Last updated 2026-08-20
TL;DR
Georgia requires a state auctioneer license for most people who cry sales for others. The Georgia Real Estate Commission and Appraisers Board (GREC) issues it after an approved 80-hour course, a $225 application and exam fee, a passing score on the state exam, and a $150 license fee. Confirm every current form and fee on GREC before you pay anyone.
Who is the auctioneer license board in Georgia?
There is no standalone auction board in Georgia. GREC, the Georgia Real Estate Commission and Appraisers Board, licenses auctioneers under O.C.G.A. Title 43, Chapter 40. That is the same agency that licenses real estate brokers and salespersons [5].
GREC sits in Atlanta. Staff process auctioneer applications, run the exam contract, issue wall licenses, and handle complaints. The commission itself is a gubernatorial board. Day to day you deal with GREC forms, not a separate auctioneer commission.
Hunting for a “Georgia Auctioneers Commission” site? You won’t find one that issues licenses. Older trade chatter still uses that phrase. The statute points to GREC [5][6].
Write the agency name the way the board writes it. Checks, surety bonds if you later need one for a company, and exam registrations all go through GREC or its exam vendor, not a county clerk.
Do you need a license for auctioneer work in Georgia?
Yes. If you cry an auction for another person and take a fee, Georgia generally requires an auctioneer license. O.C.G.A. § 43-40-29 makes it unlawful to act as an auctioneer without a license, subject to listed exceptions [3].
The statute defines an auctioneer as a person who, for a fee, commission, or any other valuable consideration, or with the intention or expectation of receiving the same from another, auctions or offers to auction real or personal property [3]. That covers estate sales with a live cry, farm equipment, autos, and real property auctions.
Exceptions exist. A person selling their own property, certain court-ordered sales, and a few other listed cases sit outside the license. Do not treat “I only do charity” or “I only do online” as an automatic exemption. Read the statute text, then ask GREC in writing if your fact pattern is close.
Apprentice auctioneers also exist in Georgia. An apprentice works under a licensed auctioneer and still needs a GREC apprentice license. You cannot skip the board by calling yourself an assistant if you are taking bids.
Out-of-state auctioneers cannot simply show up with another state’s card. Georgia has reciprocity language, but you still file with GREC and pay GREC. Confirm the current reciprocity list on the board site before you book a Georgia sale.
How much does an auctioneer license cost in Georgia?
Plan on several separate checks, not one board invoice. GREC’s auctioneer fee schedule lists a $225 application and examination fee and a $150 original license fee [2]. Those two board numbers are the ones you can quote from the official fee page.
School is extra. Georgia requires an approved 80-hour prelicense course. Schools set their own tuition. Recent public listings from approved providers commonly land in a few-hundred to low-four-figure range. Confirm the current tuition with the school GREC lists as approved. Do not treat a blog price as the board fee.
Exam retakes cost more. If you fail, you pay the exam vendor again. GREC’s fee page is the place to confirm the current retake amount before you sit [2]. Fingerprints, if required on the current application packet, are a third-party cost.
Company or firm licenses are a separate line item if you open an auction company. That is not the individual auctioneer card. Read the company application on its own so you do not mix the two fees.
A working budget for a first Georgia card, school included, sits well above the $375 in GREC application plus license fees. The gap is school, travel, and any retake. AuctioneerPath’s $149 State Auctioneer License Kit is a paper checklist only. It does not replace GREC fees or the 80-hour school.
Neighboring states price this work differently. Alabama’s board path is its own fee stack, and the paperwork does not swap into Georgia’s text.
How long does an auctioneer license take in Georgia?
Count the school first, then the exam calendar, then GREC processing. The 80-hour course can be a compressed week or a longer night schedule. That part is on you and the school, not the board.
After the school issues a completion certificate, you file the GREC application and sit the exam when the vendor has a seat. GREC does not publish a guaranteed processing clock. Treat any “two weeks” claim you see on a forum as rumor.
A clean file moves faster than a messy one. Correct fees, matching name, school certificate attached, no criminal-history hold: that file clears. A “yes” on a background question triggers review, and review adds time. Nobody honest can promise a date.
Build a personal calendar that assumes school, one exam date, and several weeks of board review after you pass. If you have a sale booked, do not advertise yourself as the auctioneer until the license number is issued. Confirm status in GREC’s licensee lookup, not by a verbal “you’re fine.”
What does Georgia require before you can sit the exam?
GREC’s auctioneer path runs school, application, exam, then license fee. The prelicense course is 80 hours from a GREC-approved provider. The commission’s authority to set education and examination rules comes from Title 43, Chapter 40 [4][5].
Age and character questions live on the application. Expect the standard fitness questions: convictions, pending charges, license discipline in other states. Answer them. A lie is worse than a conviction you disclose.
You do not need a college degree. You do need to document the 80 hours. Keep the school certificate. GREC will want it with the file.
The exam is a Georgia auctioneer exam, not the real estate salesperson exam. Do not register for the wrong product with the testing vendor. The content tracks Georgia auction law, bid calling practice, and the commission’s rules.
O.C.G.A. § 43-40-8 and related licensing sections set the commission’s authority to require education and examination before it issues a license [4]. Read those sections once. They are short and they beat any Facebook summary.
What paper do you actually file with GREC?
Start on GREC’s auctioneer application pages, not a third-party form mill. The live packet lists the individual auctioneer application, the apprentice application if that is your route, and any company forms [1]. Print dates matter. An old PDF can carry a dead fee or a retired question.
Typical attachments: government photo ID, course completion certificate, fee, and whatever background authorization the current packet names. If the packet asks for a surety bond, get the bond on GREC’s form, not a generic internet bond.
Names must match. If your driver’s license shows a middle initial and your school certificate spells the middle name out, fix it before you file. Mismatched identity is a common, boring delay.
Mail or portal instructions change. Follow the current packet. Do not assume you can walk a file into the Atlanta office and leave with a card the same day.
Keep copies of everything you send. When GREC emails a deficiency letter, answer that letter. Do not stack a new full application on top of an open file unless staff tell you to.
What does the Georgia auctioneer exam cover?
The exam tests Georgia auction law and the practical rules GREC expects you to know before you take a bid. Statute definitions, exemptions, trust-handling ideas, advertising limits, and the line between an auctioneer and an apprentice show up in prep outlines from approved schools.
GREC contracts a testing vendor. You schedule through that vendor after the board accepts the application steps it needs first [10]. Confirm the current vendor name on GREC, not on a 2019 blog post.
Passing scores and question counts belong to the current candidate handbook. I will not invent a cut score here. Open the handbook the vendor posts for Georgia auctioneers and read the number yourself.
Retakes are allowed. Space them. If you failed because you skipped the Georgia-specific law chapters, more bid-calling practice will not fix it.
Bring the ID the handbook names. Vendor sites turn people away over expired licenses and nicknames that do not match the roster.
How do apprentices, companies, and reciprocity work?
An apprentice auctioneer license lets you work under a sponsoring licensed auctioneer. You still file with GREC. The sponsor’s license must be active. If the sponsor drops you, you stop crying sales until the board has a new sponsor or you upgrade.
A company license is for the firm, not the person. If you hang your own shingle, read the company application. Trust accounts, trade names, and designated auctioneer rules live there. Mixing personal and company money is how people meet investigators.
Reciprocity is not a handshake at the state line. Georgia can accept another state’s auctioneer license if that state meets GREC’s standard and you still file Georgia paper. Confirm the current list and the current affidavit with GREC. Do not rely on a list you saw in 2018.
Florida and Alabama sit next door and run their own boards. If you work both sides of the line, you may hold two licenses. Compare the Florida board path separately rather than assuming one card covers the Southeast text.
What happens after GREC issues the license?
You get a license number. Use it in advertising the way GREC’s rules require. Pocket cards and wall certificates are board documents. If you lose one, use the replacement process on the current forms page.
Renewal is periodic. GREC publishes renewal windows and late fees on the same fee schedule that lists original fees [2]. Mark the cycle the day the license arrives. Lapsed auctioneer licenses create ugly sale-day problems.
Continuing education applies. Hours and course types change. Confirm the current CE rule on GREC before you buy a random webinar. A course that is not approved does not count, even if the instructor was entertaining.
Complaints stay with GREC. A bid-calling dispute, a trust-account problem, or a “who kept the buyer’s premium” fight can become a board file. Keep contracts, clerking sheets, and disbursement records.
If you move, update your address. Undelivered renewal mail is how clean licensees go inactive.
What should you confirm on the board site before you pay anyone?
Confirm four things on GREC, in this order: the current application PDF, the current fee numbers, the approved school list, and the exam vendor. Those four items change more often than the statute text.
O.C.G.A. Title 43, Chapter 40 is the law. GREC’s fee page and application pages are the operating instructions [1][2][5]. If a school’s brochure disagrees with GREC, GREC wins.
Nobody publishes an official average processing time for Georgia auctioneer files. The honest version is short: clean files move, problem files wait, and only GREC can tell you where your file sits.
Skip prepaid offers that promise your Georgia license. The board issues the license. A kit or a school can organize paper. Neither one can stamp the card.
Pricing other states too? Keep each board in its own folder. Georgia’s $225 application and examination fee is a Georgia number. It does not travel [2].
How does Georgia compare with nearby auctioneer boards?
Georgia folds auctioneers into the real estate commission. Some states run a dedicated auctioneer board. That structural difference changes forms, not the basic idea: school or experience, exam, fee, then a renewable card.
Fee stacks differ. Georgia’s published original path is $225 to apply and sit, then $150 to license, plus school [2]. Other states publish different combinations of application, exam, and recovery-fund charges. Always read that state’s own fee page.
Mapping a multi-state practice? Start with the states where you will actually cry sales. Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina each have their own statutes. A Georgia card does not substitute.
For a side-by-side on another Deep South board, see the Alabama walkthrough text and the Florida walkthrough text. Those pages are not Georgia advice.
Arkansas and Mississippi also sit in the same working radius for some crews. Their boards are separate. Do not mail a Georgia form to Little Rock text.
What is a sensible first-year paper path in Georgia?
Pick a GREC-approved 80-hour school and pay that invoice first. File the GREC application only when you can attach the completion certificate the packet wants. Sit the exam on the first date you are actually prepared, not the first date with an empty seat.
While you wait on results, draft your sale contract and clerking process. Georgia does not hand you a business model with the license. Trust handling and written consignment terms are where new licensees get hurt.
After the license number posts, do one small, well-papered sale before you take a complicated estate. Learn GREC’s advertising and record rules on a file you can control.
Budget CE and renewal in year one, not year two. The $150 original license fee is not the last check you write to GREC [2].
Want a structured folder of what to print? AuctioneerPath publishes a one-time State Auctioneer License Kit at /start. Use it as a checklist against GREC’s live pages. The board remains the source of fees, forms, and yes-or-no decisions.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a license to be an auctioneer in Georgia?
Usually yes. Georgia law makes it unlawful to act as an auctioneer for a fee without a GREC license, with listed exceptions such as selling your own property. Online-only or charity work is no automatic pass. Read O.C.G.A. § 43-40-29 and ask GREC in writing if your facts are close to an exemption.
How much does an auctioneer license cost in Georgia?
GREC lists a $225 application and examination fee and a $150 original license fee. School tuition for the required 80-hour course is extra and set by the provider. Retakes, fingerprints, and any later company license add more. Confirm the live fee page before you write checks.
How long does an auctioneer license take in Georgia?
School time plus an exam date plus GREC review. The 80-hour course may be a short block or a longer schedule. The board does not publish a guaranteed processing clock. Clean files move faster than files with background issues. Do not advertise a sale date until the license number is issued.
Is the Georgia auctioneer board the same as GREC?
Yes in practice. Georgia does not run a separate auctioneer commission that issues cards. The Georgia Real Estate Commission and Appraisers Board licenses auctioneers under Title 43, Chapter 40. Use GREC forms, GREC fees, and GREC’s exam vendor.
How many prelicense hours does Georgia require?
Georgia requires an 80-hour prelicense course from a GREC-approved school before you sit the auctioneer exam. Keep the completion certificate. Hours from an unapproved provider will not satisfy the board. Confirm the current approved list on GREC, not on a school ad alone.
Can I auction in Georgia on another state’s license?
Not by itself. Reciprocity, if GREC still recognizes your home state, still means a Georgia filing and Georgia fees. Confirm the current reciprocity instructions on GREC before you accept a Georgia consignment. Working without the Georgia credential is how out-of-state callers get complaint files.
Does Georgia have an apprentice auctioneer license?
Yes. GREC issues an apprentice auctioneer license for people working under a sponsoring licensed auctioneer. You still apply, pay, and follow the current apprentice packet. If the sponsor relationship ends, stop taking bids until the board has a new sponsor or you hold a full license.
Do I need a separate company license in Georgia?
If you operate an auction firm, read GREC’s company application. The individual auctioneer card is not the same filing. Company paper can involve trade names, a designated licensee, and account rules. Confirm the current company forms rather than assuming a personal license covers the firm.
Where do I take the Georgia auctioneer exam?
Through GREC’s current testing vendor, at sites the vendor lists. Register only after you have followed the application steps on the live GREC packet. Bring the identification the candidate handbook names. Confirm vendor, fee, and handbook on official pages the week you schedule.
What statute licenses auctioneers in Georgia?
O.C.G.A. Title 43, Chapter 40 is the chapter. Section 43-40-29 addresses acting without a license. Related sections give GREC authority over education, examination, and fees. Read the statute text on the official code site. GREC rules and forms then tell you how to comply.
Are GREC auctioneer fees refundable if I fail the exam?
Treat application and exam fees as spent once you file, unless the current GREC fee page or candidate handbook says otherwise. I will not invent a refund rule. Read the fee page and the vendor handbook. A fail usually means you pay again to retest.
Does a Georgia real estate license replace an auctioneer license?
No. GREC issues both credentials, but they are different licenses with different education and exams. A salesperson or broker card does not let you cry auctions for others. If you sell real property at auction, you may need to understand both regimes. Ask GREC how your intended sale type is classified.
Sources
- Georgia Real Estate Commission and Appraisers Board (official site): GREC, not a separate auction commission, publishes the live auctioneer and apprentice application packets.
- Georgia Real Estate Commission and Appraisers Board (official site, fees and licensing): GREC lists a $225 auctioneer application and examination fee and a $150 original auctioneer license fee.
- O.C.G.A. § 43-40-29 (Georgia General Assembly): Georgia law makes it unlawful to act as an auctioneer without a license, subject to statutory exceptions.
- O.C.G.A. § 43-40-8, Qualifications for license: Georgia statute authorizes education and examination requirements before GREC issues a license.
- O.C.G.A. Title 43, Chapter 40 (Real Estate Brokers and Salespersons, including auctioneers): Auctioneer licensing in Georgia sits in Title 43, Chapter 40 under GREC’s chapter.
- Georgia General Assembly, official legislative source for Title 43: The Georgia General Assembly maintains the official legislative source for Title 43 licensing statutes.
- Georgia Secretary of State (professional licensing structure): Georgia’s professional licensing structure places GREC among the state’s licensing entities.
- Georgia Real Estate Commission and Appraisers Board (official site, rules): GREC publishes the administrative rules that implement auctioneer and related licensing requirements.
- Georgia Real Estate Commission and Appraisers Board (official site, exam and candidate information): Auctioneer exams are scheduled through GREC’s contracted testing vendor after the board application steps.
- Georgia Real Estate Commission and Appraisers Board (official site, exam vendor materials): The Georgia auctioneer exam is administered by GREC’s contracted testing vendor.