QUICK ANSWER
To get a Florida real estate license in St. Petersburg: meet F.S. 475.17 eligibility, complete 63 hours of approved pre-license education, file the DBPR RE-1 application with the $83.75 fee, complete Livescan fingerprinting, pass the Pearson VUE state exam (100 questions, 75% to pass), and activate with a sponsoring broker. Standard path runs 3 to 5 months at $400 to $700 in fees before exam prep.
ST. PETERSBURG LICENSE CHECKLIST
F.S. 475.17: 18+, high-school diploma or equivalent, Social Security number, and DBPR good-character review.
In-person, livestream, or self-paced online. Kaplan Real Estate Education is headquartered in St. Pete (formerly Bob Hogue School).
$83.75 fee. File in parallel with the course to save 3–5 weeks of total timeline.
$50–75 at any Florida-approved vendor. 90-day validity window with DBPR.
100 questions, 3.5 hours, 75% to pass, $36.75 sitting fee. St. Petersburg has its own testing center.
$83.75 activation. The moment this processes, you can list, show, write offers, and earn commission.
The Florida real estate license is the same exam, the same 63 hours of pre-license education, the same $83.75 DBPR application fee whether you sit it in St. Petersburg or in Pensacola. The career on the other side of it is not.
Three things separate St. Petersburg from every other Florida market for a new sales associate. Hurricanes Helene and Milton in late 2024 damaged roughly 41,000 Pinellas County homes, which has put the FEMA Substantial Damage Rule (locally branded as "Rule 49") at the center of nearly every transaction involving a pre-1975 structure or any property in the floodplain. Florida House Bill 913 (2025) restructured condo reserve and milestone-inspection law after the 2021 Surfside collapse, and St. Petersburg's downtown condo inventory uses the 25-year coastal milestone threshold (not the 30-year inland threshold), which means most downtown buildings are already in reserve catch-up mode. And St. Pete sits at the southern edge of a bidirectional Tampa Bay migration pattern that doesn't exist anywhere else in Florida: post-storm sellers leaving barrier islands and waterfront properties, Northeast and Midwest downsizers landing in walkable downtown, and inter-Tampa Bay buyers crossing the Howard Frankland in both directions.
None of those appear in the standard state guide.
This post walks the six-step path from "considering this" to "active license held by a sponsoring broker": eligibility under F.S. 475.17, the 63-hour pre-license course, the DBPR application, fingerprinting, the 100-question state exam at Pearson VUE, and activation with a brokerage. By the end you'll have a realistic timeline (3 to 5 months for the standard path, 6 to 10 weeks for the mutual recognition path), an honest fee range ($400 to $700 before exam prep), and a clear view of why St. Pete's storm-rebuild market, downtown condo specialization, and Tampa Bay migration flows reward agents here differently than they reward agents in Tampa proper or Jacksonville.
What St. Petersburg actually rewards
POST-STORM MARKET FLUENCY
The storm-rebuild specialization is the most underpriced credential a new St. Pete agent can build, and the one most absent from generic state licensing guides. Hurricane Helene (September 2024) and Hurricane Milton (October 2024, two weeks apart) damaged approximately 41,000 Pinellas County homes. The City of St. Petersburg alone cleared 2.1 million cubic yards of storm debris, the largest volume the city has ever collected. The aftermath put two specific statutory mechanisms at the center of nearly every St. Pete transaction.
The FEMA Substantial Damage Rule (in St. Pete city marketing it's "Rule 49") requires that any structure in the flood hazard area where the cost to repair exceeds 49% of the structure's actual cash value must be elevated or rebuilt to current flood safety standards before reoccupation. Pinellas County has been mailing substantial damage letters to affected homeowners across 2024 and 2025. An agent who can read those letters, explain elevation certificate requirements to a buyer, and price the cost of compliance into an offer has a real differentiator over generic residential agents.
F.S. 689.302 also expanded in October 2025 to require sellers to disclose any known flood damage during ownership, regardless of whether an insurance claim was filed. St. Pete's pre-1975 housing stock (most structures built before FEMA initiated Pinellas flood maps in 1975) is disproportionately affected. The agents who explain this disclosure obligation to sellers at the listing appointment do better than the agents who learn about it from a contract dispute six months later.
DOWNTOWN CONDO + HB 913 EXPERTISE
The condo-law differentiator is the second underpriced credential, and it's structurally larger here than in Tampa proper. Downtown St. Petersburg has become Tampa Bay's largest urban-core condo market, with the downtown median sale price reaching $760,000 in late 2025 and new-construction towers like 400 Central priced at $700,000 and up. The downtown resale segment runs $425,000 to $575,000 for established buildings.
HB 913 (Chapter 718, F.S.) restructured the rules around mandatory reserves, milestone inspections, and seller disclosure packages. St. Pete's downtown is coastal under the statute's three-mile rule, which means the 25-year milestone inspection threshold applies, not the 30-year inland threshold. Most downtown buildings completed in the late 1990s and early 2000s are already inside the milestone window, which is why so many downtown HOAs are in active reserve catch-up mode and special assessments are landing across the market. The 7-day resale rescission period extended from the prior 3 days, effective July 1, 2025, is a separate change that catches out-of-state agents who don't track Florida statute.
Agents who can read a reserve study, interpret a milestone inspection report, walk a buyer through pending special assessments, and explain the 7-day rescission window cleanly close at a higher rate on downtown condo product. Buyers test you on this in conversations at showings.
BIDIRECTIONAL TAMPA BAY MIGRATION
The migration pattern is the third differentiator and the most unusual feature of the St. Pete market. Three streams flow simultaneously. Post-storm sellers leaving barrier islands and waterfront properties (some priced out of new flood insurance premiums; some unwilling to elevate; some simply done after two storms in two weeks). Northeast and Midwest downsizers landing in walkable downtown (drawn by remote-work flexibility, the arts scene, and the lower entry price compared to Naples or Sarasota). And inter-Tampa Bay buyers crossing the Howard Frankland in both directions (Hillsborough employees seeking St. Pete's lifestyle, Pinellas families seeking Hillsborough's school districts).
Agents who can serve all three streams are scarce. Most new agents pick one and stay there. The agents who learn the structural differences (waterfront flood-zone underwriting, downtown condo HOA mechanics, suburban Pinellas/Hillsborough school district nuances) build a book that handles all three over a 24-month ramp.
The honest counterweight: Pinellas has more new agents per capita than the Florida average, the downtown luxury segment is gatekept by relationship and brokerage rather than by license, and the storm-rebuild specialization requires real technical fluency that takes 12 to 18 months to build credibly.
Step 1: Eligibility
F.S. 475.17 sets the bar lower than most applicants assume. You must be 18, hold a high-school diploma or equivalent, have a Social Security number, and meet a "honesty, trustworthiness, and good character" standard that DBPR evaluates case-by-case.
The "good character" item is the one that worries second-career applicants more than it should. DBPR is materially more permissive than most state real estate commissions on prior records. Old misdemeanors, a single dated felony, and minor financial-history items rarely block a Florida license outright. The board weighs nature of offense, time since, evidence of rehabilitation, and relevance to the practice of real estate. What stops applications is not usually the conviction itself. It is incomplete disclosure on the application form.
Two practical notes for St. Pete applicants.
If your record has anything you're uncertain about, file the application honestly and let DBPR rule. The board says yes more often than applicants expect. Withholding something the background check will surface anyway is what creates problems, not the underlying record.
If you hold a non-US educational credential, you need a U.S. high-school equivalency on file. Either a GED or an accredited foreign credential evaluation. Handle it before you submit, not after.
Nothing in this section is legal advice. If your situation is non-standard, a Florida-licensed attorney will give you a clearer read than any blog post can.
Step 2: The 63-hour pre-license course
Florida requires 63 hours of approved pre-license education before you can sit the sales associate exam. The hour count is the same statewide. The providers and the formats are not.
Three formats exist:
- In-person classroom. Fixed schedule, 2 to 4 weeks of evenings or a compressed weekday track. Best for candidates who don't trust themselves to finish self-paced material.
- Livestream. Same instructor and same schedule as in-person, no commute.
- Self-paced online. Finish in as little as 9 days or stretch over 6 months. Cheapest, highest dropout rate.
Cost runs from about $150 on the cheapest national online providers to $500 for in-person classroom programs. St. Pete is the headquarters of Kaplan Real Estate Education (formerly Bob Hogue School of Real Estate). Kaplan acquired Bob Hogue in 2020, and the school now operates as a Kaplan-branded Florida education provider with the St. Pete address still active. Larson Educational Services runs Florida-focused online courses. The CE Shop, Aceable, and Colibri round out the national-online field most candidates compare. We compared the seven major providers in the best Florida pre-license course post.
KEY INSIGHT · MUTUAL RECOGNITION PATH
If you already hold an active real estate license in one of the ten Florida mutual recognition states (Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Rhode Island, West Virginia), the path described in this post is not your path. You skip the 63-hour course entirely, sit a shorter 40-question Florida-law-only exam, and can be active in 6 to 10 weeks. We cover that sequence in the Florida license transfer guide.
Full cost breakdown across the whole licensure path lives in the Florida real estate license cost post. Short version: $400 to $700 in fees and course costs before exam prep.
Step 3: The DBPR application and fingerprinting
You submit the RE-1 application through the DBPR portal. Fee is $83.75. Processing runs 2 to 6 weeks in normal periods and longer during DBPR backlog windows. Fingerprinting is done separately through a Florida-approved Livescan vendor and runs $50 to $75. Pinellas County has dozens of vendor locations across St. Pete, Clearwater, and Largo. Most are walk-in.
One tactical point that matters more than the order of any other step in this guide: file the DBPR application before you finish the 63-hour course, not after. The application and the course can process in parallel. DBPR's review does not require proof of course completion at submission. It requires it before they release you to schedule the exam. Filing early can shave 3 to 5 weeks off your total timeline.
The application asks about prior convictions, prior license discipline in any state, and financial history. Answer all of it honestly. The two most common reasons applications get flagged or delayed are nondisclosure of items DBPR finds on the background check anyway, and applicant slowness in responding to follow-up document requests. Neither of those is hard to avoid.
Fingerprints have a 90-day validity window for DBPR's purposes. Schedule the Livescan once you know your application is in. If you fingerprint too early and your application stalls for any reason, you may end up paying to re-print.
HALFWAY THERE · STEP 4 IS WHERE 50% FAIL
The exam is the only step where the failure rate is a coin flip.
1,002 Florida-specific questions weighted to the 19-topic outline, statute-current through HB 913 and the F.S. 689.302 flood disclosure expansion. Trap Library for the EXCEPT/NOT patterns that catch most first-time candidates. $39.99 once.
Step 4: The Florida Real Estate Sales Associate exam
The exam is 100 multiple-choice questions, 3.5 hours, 75% to pass. The split is 45 state-specific questions and 55 national questions, with roughly 8 to 12 math questions woven through. First-time pass rate hovers near 50%, depending on the DBPR quarter you sample. About half the people who sit it walk out without a license. That is not a comment on the test takers. It is a comment on how most candidates prepare.
The 19-topic DBPR content outline (we broke it down in the 19 topics post) is weighted heavily toward four clusters: real estate brokerage activities and procedures, contracts, property rights and ownership (which is where the condo content lives, including HB 913 changes), and mortgage and lending. Those four clusters account for roughly 40% of the exam between them. If your study time is split evenly across all 19 topics, you are spending time on the wrong ones.
St. Pete area Pearson VUE testing centers:
- St. Petersburg (on-site Pearson VUE center)
- Tampa (across the bay, 25 to 40 minutes depending on Howard Frankland traffic)
- Nearby alternates: Clearwater area providers, Port Charlotte to the south
Book early. Pinellas testing slots can run 2 to 4 weeks out in peak periods, particularly after the spring DBPR application surge.
KEY INSIGHT · WHAT THE EXAM TESTS THAT TAMPA BAY AGENTS NEED LOCALLY
The exam tests Florida law, not Pinellas-County law. But three Florida-statute test areas map directly to the St. Pete market. HB 913 condo reserve and milestone inspection content (Chapter 718, F.S.) is tested explicitly. F.S. 689.302 flood disclosure obligations, expanded effective October 2025, are tested through scenario-based residential disclosure questions. And the 4-point inspection and wind mitigation content that's not a statute but is a market reality across Florida's post-SB 2-A insurance environment shows up in property condition and disclosure questions. Candidates who treat these as "Tampa Bay trivia" rather than tested content lose points they didn't have to lose.
HB 913 content is on the exam now. If your prep material was printed before 2025, the condo reserve and milestone-inspection answers are wrong. We track the change set in the 2026 exam changes post. Whatever prep tool you use, confirm it's been updated for HB 913 before you commit your study hours to it.
Pass Florida is built for this gap: 1,002 Florida-specific questions weighted to the 19-topic outline, statute-current through HB 913, $39.99 once. Try a sample question before you decide anything.
DRILL THE PATTERNS YOU JUST READ ABOUT
Reading about the exam is not the same as practicing it.
The 50% pass rate isn't a difficulty problem. It's a preparation problem. Drill the 19-topic outline against scenario-based questions weighted to actual exam frequency, including the HB 913 condo content the 2025 prep materials don't cover.
Step 5: Find a sponsoring broker
A Florida sales associate license is inactive until a licensed broker activates it. The brokerage decision is the most consequential career choice a new agent makes in year one and the one most often made on autopilot.
KEY INSIGHT · SPLIT vs. MENTORSHIP
A high-split brokerage (you keep 70 to 100% of the commission) typically pairs the split with low training, no desk infrastructure, and no lead generation. A low-split brokerage (you keep 50 to 60%, sometimes lower in year one) typically pairs the split with structured training, a mentor or team lead, marketing support, and a transaction coordinator. For year-one St. Pete agents, the second model usually produces more closed deals even after the worse split. Most new agents close zero to two transactions in their first six months.
The St. Pete brokerage landscape sorts into four tiers:
- National full-service brands: Coldwell Banker Realty (multiple Pinellas offices), Century 21 Beggins Enterprises (Tampa Bay-wide), Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group. For new agents who want structure.
- Tech-forward growth brands: Compass Florida (downtown St. Pete office), eXp Realty (independent contractor model). For agents who want marketing infrastructure or a high-split structure.
- St. Pete-anchored independents and luxury firms: Smith & Associates Real Estate (St. Pete-headquartered, the dominant local independent), Premier Sotheby's International Realty (downtown St. Pete), Coastal Properties Group International, Mangrove Bay Realty. For agents with capital, network, or genuine downtown condo expertise.
- Flat-fee and high-split brokerages: Charles Rutenberg Realty (Largo HQ, Tampa Bay-wide), LPT Realty. For agents with their own pipeline already.
The brand-name analysis is mostly noise. Here's the analysis that matters. Smith & Associates in St. Pete is home to some of the highest-volume residential teams in Tampa Bay. The gap between a new agent's first-year income and a top-team agent's first-year income inside that same brokerage is wider than the gap between two different brokerages. The brand on the card is not the multiplier. The mentor on the team is.
The St. Pete-specific multipliers, when they kick in, are storm-rebuild fluency (FEMA 50% rule, substantial damage determinations, elevation certificate underwriting), downtown condo specialization (HB 913 reserve studies, milestone inspections, special assessment math), and bidirectional Tampa Bay migration. A new agent who develops real technical depth in any one of those three areas has differentiation that doesn't exist for new agents in most other Florida metros.
We go deeper on the brokerage-selection criteria, including the specific questions to ask at the interview, in the sponsoring broker guide.
Step 6: Activate and start
Activation runs $83.75 through DBPR and is initiated by your sponsoring broker. From the moment activation processes, you can list, show, write offers, and earn commission. The 24-month post-activation clock starts on a 45-hour post-license education requirement, which must be completed before your first license renewal.
Honest first-90-days expectation: most new St. Pete agents do not close a transaction in their first quarter. The standard pattern is 60 to 90 days of pipeline-building (sphere outreach, open houses, listing appointments shadowed with a mentor) before a first offer goes out. First closing typically lands somewhere in months 4 to 8. Income in those first months is zero, which is why most new Florida agents enter the business with 6 to 12 months of savings or part-time work covering the gap. New agents who plan for the gap make it. New agents who don't, don't.
The candidates who shorten that ramp materially in St. Pete fall into three patterns. They bring an existing book, which is why second-career applicants from finance, hospitality, or construction trades often outperform first-career applicants (construction trades is particularly relevant in St. Pete given the storm-rebuild market). They have technical depth in one of the three differentiators above. Or they bring relocation-buyer relationships from the Northeast or Midwest that route into St. Pete naturally.
None of those is reliably built in the first 90 days. All of them can be built deliberately starting in month one if you know to build them.
CALENDAR · STANDARD-PATH TIMELINE
Start the 63-hour pre-license course. File the DBPR RE-1 application the same week. Review and coursework run on separate clocks.
Walk into any Florida-approved Livescan vendor (Pinellas County has dozens). DBPR application enters review in parallel.
Book early. St. Pete and Tampa metro slots run 2–4 weeks out in peak periods. 100 questions, 75% to pass.
Most new agents close their first transaction in months 4–8. Plan 6–12 months of savings to bridge the ramp.
What you'll actually make in St. Petersburg
This is the section most state-guide pages get wrong. They cite an average and move on. Tampa Bay real estate income is bimodal, and an average obscures more than it reveals.
The honest numbers across major sources (Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA):
| Source | Average / Median | Range (25th–75th percentile) |
|---|---|---|
| Glassdoor (Q1 2026) | ~$108K | $78K – $145K |
| AceableAgent career data | ~$85K | n/a |
| Indeed | ~$95K | n/a |
| ZipRecruiter (Apr 2026) | ~$72K | $52K – $88K |
The reason the spread between $72K and $108K is so wide is not survey error. It is the underlying distribution. A meaningful share of Tampa Bay agent income is concentrated in a top decile (downtown St. Pete luxury condo, Snell Isle, Old Northeast, Pinellas barrier-island waterfront, and the highest-end Hillsborough markets across the bay), and the long tail of part-time, first-year, and generalist agents pulls the lower averages down. ZipRecruiter and Indeed lean toward broader populations including newer agents. Glassdoor skews higher because it captures more team-affiliated agents.
What that means for a new agent: your year-one income will almost certainly be on the low end of those ranges. Most new agents in any Florida metro earn between $10,000 and $30,000 gross in year one. The multiples that show up in the higher data points come in year two, year three, and year five, and they come faster for agents with storm-rebuild fluency, downtown condo expertise, or bidirectional migration relationships. The Tampa Bay premium is real. It is also back-loaded.
Deeper on the data, the year-by-year ramp, and segmentation in the Florida real estate agent salary post.
Ready to sit the St. Pete exam?
The 50% first-time pass rate is the gap between candidates who study by reading and candidates who study by retrieval against the question patterns the exam actually uses. Pass Florida was built for the second kind. 1,002 Florida-specific questions, statute-current through HB 913 and the F.S. 689.302 flood disclosure expansion, weighted to the official 19-topic outline, with a Trap Library for the EXCEPT/NOT pattern questions that catch most first-time candidates. $39.99 once. Lifetime access on iOS and Android. No subscription, no upsells, no fake reviews.
FAQ
How long does it take to get a real estate license in St. Petersburg?
3 to 5 months on the standard path (eligibility check, 63-hour course, DBPR application, fingerprints, state exam, broker activation). 6 to 10 weeks on the mutual recognition path if you hold an active license in one of the ten reciprocating states (Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Rhode Island, West Virginia).
How much does a Florida real estate license cost in St. Petersburg?
$400 to $700 before exam prep, depending on which 63-hour pre-license course you choose. The mandatory fees are the $83.75 DBPR application, $50 to $75 for Livescan fingerprinting, the $36.75 Pearson VUE exam sitting fee, and $83.75 to activate with a broker. Course costs ($150 to $500) make up the rest. Full breakdown in the Florida real estate license cost post.
Where do I take the Florida real estate exam if I'm based in St. Petersburg?
St. Petersburg has its own Pearson VUE testing center. Tampa also hosts a center across the bay (25 to 40 minutes via the Howard Frankland Bridge depending on traffic). Port Charlotte is the next closest alternate to the south. Booking 2 to 4 weeks ahead is standard in peak periods.
Does the St. Petersburg market reward specialization?
Yes, more than most Florida metros. Three specializations show clear income differentials in year two and beyond: post-storm rebuild fluency (FEMA 50% rule, F.S. 689.302 disclosure obligations, elevation certificate underwriting), downtown condo + HB 913 expertise (reserve studies, milestone inspections, special assessment math under the 25-year coastal threshold), and bidirectional Tampa Bay migration (post-storm coastal sellers, Northeast/Midwest downsizer inflow, inter-bay buyer flows). Generalist agents close fewer deals than specialists who picked one of these tracks and built credible technical depth.
Why is the FEMA 50% rule (Rule 49) so important in St. Pete specifically?
Pinellas County had approximately 41,000 homes sustain storm damage from Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024. Many of those structures are in the FEMA-designated floodplain, and the Substantial Damage Rule (also called Rule 49 in St. Pete city marketing) requires that any flood-zone structure with repair costs exceeding 49% of its actual cash value be elevated or rebuilt to current flood safety standards. That requirement affects listing prices, buyer offers, financing, and insurance availability on a large share of the affected inventory. Agents who can read a substantial damage determination letter cleanly and price the cost of compliance into transactions have a real edge.
Can I get a Florida real estate license with a criminal record?
It depends on the offense, time since, evidence of rehabilitation, and relevance to the practice of real estate. DBPR is materially more permissive than most state real estate commissions. Old misdemeanors, a single dated felony, and minor financial-history items rarely block a license outright. What stops applications is nondisclosure on the form. The background check surfaces the record either way, so file honestly and let DBPR rule.
What's the difference between St. Petersburg and Tampa for a new real estate agent?
Same license, different career. St. Pete rewards post-storm market fluency (FEMA 50% rule, flood disclosure, elevation certificates), downtown condo + HB 913 specialization (the 25-year coastal milestone threshold means most downtown buildings are already in reserve catch-up mode), and bidirectional Tampa Bay migration (coastal-to-mainland sellers plus Northeast/Midwest downsizer inflow). Tampa rewards insurance literacy (wind mitigation, 4-point inspections, post-SB 2-A market), broader migration-flow specialization, and new-construction mechanics in Pasco and east Hillsborough. Many Tampa Bay agents work both sides of the Howard Frankland; the two markets are complementary, not substitutable.
Methodology
What this post covers. The mechanical and practical path to a Florida real estate sales associate license for candidates based in St. Petersburg and the broader Pinellas County market, including eligibility, the 63-hour pre-license course, the DBPR application, fingerprinting, the state exam at Pearson VUE, activation with a sponsoring broker, and realistic year-one income expectations for the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA. Current as of May 2026.
Data sources. Florida Statutes Chapter 475 (license law), Chapter 718 (Condominium Act, as amended by HB 913), and F.S. 689.302 (flood disclosure, October 2025 expansion), Florida Administrative Code Rule 61J2, DBPR Division of Real Estate fee schedule and application guidance, Pearson VUE Florida Real Estate Sales Associate Candidate Handbook (2025), City of St. Petersburg Rule 49 guidance, Pinellas County storm recovery permitting documentation, FEMA Substantial Damage Rule guidance, Neptune Flood Research Group flood insurance data (St. Petersburg-based), Florida Realtors Tampa Bay market reports (Q1 2026), and aggregated salary data from Glassdoor (Q1 2026), Indeed, ZipRecruiter (Apr 2026), and AceableAgent.
Why this post emphasizes storm-rebuild content. Hurricanes Helene and Milton (September and October 2024) damaged approximately 41,000 Pinellas County homes, putting the FEMA Substantial Damage Rule and F.S. 689.302 flood disclosure obligations at the center of the local market. Generic Florida licensing guides written before late 2024 do not reflect this market reality. The post addresses it explicitly because agents who don't understand the rebuild mechanics underperform agents who do.
Why this post does not rely on one average income figure. Tampa-St. Petersburg real estate income is bimodal. A single "average" misrepresents the distribution for new agents and for top-decile agents alike. The post cites the range across four data sources and explains the distribution explicitly.
Mutual recognition note. The ten-state mutual recognition list (AL, AR, CT, GA, IL, KY, MS, NE, RI, WV) reflects DBPR's current agreements at time of writing. Mutual recognition agreements have changed historically and may change again. Confirm against DBPR's current published list before relying on it.
What this post does not cover. The Florida broker license (a different track with different rules), the 45-hour post-license education requirement in detail (covered in a dedicated post), or content review for specific exam topics (the 19-topic and math-formula posts handle those).
Sources
- Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Real Estate (application, fee schedule, eligibility rules)
- Florida Statutes Chapter 475 (real estate license law), Chapter 718 (Condominium Act, as amended by HB 913, 2025), and F.S. 689.302 (flood disclosure, October 2025 expansion)
- Florida Administrative Code, Rule 61J2 (exam and eligibility rules)
- Pearson VUE Florida Real Estate Sales Associate Candidate Handbook (2025)
- City of St. Petersburg Rule 49 / Substantial Damage Rule guidance
- Pinellas County Building & Development Review Services storm recovery permitting documentation
- FEMA Substantial Damage Rule guidance and Pinellas County floodplain regulations
- Neptune Flood Research Group, post-Helene and post-Milton flood insurance market analysis (Nov 2024)
- Florida Realtors Tampa Bay Metro market reports (Q1 2026)
- Glassdoor, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, AceableAgent (Tampa Bay real estate agent salary data)
All information verified May 2026.