I flip houses in Greenville and have never had a permit problem. If you own the property you can pull your own permit without being licensed. I do have a residential plumbing and home inspector license and both of those test were fairly easy. The law test was the hardest but with the book it is definitely passable without studying. If you want to get licensed but haven’t worked in a certain field for the required amount of time you can go before the LLR Residential Builders board and ask them for a waiver to take the exam. You just have to tell them why you think you should be allowed to test. They actually approve the majority of people who ask.