Continuing Education Information

Basic Requirement

• Four (4) of the required CE credit hours must be obtained by completing the Real Estate Update course prescribed by the Commission. The subject matter of this course will be changed by the Commission from year to year.
  
  
• The remaining four (4) CE credit hours may be obtained by taking an elective course(s) approved by the Commission. Elective courses may address a wide variety of real estate topics.

2) The maximum amount of CE credit awarded for any single course is four (4) hours.

• Licensees must attend 90% of a CE course and comply with student participating standards in order to receive credit for the course.
  

3) A person who is issued a broker license (either by examination, reciprocity or reinstatement) does NOT have to take continuing education courses during the license period in which the license is issued. However, they must satisfy the CE requirement prior to the second renewal of the license.

4) Beginning July 1, 2006, all brokers-in-charge must complete a four classroom hour Broker-in-Charge Annual Review Course each full license period after being designated a broker-in-charge.

Active Status vs. Inactive Status

1) In addition to any postlicensing requirements, in order to perform any brokerage service for others for a fee (including referrals for which you are compensated), your license must be on active status, which means you must obtain all required continued education each license period.

2) If you do not plan to use your real estate license in the near future, you have the option to renew your license on inactive status. (Please refer to Postlicensing Requirements for information on how those requirements affect your active/inactive status.)

• You may continue to renew your license on inactive status indefinitely without obtaining any continuing education. However, before you can activate your license, you will have to show that you have obtained some continuing education. The amount of continuing education required for license activation ranges from 0-16 credit hours, depending on your continuing education record for the most previous license period and the current license period, but the amount of continuing education required will not exceed 16 credit hours.
  
  
• If you plan for your license to be inactive only temporarily and you want to be able to activate the license in the future without delay, you should attempt to remain current with your continuing education.
  

3) If you renew your license without satisfying the continuing education requirement, your license will automatically be placed on inactive status until you satisfy the CE requirement for license activation.

Think Twice Before Letting Your License Expire

Your license expires each June 30 unless properly renewed. If you let your license remain expired for more than six (6) months and subsequently request license reinstatement, the Commission may treat you as though you were never licensed and you may be required to take a substantial amount of education and/or pass the license examination. If you think you may use your license again at some future time, you should seriously consider renewing your license each year.

Course Sponsors and Schedules

1) The Commission has approved many community colleges, private schools, trade organizations and others to sponsor the mandatory Real Estate Update course and various elective courses.These sponsors are offering courses throughout the state.

2) Most approved course sponsors will promote their course offerings through the publications of local real estate organizations, by direct mail to licensees or by other methods. In addition, course sponsors provide their course schedules to the Commission, available at the link below.

• You should contact course sponsors directly for detailed course information and to register for courses.
  
  
• A variety of courses are available regularly in the more populated cities. If, however, you live in a predominately rural area, fewer courses are readily available and you should consider taking such courses when they are scheduled in your area unless you prefer to travel to a more populated area to obtain your continuing education.

3) Course fees are established by the course sponsor. [Link to CE Schedule]

Courses Must Be Taken by June 10

Continuing education must be completed each annual license period between July 1 and June 10. It is very important to note that sponsors are not permitted to offer courses for CE credit between June 11 and June 30 of each year to allow time for sponsors to file reports to the Commission and for the Commission to process such reports. Thus, you will not be able to complete your CE requirement between June 11 and June 30 of each year

Don’t Wait Until the Last Minute

1) Avoid the mad rush of procrastinators trying to take CE courses in May and early June. You will have a better choice of elective courses and a better chance of finding space available in both  Update and elective courses if you take your CE courses early. You will also avoid the possibility of an unexpected conflict (illness, death in family, business emergency, etc.) preventing you from acquiring the required education by June 10.

2) Extensions of time to acquire CE while continuing on active status will be granted only in those instances where a licensee is unable to obtain CE in a timely manner due to an extreme hardship which existed for a substantial portion of the license period. Examples might include a member of the military stationed overseas or a licensee with an incapacitating illness for a substantial portion of the license period. You should contact the Commission well in advance of  the June 30 license expiration date to obtain the required request form.

CE Credit Reporting

1) It is important that you take your pocket card with you to each CE class. You will need to accurately record your correct license number on the official course completion report.

2) If you take a Commission-approved CE course, the sponsor will report your course completion to the Commission. You should NOT send to the Commission the course completion certificate issued to you by the sponsor - keep this for your personal records.

3) You can check/review your CE credits by going to the "Licensee Login" or "Licensees Only" area of this Web site. (Please allow 15 days after completion of a course for it to be posted to your record.)

Carry-Over Credit

1) The four-hour Real Estate Update course must be taken each year.

2) Up to four hours of elective credit hours for a course may be carried over to the next license period if no portion of the credit hours for the course were applied toward the CE requirement for the current license period. Thus, carry-over credit may be granted for extra elective courses taken, but not for extra hours in one course

Equivalent Credit for Elective Courses

It is possible to obtain elective course equivalent credit for a course not approved by the Commission (e.g., an appraiser continuing education course) or for some real estate education activity such as developing an elective course or writing a text or scholarly article. Licensees may request additional information on this subject and a request for equivalent credit form from the Commission. Requests for equivalent credit must be submitted to the Commission by June 10 each year and must be accompanied by a nonrefundable $30 evaluation fee. [Link to form]