to Canada’s job bank, a real estate in Ontario makes $62,400 on average per year. Personally, we think this is even too high.

What many people fail to mention is that real estate is a very expense heavy career, whether you sell anything or not. There are a wide variety of bills you need to pay: from brokerage fees, to insurance, to local and national real estate boards. And this doesn’t even include any expenses that you may have from advertising, which are key to your long term success.What is the success rate of a real estate agent?

Here are some stats according to wowa.ca

  • The median salary of a real estate agent in Canada is $46,212
  • Over 50% of real estate agents make one or zero sales per year, while a select few make a large number of transactions
  • Only the top 10% of agents make more than 10 sales per year
  • Real estate agents have to pay for licensing and registration fees, insurance premiums, education and training costs, and marketing expenses
  • Real estate brokerages usually take a 30% commission split from real estate agents
  • Buyer agents usually make more per transaction than listing agents, but being a buyer agent takes more time and effort per transaction

As a result of the above, if you’re only selling 2-3 houses per year, you could actually be negative income for the year after all expenses are paid!

Additional fees

Brokerage fees, local real estate board fees, insurance, marketing and office expenses are all real. And, don’t forget: this is all before the Government taxes you!

Realtors to be should build a business plan that takes all of this into account. You should set realistic goals for yourself in the first few years.

Also watch what other Realtors in your market (and outside your market!) are doing. Be careful though- just because someone else does it, doesn’t mean it works.

Have more questions about getting your real estate license?

Get in touch with Beth and Ryan Waller, Guelph real estate agents!