How To Renew Your Real Estate Salesperson License

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Every state requires you to take continuing education (CE) courses and pay a license renewal fee in order to renew your real estate license for another term. 

The goal of continuing education is to protect the public by ensuring that licensees perform their duties competently and diligently. Licensees are expected to be thoroughly familiar with their duties, responsibilities, and obligations.

While all licensees should be knowledgeable regarding the standards of conduct and practice expected of them, it is critical that recently licensed salespersons begin their career by building on a solid foundation.

CE Requirements by State

California

The real estate salesperson license in California is good for 4 years from the date it was originally issued.

The CE requirements are the same regardless if this is your 1st renewal or 10th renewal. Everyone has to complete 45 clock hours of DRE-approved continuing education courses consisting of:

  • 3 hours of Ethics
  • 3 hours of Agency
  • 3 hours of Trust Fund Handling
  • 3 hours of Fair Housing
  • 3 hours of Risk Management
  • 18 hours of Consumer Protection courses
  • 12 hours of additional Consumer Protection or Consumer Service courses

The DRE will mail you a courtesy reminder in the mail approximately 60 days before your license expires.

If you don’t renew your license by your expiration date, you are given a 2 year grace period. However, you will incur a late fee. You are not allowed to conduct any real estate transactions until your license is renewed.

Florida

The Florida sales associate license is valid for 2 years from the date it was issued.

If this is your first time renewing, you will need to complete 45 hours of post-license education.

If you have a 4 year college degree with a major in Real Estate, then you are exempt from this requirement.

Note: Members of the Florida State Bar are not exempt from post-license education.

Beginning with your 2nd renewal and all subsequent renewals, you will need to do only 14 hours of continuing education. Both online courses and classroom formats are acceptable.

Active members of the Florida Bar in good standing are exempt from this requirement.

If you fail to renew your license on time, your license changes to “Involuntary Inactive” status. If it has been less than one year since your license expired, you just need to submit the regular 14 hours of CE and pay the late renewal fee. If it has been more than one year, then you will have to complete the 28 hour Reactivation Education Course.

The DBPR will send you a renewal reminder via email when your license is about to expire.

Georgia

If you are a newly licensed salesperson, you will need to complete 25 hours of post-license education within 1 year of obtaining your license.

If your Georgia real estate license number is above 100,000, you are required to complete 36 hours of GREC-approved continuing education courses, including 3 hours on the topic of License Law, during your 4 year renewal period.

If your license number is less than 100,000, you do not have to complete any continuing education.

Note: You cannot repeat the same course until one full year has passed from the completion date.

Illinois

All Illinois real estate broker licensees and leasing agents are required to renew their license every two years by April 30 on even-numbered years (e.g. 2022, 2024, 2026, etc…).

If this is your first renewal, you are required to complete 30 hours of post-license education consisting of:

  • 15 hour Broker Post-License Topics
  • 15 hour Broker Post-License Applied Real Estate Practices

Due to the changes in CE requirements, if you are a broker renewing in 2020, you have 2 options for completing your continuing education:

  1. 4 hour Core course and 8 hours of Elective CE
  2. 6 hour Core course (Core A and Core B) and 6 hours of Elective CE

Missouri

The salesperson’s license expires every 2 years on September 30th.

You are required to complete a minimum of 12 hours of approved CE courses. Three of those hours must be approved as core credit by the Missouri Real Estate Commission.

Beginning with the 2020 to 2022 renewal period, a 3-hour core course in Real Estate Ethics will be required.

New York

Your real estate license needs to be renewed every 2 years from the date it was issued.

For first-time salesperson license renewals, you must complete 22.5 hours of CE consisting of:

  • 2 hours of Agency
  • 3 hours of Fair Housing, and/or Discrimination in the Sale, or Rental of Real Property, or an Interest in Real Property
  • 5 hours of approved elective courses

For second and beyond license renewals, you must complete 22.5 hours of CE consisting of:

  • 1 hour of Agency
  • 3 hours of Fair Housing, and/or Discrimination in the Sale, or Rental of Real Property, or an Interest in Real Property
  • 5 hours of approved elective courses

If you’ve successfully passed a qualifying broker course during your renewal cycle, you can use this against your CE requirements. However, you will still have to take the 3 hours Fair Housing course.

The DOS will mail you a postcard and send you an email to remind you of your license expiration date approximately 3 months before your renewal date.

You can turn in your certificates up to 3 months prior to your expiration date.

Note: If you take these courses online, you will have to be logged online for at least 50 minutes for every 1 hour of course instruction.

Pennsylvania

The real estate license cycle is every 2 years, ending on May 31st of every even-numbered year.

If this is your first time renewing, you will have to take 14 hours of a specific set of continuing education courses.

They are made up of 3 parts: a general module and 2 practice specific modules:

  1. General Module – 7 hours
    • Duties of licensees
    • Closing costs
    • Agreement of sale, addenda and special clauses
    • Title Reports
    • Zoning
    • Agency relationships and representation agreements
    • Environmental concerns
  2. Commercial Module – 7 hours
    • Definitions of commonly used terms
    • Letters of intent
    • Agreement of sale
    • Environmental issues
    • Leases and clauses
    • Property management
    • 1031 exchanges
    • Tenant fit out
    • Floor measurements and load factors
    • Zoning issues
    • Local commercial real estate issues
  3. Residential Module – 7 hours
    • Uniform construction code and zoning
    • Environmental issues
    • Types of construction
    • Land development
    • Home inspections and home warranties
    • Mortgage information
    • Fair housing
    • Agreements of sale
    • Case studies from real estate and disciplinary actions

If you are not renewing for the first time, you have to take 14 hours of approved continuing education courses, including a mandatory minimum of 1.5 hours in Property Management and 2 hours in Advertising.

The Real Estate Commission will mail your renewal notice to the address of your employer 3 months prior to your expiration date.

Texas

For first time renewals, you are required to complete 90 hours of Sales Apprentice Education (SAE) and 8 hours of Legal Update courses.

It’s recommended that you turn in your course certificates at least 10 days prior to your expiration date.

If you do not renew on time, you have up to 6 months to renew and pay a late fee.

If you do not renew within 6 months to 2 years past your expiration date, you must apply for a reinstatement of your license.

If your license is expired for more than 2 years, then you will have to reapply and pass the state exam again.

Beginning with your second renewal, you are required to complete 18 hours of CE course consisting of:

  • 4 hours of Legal Updates I
  • 4 hours of Legal Updates II
  • 10 hours of elective education

You will receive a renewal notice 90 days before your expiration date.

Virginia

The Virginia salesperson license is valid for a 2-year term. 

If this is your first time renewing as an active salesperson, you must complete a 30 hour post-license education (PLE) course within 1 year from the last day of the month your license was issued.

If you do not complete this on time, then your license automatically changes to “Inactive” status.

The 30-hour PLE curriculum must consist of the following nine courses:

  1. Fair Housing, ADA and Civil Rights (2 hours)
  2. Real Estate Law and Regulations (6 hours) 
  3. Ethics and Standards of Conduct (3 hours)
  4. Current Industry Issues and Trends (2 hours)
  5. Agency Law (3 hours)
  6. Contract Writing (6 hours)
  7. Risk Management (3 hours)
  8. Escrow Requirements (3 hours)
  9. Real Estate-Related Finance (2 hours)

Note: You are not required to complete any CE course on your first renewal.

If this is your second or subsequent renewal, you are required to complete 16 hours of approved continuing education consisting of the following:

  • 3 hours in Ethics & Standards of Conduct
  • 2 hours in Fair Housing
  • 1 hour in Legal Updates and Emerging Trends
  • 1 hour in Real Estate Agency
  • 1 hour in Real Estate Contracts
  • 8 hours in approved elective education

If you have completed more than 16 hours of CE, you may qualify to “carry over” the surplus CE hours into your next renewal period. These extra CE credit hours must be completed within the last 6 months of your renewal period.  

Washington

The Washington broker license expires every 2 years.

If this is your first time renewing, you must complete a total of 90 hours of post-license education consisting of:

  • 30-hour Advanced Practices course
  • 30-hour Real Estate Law course
  • 3-hour Core course
  • 27 hours of elective CE courses

For all subsequent renewals, you will need to complete a total of 30 hours of CE consisting of:

  • 3 hour Core course
  • 27 hours of elective CE courses

You can use up to 15 hours of unused CE courses that have been completed within 48 months of your renewal date. However, at least 15 hours must have been completed within your 2 year renewal period.

You can renew up to 120 days before your license expires.