Why an Iowa real estate license is not a fully online errand
Which of the 96 hours can be taken online, and which Iowa requires live.
The 60-hour principles and practices course is the one Iowa allows online, and an online course has to be finished within six months of starting it. The other three — Buying Practices, Listing Practices, and Developing Professionalism and Ethical Practices — are 12 hours each and are live instruction. A package that advertises a fully online Iowa license is describing the 60-hour course and leaving 36 hours unsaid.
You have to be 18 when you apply, not when you start the course, so the classes and the exam can come first. The state's page does not state, in the material this guide was checked against, that a broker must sponsor you at the moment of application. A salesperson license is exercised under a broker in practice. That gap is left as a gap on purpose. Confirm it with the commission or the brokerage before you plan around it.
Both source pages were read on 16 September 2026. Fees move. The commission's page is the authority if this note and that page ever disagree.