• “Underneath All is the Land!” This famous axiom forms the foundation of all Real Estate Professionals’ work.
• Real Estate Professionals are individuals and companies who know the laws and regulations pertaining to real estate – individuals you can trust with your confidential information. They aim to promote peaceful ownership and effective passing of the title from one person to another.
• Real Estate licensing for Real Estate Brokers and Salespeople has evolved in order to protect consumers while they buy and sell real property. These agents act like catalysts between the various parties involved in a transfer of title to real estate. The Real Estate Broker License or Real Estate Salesperson License indicates that the person has what it takes to help consumers through the maze of finding, evaluating and financing real estate.
• The uniqueness of the real estate licensing laws of each state is expressed in the diversity of laws, rules, and regulations that each state adopts. 
• The states differ on every aspect of the licensing: how much education is required to obtain a license, the type and depth of the examinations, and whether education courses are required once an agent becomes licensed.
•  Fees vary tremendously in the various states, as does the valuable potential of reciprocity with other states.
• To further the protection of the consumers, and to provide a voice for the Real Estate Professional, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) was formed.
• Members are pledged to a strict Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. The association has over one million members. The NAR also provides continuing education courses, an annual requirement for maintaining a Real Estate license in some states. The association also promotes the most effective government regulations. All states have members in the NAR.
• The National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) was formed to bring together the nation’s Real Estate Minority Professionals in order to promote a meaningful exchange of ideas about the real estate industry – always searching for better ways to serve their clients.
• The North Carolina Real Estate Commission is an independent state governmental agency whose primary function is to oversee the licensing and regulating of the over 80,000 real estate agents in the state. The North Carolina Licensing Law can be viewed online.
• There is only one “type” of real estate license, a broker license in North Carolina.  There are however, there are several license status categories
• Provisional Broker: This is the “entry level” license status category. A person who has met all the license qualification requirements (including a 75-hour prelicensing course and passing the Commission’s license examination) is initially issued a broker license on “provisional” status and is referred to as a “provisional broker.”
• Broker: – A broker is a “provisional broker” who satisfies all postlicensing education requirements to terminate the “provisional” status of such license becomes simply a “broker” and is NOT required to be supervised by a broker-in-charge in order to hold an “active” license.
• The requirements for a real estate broker license in North Carolina include being at least 18 years of age and having successfully completed at least 90 hours of approved classroom real estate courses within the three year period preceding the date of application.  An equivalent amount of experience and/or education may be accepted by the Commission in place of some of the 90 hours. All applicants must pass the broker real estate exams.
• All applicants for a real estate broker license need to provide proof that they possess competency, honesty, truthfulness, integrity and general moral character. Therefore, all applicants need to provide a Criminal Record Report and fingerprints to aid investigation.
• The North Carolina real estate broker licenses are issued at no charge, but the application fee is $30 and the exam fee is $66.  Licenses are issued for a one year period ending on June 30th and renewal of the licenses begins 45 days before that date.