Current Minnesota Real Estate Income, Sales, and Trends

In 2023, leading job recruiters reported that the average salary for a real estate agent in Minnesota is $81,147 annually. This breaks down to $39.01 per hour and $1,560 per week or $6,762 per month.

This is just an average estimate because some real estate agents in Minnesota earn as high as $146,361 per year and as low as $28,265 per year.

Real Estate License Renewal and Reciprocity With Minnesota

For license renewal you do not submit your own application, rather, the real estate broker you are associated with does it on your behalf.¹ Once the commerce department approves the application, the broker will print out the renewed license and is responsible for informing you about the successful renewal of your real estate salesperson license.

Additionally, Minnesota provides full reciprocity for residents of certain states that are active real estate license holders. These states include:

• Oklahoma
• South Dakota
• North Dakota
• Nebraska
• Iowa
• Colorado
• Wisconsin (partial reciprocity)

The requirements for out-of-state residents are:

1. Submitting an application on PULSE with a $210 license fee.
2. Send a letter of Certification through email (it must not be more than 90 days old), that verifies that you are currently licensed as a broker and live in any of the states mentioned above. This email should be sent to the Minnesota Commerce Department with the subject line ‘Real Estate Application.’
3. If you are from Wisconsin you need to complete a 13-hour pre-licensing course that transitions you from Wisconsin to Minnesota. This course must be completed within one year prior to the licensure application.
4. You are also required to pass the state portion of the exams for real estate salespersons.

License Inactivation

A number of factors can lead to license inactivation. They include:

1. Not completing continuing educational requirements before the deadlines
2. Your license has not been renewed successfully
3. The license of your associate broker becomes inactive
4. Your license is suspended or revoked for child support obligations or outstanding tax
5. An enforcement action has led to your license getting inactivated

You should note the date that the license becomes inactive. The timelines for reinstatement are calculated from the day that the license became inactive which in most cases, is earlier than the expiration date.

Reinstating/Reactivating Your License

After you’ve completed any missing requirements, you need to get your broker to reactivate your license via PULSE. If the license has been inactive for more than two years, you must:

1. Catch up with the pre-license education in case you missed a course
2. Re-take the state and national real estate license examination
3. Re-apply for the license through your broker and pay the applicable fees

If the license has been inactive for less than two years, the requirements for reactivation depend on whether the deadline for the renewal of your license has passed. If the deadline has not passed, you can renew by:

• Completing all outstanding requirements for continuing education
• Get your broker to apply for the license and pay a reactivation fee of $20

If the deadline for the license renewal has passed, you renew by

• Completing all outstanding requirements for continuing education
• Reapplying for the license through your broker

Transferring Your License: If your association with a licensed broker comes to an end and as a result your license becomes inactive, you are allowed to become associated with another broker who can get your license active again before the deadline for license renewal has passed.

To summarize, becoming a real estate agent in Minnesota might seem daunting but not impossible. All you have to do is go through the 90 hours of coursework, take the state exams, and apply for the license through a broker.

Hopefully, with this information, you can successfully become a real estate agent in Minnesota.