Yes, you can be a part-time real estate agent. License rules set education, an exam and broker sponsorship, not a minimum number of hours: you pass the course and the exam, then work under a broker who agrees to take you on. The license is the easy part. The hard part is that buyers and sellers call during your day job, and most of them will not wait.
Key takeaways
- Pre-license education ranges from 63 classroom hours in Florida to 180 hours in Texas. Every state also requires an exam and a sponsoring broker before you can practice.
- In NAR's 2026 Member Profile, 27 percent of Realtors had another source of income besides real estate, and the median member worked 35 hours a week.
- Realtors with two years or less of experience earned a median of 8,000 dollars from real estate in 2025, against 59,200 dollars for all members.
- Phone calls were the top way buyers first reached their agent in NAR's 2025 buyer profile, and 74 percent of buyers interviewed only one agent.
Can you be a part-time real estate agent?
You can. The licensing agencies in California, Texas, Florida and New York ask for education, a passed exam and a broker who sponsors you. None of their requirements mention working hours. Texas, for example, issues a new license as inactive until a broker sponsors you, and New York will not process an application until a licensed broker authorizes it.
Plenty of people do it. In NAR's 2026 Member Profile, 73 percent of Realtors said real estate was their only occupation, which leaves 27 percent with income from somewhere else. That is roughly one Realtor in four with a second paycheck, a pension, or a spouse's business on the side.
Licensing and costs for a part-time agent
The license requirements are the same whether you plan to work 10 hours a week or 60. They vary by state, so check your own commission's page before you pay for a course. Here is what the four largest licensing states require, from their own sites.
| State | Pre-license education | Exam | Before you can practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 3 college-level courses, at least 45 hours each | 150 questions, 70% to pass | License issued, then work under a broker |
| Texas | 180 hours across 6 courses | National and state portions | Inactive until a broker sponsors you |
| Florida | Up to 63 classroom hours | State exam | 45 hours of post-license education before first renewal |
| New York | 77 hours | $15 exam fee | $65 application, sponsored by a NY broker |
Sources: California DRE course requirements and exam format, TREC, Florida Statutes 475.17 and the New York Department of State.
State fees are the small line. New York charges 15 dollars for the exam and 65 dollars for the application. The bigger costs are course tuition, fingerprinting, and membership dues if you want the Realtor name and MLS access. National NAR dues are 156 dollars for 2027, plus a 45 dollar assessment, before state and local association dues. A part-time agent pays the same dues as a full-time one.
Will a brokerage take a part-time agent?
Many will, and some will not. The broker who sponsors you is responsible for your work, so each firm sets its own rules. Some set production minimums that a part-timer will struggle to meet. Bramlett Partners, for example, asks agents to show 10 closed transactions or 5 million dollars in volume in the past 12 months. Other firms, often those with flat fees and no office, are built around agents who set their own hours.
Questions to ask before you sign with a brokerage:
- Do you take part-time agents, and how many do you have now?
- Are there production minimums, required meetings or floor time during business hours?
- What are the fees? Commission split, monthly fees, transaction fees and errors and omissions insurance.
- Who covers my clients when I am at my other job and a buyer wants to see a house at 2pm?
- Do company leads go to part-timers, and how fast do I have to respond to keep getting them?
How much do part-time real estate agents make?
Not much in the first two years, and that is true for full-time agents too. NAR does not split income by part-time and full-time, but it does split it by experience. Realtors with two years or less in the business earned a median of 8,000 dollars from real estate in 2025.
Those figures come from NAR's 2026 Member Profile release. Gross means before expenses, and the median Realtor spent 9,530 dollars running the business. The typical member closed nine transaction sides in 2025, which works out to about 6,600 dollars of gross income per side. A part-time agent who closes two or three sides a year can earn real money. It just will not replace a salary for a while.
How many hours does a realtor work?
The median Realtor worked 35 hours a week in 2025, unchanged from the year before, HousingWire reported from the NAR profile. The hours are not nine to five. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that agents often work evenings and weekends to fit their clients' schedules.
That is the good news for a part-timer. Buyers with day jobs tour on evenings and Saturdays, which is when you are free. The bad news is everything around the tour: the first call, the "is it still available" text, the seller who wants a number today. Those arrive at 10:40 on a Tuesday, while you are in a meeting.
The real problem: the calls come during your day job
A buyer sees your sign on the way to work and calls at 8:50. You are driving. They try again at lunch, and you are in line for a sandwich with your phone face down. By the time you call back at 5:30, they have talked to someone else. The 2025 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers found that 74 percent of buyers interviewed only one agent, and Zillow's 2025 report found 47 percent of buyers hired the first agent they spoke with.
Most callers do not wait for a callback either. In CallRail's 2025 survey of 1,000 consumers, only 42 percent said they leave a voicemail, and 82 percent said they will call a competitor if a business does not answer. Put your own numbers in:
Quick math on your line
Revenue on the line every month: $5,716
Rough math on purpose. The full ROI calculator compares this against what answering actually costs.
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If you are still deciding whether to get licensed at all, the sister post asks the bigger question: is being a real estate agent hard, with exam pass rates and how many new agents renew.