What Are the Florida Real Estate Continuing Education Requirements?

What do you need to do to keep your license current in Florida? The answer depends on whether it’s your first renewal or not.

The First Renewal Cycle: Post-Licensing Education

The first time you renew your Florida license, you will be required to complete a 45-hour post-licensing education course. The good news is that your post-licensing education counts as your continuing education for that cycle, so once you pass, you’re done!

When to Take Post-Licensing

You must have completed the entire 45-hour post-licensing course and passed the end-of-course exam before the renewal date printed on your license. That date will be 18-24 months from the time it was issued, depending on when in the renewal cycle you passed your state exam.

What’s in the Post-Licensing Course

All post-licensing courses must be approved by the Florida Real Estate Commission to count toward the requirement. The FREC gives providers a fair bit of leeway in designing the course curriculum, so every course is different. According to Florida law, the subject areas that can be covered include:

• Property management

• Appraisal

• Real estate finance

• The economics of real estate management

• Marketing

• Technology

• Sales and listing of properties

• Business office management

• Courses teaching practical real estate application skills

• Development of business plans

• Marketing of property

• Time management

End-of-Course Exam

The post-licensing course, like the pre-licensing course you took, has an end-of-course exam you must pass to get credit for the course. You’ll need to score a 75% to pass, and you can only retake the exam one time. If you fail the second attempt, you’ll be required to retake the entire course, so study for this one! Unlike pre-licensing, there is no state-level exam for post-licensing.

What Happens If You Don’t Finish in Time?

License holders who don’t complete their post-licensing education requirements in time will have to retake all of their pre-licensing education and retake the state exam. Essentially, if you don’t complete the post-licensing course, you’ll start all the way back at the beginning of the licensure process.

The Second (and Subsequent) Renewal Cycles

After the first renewal cycle, license holders have to complete 14 hours of continuing education per renewal cycle. Remember that renewal cycles are two years long (and your renewal date will be printed on your license.)

What Continuing Education Courses Can You Take?

To fulfill your 14-hour requirement, you can take any CE courses approved by FREC. They can be in person or online. Choose topics that appeal to you or that can give you new skills to advance your career (might as well make those hours count!).

Required Topics

That said, there are a few required topics. Every renewal cycle, you must take:

• Three hours of Core Law

• Three hours of Ethics and Business Practices

The other eight hours are electives.

End of Course Exams

Continuing education courses have end-of-course exams that you must pass to get credit for the course. The minimum passing score is 80% and there is one retake attempt allowed. If you fail the second attempt, you must retake the course.

Renewing Your License

After you complete your continuing education requirement, you can renew your license online at the DBPR website. As of 2019, the renewal fee for sales associates is $32. The fee for brokers and broker associates is $36.

If You Fail to Complete Your Continuing Education

If you fail to complete your continuing education by midnight on the night of your renewal date, your license will become inactive. You then have two years to reinstate your license.

• If the license has been inactive for less than one year, you need to complete 14 hours of continuing education to reinstate it.

• If the license has been inactive for more than 12 months but less than 24, you need to complete 28 hours of continuing education to reinstate it.

• If the license has been inactive for 24 or more months, it is considered void. To get an active license, you’d have to start from the beginning and retake the pre-licensing education and pass the state exam again.