Kaplan Real Estate Education Review (2026): Cost, Format, Honest Verdict

Colorado is the one state that publishes first time pass rates by school, with the raw counts, every quarter. It is also Kaplan's most expensive market in the country. Those two facts sit badly together.

In the 2025 annual report, Kaplan Denver put 647 candidates through the national portion, more than any other school in the state, and 385 passed. That is 59.0 percent against a statewide 63.5 percent, and last of the five largest providers. Kaplan's Colorado package runs $799 to $1,299.

Kaplan is a serious school with real strengths, and I will get to them. But it is the most expensive of the four major online providers, its guarantee returns study time rather than your money, and where a regulator counts it at scale it came fourth. Below is the pricing in twelve states, the guarantee read condition by condition, and what the review record does and does not support. I sell houses and run real estate coaching, so read the next box first.

Where a regulator counts Kaplan at scale, it came last

Most states publish nothing useful about school performance. Colorado is the exception. Its Division of Real Estate publishes first time pass rates by school, with tested and passed counts rather than bare percentages, annually and quarterly.

Kaplan appears there as Kaplan Denver, school code 0105. Here is 2025 in full.

Colorado Division of Real Estate, Broker Examination First Time Pass Rates, 2025 annual report, read 27 August 2026. Statewide national portion 2,868 tested and 1,821 passed; state portion 1,841 tested and 1,027 passed. The Division truncates its percentages, so the counts are the reliable figures.

Two things make this the most useful number in the article. The sample is large, 647 candidates, more than any other school in Colorado sent, so Kaplan is not a marginal player judged on a handful of students. And it is the school's own students measured by the state, not by the school.

Against the other large Colorado providers on that same national portion, Kaplan finished fifth of five: Armbrust 79 percent, The CE Shop 72, VanEd 64, Colorado Real Estate School 60, Kaplan 59.

Two quarters of 2026, for fairness

One year is one year, so I pulled the quarterly reports too.

Same source, Q1 and Q2 2026 reports, read 27 August 2026. Q3 and Q4 are marked coming soon.

That is a more mixed picture and I am not going to hide it. In 2026 so far Kaplan is roughly at or slightly above the Colorado average, and notably ahead on the state portion in the second quarter. The 2025 annual result is the weakest of the four readings.

My honest read is that Kaplan in Colorado is an average school by outcome, which is not the same as a bad one. What it is not is evidence for the premium price, and that is the point: Colorado is where Kaplan charges the most and where its students perform around the middle.

One boundary. Colorado licenses brokers rather than salespeople and requires 168 hours, so these results do not automatically transfer to a 60 hour salesperson course elsewhere. Best evidence available, not proof about every market.

The most expensive of the four majors, state by state

Kaplan publishes its prices openly on every state page. No struck through anchors, no permanent discount code, no state selector gate. After looking at how Colibri presents pricing, that is a genuine mark in Kaplan's favour and I want to say so before the numbers.

Read from Kaplan's own state pages on 27 August 2026. Illinois and North Carolina license brokers as the entry level. Texas also offers the Exam Prep package at $129 a month recurring instead of $499 once.

Now the comparison that matters. In Texas, Colibri's four tiers run $299 to $449 and AceableAgent's start at $149. Kaplan is $499 to $899. In Florida, Colibri is $99 to $269 where Kaplan is $269 to $599. Kaplan is roughly double the field almost everywhere.

Florida also shows something useful about how Kaplan prices: the same 63 hour course is $269 online and $459 in a classroom, and the Career Launcher tier is $599 online against $799 in person. A flat $200 premium for a room and a person in it, which is at least an honest way to charge for a different product.

Two oddities. Virginia sells 16 hours of continuing education for $169 and 30 hours of post-licensing for $159, so the shorter requirement costs more. And Virginia's cheapest pre-licensing option, the bare $210 Principles course, is not a package: no exam prep, no question bank, and no guarantee. If you are in Virginia, I priced every approved provider in the Virginia licence course comparison.

What the tiers are, and one that does not exist

Kaplan runs two named packages in most states, sometimes three.

Itemised from Kaplan's Texas and Virginia package pages, 27 August 2026. Kaplan values the Accelerator component at $399 by its own reckoning.

Two things to correct, one of which was on this site until today.

There is no tier called Career Accelerator. The top tier is Career Launcher everywhere I looked. Real Estate Accelerator is a component inside it, not a package. If you see a price quoted against a Career Accelerator package, whoever wrote it did not open the page.

The jump between tiers is large and mostly print. In Texas, Exam Prep to Career Launcher is $400 for the Accelerator programme plus physical books and flashcards. In Virginia it is $300 for the same set. Whether that is worth it comes down to one question: do you learn from paper. If you do not, you are paying several hundred dollars for textbooks you will not open.

The bare course only tier deserves a warning of its own. It looks like the cheap way in, and in Virginia it is $89 less than the next tier up. It also carries no exam prep and no guarantee, which means you are buying the hours and nothing that helps you pass them. I would not buy it.

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What failing would actually cost you

The Kaplan Commitment is the reason people pay the premium, so it is worth pricing properly. Pick your state and tier, then tick only the conditions you could honestly meet. Nothing is sent anywhere.

The middle box is the one to look at. It reads $0 in every state, at every tier, under every combination, because that is what the guarantee pays in cash. This is not a criticism of Kaplan for having a conditional guarantee, since every school's has conditions. It is a warning against reading the word guarantee and assuming your money is protected.

The guarantee returns study time, not your money

Kaplan calls it the Kaplan Commitment to Pass. Here is the trigger, in its own words:

"If you sit for the state exam within 30 days of completing your licensing program (or less if your specific state regulations requires) and do not pass, Kaplan will continue to support your studies for the same state exam at no cost to you."
Kaplan Commitment page, read 27 August 2026

Read the verb. Kaplan will continue to support your studies. There is no refund, no partial refund, and no credit. What you get is a personalised study plan, one to one instructor meetings, and continued access to the exam prep tools for up to 18 months from initiation.

Every one of the four majors handles this differently, and Kaplan's is the only one of the four that returns nothing in cash. Colibri refunds the package price subject to its own conditions. AceableAgent reimburses. Kaplan gives you more teaching.

Five conditions and four deadlines

Quoted from Kaplan's Commitment page, read 27 August 2026. It also applies only to purchases made on or after 26 August 2024, and Kaplan states it is void where prohibited.

The 14 day video is the condition I would flag hardest. It is a task you must complete two weeks into a six month course to preserve a benefit you hope never to use, and nothing about the pricing page tells you that at the point of purchase.

One thing I could not establish, and it matters: I found nobody anywhere who has publicly described claiming this guarantee. No forum post, no review, no complaint. So I cannot tell you how it works in practice, only what the terms say.

Six months, eighteen months, and which is which

Two different 18 month figures circulate about Kaplan and they get conflated constantly, including once on this site until today. They are different things.

• Your standard access is six months from the date of purchase. That is what you buy.
• Course access cannot exceed 18 months from purchase. That is a ceiling, and the only way to travel from six months toward it is by buying extensions.
• The guarantee separately grants support for up to 18 months from initiation. Different clock, different start date, and only if you qualify.

Kaplan terms and the Kaplan Commitment page, read 27 August 2026.

So if a review tells you Kaplan gives you 18 months of access, that is wrong. You get six. The 18 is a cap you reach by paying more, and Kaplan does not publish what an extension costs anywhere I could find, which is the single most annoying gap in its otherwise transparent pricing.

Six months from purchase rather than from first login is the same trap Colibri sets, and it catches the same people: buy in January, start in April, and you have two months rather than six. For Texas at 180 hours or Colorado at 168, that is tight.

One documented case shows what expiry means in practice. Answering a Better Business Bureau complaint dated 4 August 2026, Kaplan confirmed that access to online course components is subscription based, in a case where a student's study materials were removed immediately after they passed. Download anything you want to keep before your access ends.

36 jurisdictions, not 38

Coverage is one of Kaplan's genuine strengths and it is worth getting right, partly because I had it wrong.

Counting state by state from Kaplan's own site on 27 August 2026, pre-licensing is sold in 35 states plus the District of Columbia. That is 36 jurisdictions. Anyone quoting 38, or 38 plus DC, is either using an old number or double counting DC, which Kaplan includes inside its coverage rather than alongside it.

Fifteen states are out. There is no Kaplan pre-licensing in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia or Wyoming. Connecticut is served only through Massachusetts reciprocity, Oregon is not covered, and Delaware does not appear at all. Ohio is the ambiguous one: advertised, but with no purchasable packages when I looked, so I have counted it out. If Ohio is live, the figure is 37.

Even at 36, that is second only to Colibri and well ahead of AceableAgent, which sells in a fraction of the country. If you are licensing in a smaller state, Kaplan is often one of very few national options, and that is a real reason to pay more. I set the coverage picture against the other seven schools in the online real estate school comparison.

One naming point that will save you time. Kaplan does not always appear under its own name on state approved provider lists. In Virginia it registers as DF INSTITUTE LLC, doing business as both Kaplan Real Estate Education and Kaplan Real Estate Schools, and a third related entity, Dearborn Financial Publishing, appears as recampus.com. Searching a state list for the word Kaplan can return nothing while the school is fully approved.

The live instruction is real, and narrower than it sounds

This is Kaplan's clearest differentiator. Most online schools sell recorded video and call the discussion forum support. Kaplan runs scheduled classes with an instructor, and a public scheduler lists them with dates, times and prices.

I checked, because a claim like this is easy to fake. The classes are there: named sessions with a date, a start and end time, a time zone and a price, for example a four hour live online class starting at 8am Central on a specific Monday.

Now the qualification, and it matters. Many of the live sessions on the scheduler are continuing education and professional development, not pre-licensing. Live online pre-licensing is confirmed in New Mexico, Florida, Colorado and Wisconsin. It does not appear in New York, Georgia or Illinois. So the honest version of the claim is that Kaplan offers live pre-licensing instruction in some states, not everywhere, and you should check your own state rather than assume.

In Florida the live and in person options carry a $200 premium over self paced, which at least tells you Kaplan treats it as a genuinely different product rather than a marketing label.

If live instruction is why you are considering Kaplan, ask before you buy: is the pre-licensing course in my state delivered live on a schedule, or is it recorded sessions? Get the answer in writing.

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The Better Business Bureau file nobody can find

There is no Better Business Bureau profile for Kaplan Real Estate Education. There is none for DF Institute LLC either. That is why every comparison article, including my own until now, records this as unverified.

The business is there. It sits under four other Kaplan entities.

All read 28 August 2026. No Kaplan entity is Better Business Bureau accredited.

The Fort Lauderdale profile is the one that matters, because it carries the address Kaplan Real Estate Education uses. Seven complaints in three years is low, and three of the four grades are strong. This is not a company drowning in complaints.

Two of those seven are real estate specific and both are instructive. In a complaint dated 3 June 2025 about accreditation, Kaplan replied that nowhere in its advertising does it state the real estate courses are accredited, which is a fair answer and also a useful thing for a buyer to know. A complaint dated 23 January 2025 concerns a 90 hour post-licensing certificate delayed beyond the promised three to five days.

The point is not that the Better Business Bureau record condemns Kaplan. It does not. It is that the record was findable all along, and everyone writing about this company, me included, reported it unavailable because we searched the brand name rather than the corporate entity. Search the legal entity.

A 4.7 the company asked for

Kaplan's Trustpilot score is 4.7 from 1,668 reviews, which sounds like the strongest consumer record of any school I have looked at. It comes with a label on the profile itself.

The profile is claimed, Kaplan holds a paid Trustpilot subscription, and Trustpilot marks it: this company invites their customers to review. Solicited reviews are not fake, and Kaplan replies to about 70 percent of its negative ones, more than most companies bother with. But an invited sample answers a different question from an uninvited one, and the invitation usually arrives at course completion, when satisfaction is highest and the exam result is unknown.

Read 28 August 2026. ConsumerAffairs carries a 1.3 from 473 reviews for Kaplan University, a different and divested division, and it should not be used here.

The unsolicited sample is AgentAdvice at 4.03 from 59, three years stale. So the honest position is that Kaplan's consumer record beats its rivals on volume, and the biggest number in it was requested by the company.

What the critical reviews say

"There were several instances where the person on the video would say the exact opposite of what was on the screen. There was even a paragraph in the book that was referencing a buyer agent when it should have been sellers agent... I never got a response."
AgentAdvice, 6 October 2021

"5 percent of the correct quiz and test answers are actually incorrect... $1,115 is a big commitment of funds. I am not satisfied with my investment."
AgentAdvice, 10 September 2020

"Old book with changes and corrections required... the questions and answers did not correlate."
Trustpilot, Florida continuing education, 22 April 2026

Content accuracy is the recurring theme, across five years and two platforms. Those are allegations by the people who wrote them and I have verified no individual account. For the most expensive school in the category, complaints about wrong answers in the question bank are the ones I would least want to see.

The positives cluster around exactly what you would expect: the instructors. Reviewers praise the live classes, the study groups and instructor responsiveness repeatedly. One from July 2020 reads that the instructors "are so funny" and "are all experienced". If Kaplan's premium buys anything, on this evidence it buys people.

Why every review you will find rates it above 4

I could not find a single independent, unpaid review of Kaplan among the top ranking pages. Every one discloses a commercial relationship, and every one scores it between 4.03 and 4.5.

One detail is worth the space. HousingWire ranks Kaplan fourth of four and gives it no cons at all, while disclosing a paid promotional agreement with The CE Shop, a Kaplan competitor on the same page. Ranking a company last while being paid by its rival, and listing no drawbacks, is not a useful signal in either direction. I went through the same problem in the Colibri review, where the pattern was identical.

Who should buy it, and who should not

I have not taken a Kaplan course, so this judges the offer, not the teaching. On the offer, Kaplan is the most defensible expensive option in the category and the hardest to justify on price alone.

The genuine case for it

• It publishes its prices honestly. No struck through anchors, no permanent 40 percent code, no state selector gate. After a week spent reading pricing pages, that is worth naming.
• Live instruction actually exists. Real scheduled classes with real instructors, in the states that offer it. Almost nobody else at this scale does.
• Coverage is second widest in the country. 36 jurisdictions, and in a small state it may be one of very few options.
• The instructors are what people praise. Across five years of reviews, the positives are almost entirely about the people.
• The complaint record is thin. Seven complaints in three years at the entity that carries its address.

Buy it if

• You learn better with a person than a video. This is the whole argument. If live teaching is what makes the difference for you, Kaplan is the only major that reliably sells it.
• You are in a state the cheaper schools do not serve. Coverage beats price when the alternative is nothing.
• Your brokerage or employer is paying. The price objection disappears and the instruction advantage does not.
• You want printed books. Career Launcher is the only tier that ships paper, and some people genuinely need it.

Do not buy it if

• You are buying the guarantee. It returns study support, not money, under five conditions and four deadlines. If a refund is the reassurance you want, buy elsewhere.
• You are price sensitive and self directed. Colibri is $99 in Florida where Kaplan is $269. If you will work through the material alone, you are paying roughly double for a difference you will not use.
• You are tempted by a course only tier. No exam prep, no guarantee. It is the worst value on the page.
• You will study slowly. Six months from purchase, extensions unpriced anywhere public.
• You are in Colorado and shopping on outcome. It is the most expensive Kaplan market in the country at $799 to $1,299, and in the 2025 state figures Kaplan finished last of the five big providers.

What I would actually do

Answer one question honestly: will you show up to a scheduled class? If yes, Kaplan is worth the premium and probably worth Career Launcher in a state where live pre-licensing runs. If no, you are paying about double for recorded video you could buy for a third of the price, and the money is better spent on your first year of business.

Whatever you decide, do three things before you pay. Confirm live pre-licensing runs in your state and get it in writing. Complete the Kaplan Commitment video inside 14 days of enrolling, even if you are confident, because it costs an hour and preserves the only protection you have. And download everything before your access expires.

And keep the licence in proportion. The course is the cheapest thing you will buy in this business and the exam is not what ends most careers. The first two years are, which is the part I work on with agents through real estate coaching.

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Frequently asked questions

How much does Kaplan Real Estate Education cost?

It depends on your state and there is no national price. On 27 August 2026 the Licensing with Exam Prep package ran from $199 in Michigan to $799 in Colorado, and the top Career Launcher tier from $499 to $1,299. Texas was $499 and $899, Florida $269 and $599 online, Virginia $299 and $599. Kaplan is roughly double Colibri in most states and does not run a permanent discount code.

Is Kaplan worth the higher price?

It depends on whether you will use live instruction. Kaplan is the only one of the four major online schools that reliably sells scheduled classes with real instructors, and its reviewers praise the instructors more than anything else. If you will study alone from recorded video, you are paying roughly double for something a cheaper school also provides.

What is the Kaplan Commitment to Pass, and is it a refund?

It is not a refund. If you sit within 30 days of finishing your program and fail, Kaplan continues to support your studies at no extra cost, meaning a personalised study plan, instructor meetings and continued exam prep access for up to 18 months from initiation. There are five conditions including completing a specific video within 14 days of enrolling and claiming within 7 days of failing, and it excludes course only tiers and purchases made before 26 August 2024.

What is Kaplan Real Estate Education's pass rate?

Kaplan publishes none. Colorado's Division of Real Estate does: in its 2025 annual report Kaplan Denver recorded 385 passes from 647 first time candidates on the national portion, 59.0 percent against a statewide 63.5 percent, and 222 from 392 on the state portion, 56.0 percent against 55.8. In the first two quarters of 2026 Kaplan was at or slightly above the state average. Colorado licenses brokers and requires 168 hours, so these figures do not automatically transfer to other states.

How long do you get access to a Kaplan course?

Six months from the date of purchase, not from when you start. Kaplan's terms also state access cannot exceed 18 months from purchase, which is a ceiling you only reach by buying extensions. Extension prices are not published anywhere I could find. The separate 18 month figure attached to the guarantee is a different clock that runs from when you initiate a claim.

How many states does Kaplan cover?

Counting from Kaplan's own site on 27 August 2026, pre-licensing is sold in 35 states plus the District of Columbia, so 36 jurisdictions. It is absent from Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, Oregon and Delaware, serves Connecticut only through Massachusetts reciprocity, and advertises Ohio without selling a purchasable package.

Who owns Kaplan Real Estate Education?

Kaplan, Inc., which is wholly owned by Graham Holdings Company. Real estate education is not broken out as a reportable segment in Graham Holdings' filings; it sits inside Supplemental Education. On some state approved provider lists Kaplan appears as DF Institute LLC rather than under its brand name. Kaplan acquired the Bob Hogue School of Real Estate in 2020.

Educational content only. Not brokerage, legal, tax, financial or investment advice, and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Jamil Academy is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Kaplan Real Estate Education, Kaplan, Inc. or Graham Holdings Company. Company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only to identify what is being discussed. This page carries no affiliate links, no commissions and no sponsored placements, and the author earns nothing whichever way you decide. Prices, fees, contract terms, ratings and review counts were read from the sources named on 27 and 28 August 2026 and change without notice. Statements drawn from lawsuits, complaints, employee reviews and customer reviews are allegations by the people who made them, not findings of fact, and unresolved matters are described as unresolved. Regulatory matters involving Kaplan's former higher education business are not attributed to Kaplan Real Estate Education and are not relied on here. Views expressed are the author's own opinion. Confirm current terms directly with the company before signing anything. If you believe anything here is inaccurate, tell us and we will correct it.