Alabama Real Estate School: 60-Hour Pre-Licensing Course Guide

Alabama requires a 60-hour pre-licensing course from an AREC-approved real estate school before you can schedule the salesperson licensing exam. The course covers national real estate fundamentals, including property ownership, agency law, contracts, financing, and federal fair housing law, alongside Alabama-specific license law and disciplinary procedures. You can complete the course online or in a classroom through any AREC-approved provider, and you must finish all requirements within 1 year of your start date, including a proctored final exam.

What the Alabama pre-licensing course covers

The Alabama real estate pre licensing course combines national fundamentals with Alabama-specific license law and regulations. AREC does not prescribe specific hour allocations for individual topics, so course providers structure the curriculum according to their own approved syllabus while covering all required subject areas.

Under the Fair Housing Act^[1], the course covers the 7 protected classes: race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. The Alabama-specific portion addresses how AREC issues and regulates licenses, the duties licensees owe to clients and customers, and the disciplinary process for violations. Ethics concepts, including conflicts of interest, confidentiality obligations, and honest dealing standards, are integrated into the agency and brokerage sections rather than taught as a standalone module.

Online and classroom course formats

Alabama permits pre-licensing coursework through online real estate classes or live classroom instruction at any AREC-approved provider. Both formats satisfy the state's education requirement, though they differ in scheduling flexibility, study pace, and level of instructor interaction.

Distance education courses require ARELLO certification^[2] under Alabama standards. ARELLO, the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials, certifies that the course design and delivery meet standards recognized by real estate regulatory agencies. Instructors who teach online courses must hold an ARELLO Certified Distance Education Instructor (CDEI) credential, which is valid for 3 years.

Classroom courses meet on fixed schedules, typically in daytime or evening sessions over several weeks. Some providers also offer livestream formats that combine scheduled online sessions with self-paced study. The format you choose does not change the course content or the passing score requirement, but it does affect how quickly you can complete the coursework and how much structure you have.

Course completion requirements

To complete the Alabama pre-licensing course, you must pass a proctored final exam with a minimum score of 70%, per Alabama Administrative Code Rule 790-X-1-.06^[3], and submit signed affidavits verifying your identity and course completion. The AREC FAQ^[2] states that the course must be completed within 1 year from the date you start it. Course completion includes the proctored final examination, signed affidavits, and any other completion steps required by the course provider. If all requirements are not met within that timeframe, the entire pre-licensing course must be retaken to receive credit.

The final exam is part of the pre-licensing course, not the state licensing exam. It is a closed-book exam supervised by a disinterested third-party proctor. After you pass the final exam, your course provider reports your completion to AREC, and you can then schedule the state licensing exam.

Daily pacing and the 8-hour credit cap

Under Alabama Administrative Code Rule 790-X-1-.06^[3], students may receive credit for no more than 8 hours of coursework per day across salesperson pre-license, broker pre-license, and post-license courses. A prior version of the rule set the cap at 6 hours per day for salesperson pre-license coursework; the current rule raised the limit to 8 hours. At the maximum daily pace, the required pre-licensing coursework can be finished in a minimum of 8 calendar days.

While the AREC FAQ describes online courses as self-paced, the daily credit cap is established in the administrative code, not the FAQ page. You can study at whatever hours suit your schedule, but your course provider can only award credit for up to 8 hours of coursework on any given day.

AREC course approval and accreditation

AREC reviews and approves every pre-licensing course offered in Alabama, assigning each course a unique approval number. You can verify a course's approval status through the AREC course search tool^[4], which lists each approved course by provider, course type, credit hours, and instructor.

College and university real estate programs

Some colleges and universities offer real estate courses as part of a degree-based curriculum. If the institution's curriculum is approved by AREC, you may qualify to take the licensing exam based on accredited college coursework rather than completing a separate pre-licensing course, per the AREC FAQ^[2]. This pathway does not exempt you from the state exam itself.

Professional exemptions

Attorneys and CPAs are not exempt from the pre-licensing course or the license examination in Alabama, according to the AREC FAQ^[2]. Every applicant, regardless of professional background, must complete the course and pass both the course final exam and the state licensing exam.

Choosing an AREC-approved real estate school

Alabama has multiple AREC-approved providers offering the pre-licensing course in online, classroom, and livestream formats. The AREC website^[5] provides a course search tool that lets you filter by course type and provider, and it displays each school's first-time and overall pass rates on the state exam from the last 12 months. AREC is one of the few state commissions that publishes per-school pass rate data in a searchable format.

When comparing schools, consider the format that fits your schedule, the provider's pass rate on the state exam, and the support resources included with the course. RealEstateU offers the Alabama pre-licensing course starting at $99, with AREC Course Approval Number 1211 and ARELLO approval number 11035, and includes 12 months of course access. Other AREC-approved providers include The CE Shop, Colibri Real Estate, Kaplan Real Estate Education, Career Academy of Real Estate, MY Real Estate School, Alabama Real Estate Institute, Barnes School of Real Estate, and Academy of Real Estate.

After course completion: next steps toward the state exam

Once you pass your course final exam and your provider reports completion to AREC, you have 6 months to pass the state licensing exam. If you do not pass within that window, you must retake the entire pre-licensing course, according to the AREC course requirements page^[6]. There is no limit to the number of times you may take the licensing exam within the 6-month period, per the AREC FAQ^[2].

The state exam is administered by Pearson VUE, which replaced PSI as Alabama's exam provider effective January 3, 2023, per the AREC educator newsletter^[7]. You can schedule the exam through Pearson VUE's Alabama real estate page^[8] or by calling 888-926-9488. The exam sibling guide covers the exam format, question counts, and study strategy in detail.

After passing the state exam, you must submit your license application to AREC within 90 days of your exam date, as stated in the AREC licensing application instructions^[9]. New licensees receive a temporary license while completing required post-license education.

The renewal and continuing education sibling guide covers post-license education and CE requirements in full. Schedule your state exam promptly after course completion to ensure you pass within the 6-month window.