The license
Legal Entry
- — Education
- — Exam preparation
- — State requirements
- — Legal entry into the profession
Starting from the beginning
Thinking About a Career in Real Estate? Start Here.
Before you can build a real estate business, you need to earn your California real estate license. The licensing process gives you permission to enter the profession. What happens after that determines whether you actually learn how to build a business.
This page will help you understand the path from education and licensing into training, brokerage selection, and your first months in the business.
Education
License
Brokerage
Training
Business
The big picture
Your License Is the Beginning, Not the Finish Line.
One of the biggest misconceptions about entering real estate is that getting licensed prepares you to build a real estate business.
It does not.
The licensing process teaches you the material necessary to satisfy California’s education requirements and prepare for the state licensing examination.
After that, a completely different education begins.
- Work with actual buyers and sellers
- Understand and use contracts
- Generate business
- Follow up with potential clients
- Conduct consultations
- Write and negotiate offers
- Build market knowledge
- Use real estate technology
- Manage a pipeline
- Communicate value
- Develop consistent business habits
The business
Professional Practice
- — Clients
- — Contracts
- — Lead generation
- — Sales skills
- — Market knowledge
- — Follow-up
- — Business planning
- — Execution
You need both. They are simply different stages of the journey.
Your path
From “I’m Thinking About Real Estate” to Building the Business
01
Complete Your Required Education
An aspiring California salesperson must first complete the applicable state-required real estate education.
02
Prepare for the California State Exam
Completing the coursework and preparing to pass the licensing examination are related, but they are not the same thing. Approved Real Estate Academy provides licensing education and exam preparation resources designed to help students understand the material and prepare for the next step.
03
Complete the Licensing Process
After completing the applicable education and examination requirements, you can move through the California licensing process.
Licensing requirements, fees, timelines, and procedures can change. Always verify current requirements directly with the California Department of Real Estate and your licensing school.
04
Choose Where You Will Build Your Business
Passing the exam answers one question: “Can I become a real estate agent?” It does not answer the next one: “Where and how am I going to build the business?” Your brokerage decision affects your environment, training, leadership, technology, support, economics, and the people surrounding you while you learn the profession.
05
Learn How to Actually Do the Job
Once you are licensed and have chosen the right environment, the focus changes. Now you need to learn how to work with clients, understand contracts, generate opportunities, study the market, follow up, communicate value, and develop the habits of a functioning real estate professional. That is where the rest of this website begins.
Licensing education
Approved Real Estate Academy
For people who have not yet completed the education required to pursue their California real estate license, Approved Real Estate Academy provides a dedicated place to begin the licensing journey.
Use the Approved Real Estate Academy website as the source for its current programs, schedules, instructors, pricing, course offerings, exam preparation resources, and enrollment information.
Licensing Education
Complete the education required for the licensing journey.
Exam Preparation
Build familiarity with the concepts and material you will encounter as you prepare for the state exam.
Live Educational Support
Learn within an environment designed specifically for aspiring real estate professionals.
Career Transition
Begin thinking beyond the exam toward what you will actually do once the license is earned.
From education to career
The Part Most Licensing Schools Cannot Teach You
There is an important transition between learning enough to become licensed and learning how to operate as a real estate professional.
Jacob Lawlor serves as Career Director with Approved Real Estate Academy and as Regional Branch Manager for First Team Real Estate’s Mission Viejo and San Clemente offices.
His role is not simply to help someone understand how to get licensed. It is to help aspiring and newly licensed agents understand what comes next.
Before the license
- — Education
- — Exam preparation
- — Understanding the profession
The transition
- — Career direction
- — Brokerage evaluation
- — Expectations
- — Business planning
After the license
- — Contracts
- — Clients
- — Lead generation
- — Market knowledge
- — Sales skills
- — Coaching
- — Accountability
- — Implementation
The goal is to remove the artificial line between “I passed the exam” and “I know what I’m supposed to do Monday morning.”
That transition is exactly why this career-building platform exists.
Choose your next step
Where Are You Right Now?
01
I’m Just Exploring Real Estate
You’re curious about the career and want to understand what becoming an agent actually involves.
02
I Need to Complete My Education
You’re ready to begin or finish the coursework necessary to move toward a California real estate license.
03
I’m Almost Licensed or Recently Passed
Now your questions are probably shifting from the exam to choosing a brokerage, learning the business, and figuring out what happens next.
04
I’m Already Licensed
If the license is already behind you, move directly into the training, business planning, lead generation, and production resources.
Before you start
Know What You’re Signing Up For.
Real estate offers significant opportunity, but getting a license does not guarantee clients, transactions, or income. Like any professional business, it requires skill development, consistent activity, conversations, follow-up, market knowledge, and time.
01
Why real estate?
What do you actually want this career or business to create for you?
02
How much time can you commit?
What will your weekly schedule realistically look like while you are learning and building?
03
How will you create business?
Are you prepared to generate conversations rather than waiting for clients to appear?
04
Are you willing to learn?
Contracts, market knowledge, sales skills, technology, negotiation, and client service all require continued development after licensing.
You do not need to have all the answers before you begin.
But you should understand that earning the license and building the business are two different commitments.
What comes next
Once You Have the License, This Website Becomes Your Playbook.
Choose Your Environment
Understand what to evaluate when comparing brokerages.
See the First 90 Days
Understand what the transition from newly licensed to functioning agent can actually look like.
Learn the Business
See Series 101, Power Curve, contracts, buyer skills, seller skills, and the development framework.
Build Your Business
Move from education into lead generation, production, listings, market knowledge, and business planning.
Understand First Team
See the platform, resources, support, training, technology, and environment First Team provides.
You Do Not Have to Figure Out the Entire Career Before You Take the First Step.
If you have not started the licensing process yet, begin by understanding the education required.
If you are already working toward your license, start learning what comes after the exam.
And if you are close to becoming licensed, we can begin talking about the kind of business you want to build.
Approved Real Estate Academy is presented as First Team’s affiliated licensing school. Visit the school and California Department of Real Estate for current requirements, programs, schedules, fees, and procedures.
Completing education or passing an examination does not guarantee licensure, brokerage affiliation, employment, clients, transactions, income, or business results.
Results are not guaranteed. Real estate production depends on individual effort, market conditions, licensing status, compliance, consistency, skill development, transaction terms, client decisions, follow-up, and execution.