How Do I Renew My Expired Real Estate License?

Doctors, accountants, lawyers, teachers, barbers and real estate agents all have one thing in common. They all wish their license could be valid forever.

But alas, all these professions must renew their license, and it isn’t uncommon for people to miss the renewal deadline. There are also instances when some people purposely let their license renewal lapse.

If you (accidentally) let your real estate license expire here’s what you should do:

If Your License Expired Less Than 6 Months Ago . . .

 Renew Like Normal  If your license has been expired less than six months the process is basically the same as a timely renewal. TREC allows a grace period of six months. Agents in this situation have to:  Complete the required continuing education  Submit the CE completion documentation * Submit renewal application Form RF-8

The continuing education includes 18 total hours of coursework:  TREC Legal Update I (4 hours)  TREC Legal Update II (4 hours) * TREC-Approved Elective Courses (10 hours)

   Moving up the broker ladder? If you’re a supervisor at your brokerage you may need to take the Broker 
   Responsibility course as one of your electives.

If you apply for renewal without completing the CE courses you’ll have to pay the $200 CE Deferral Fee or your license will be put into inactive status. When you need to knock out CE courses quick AceableAgent’s mobile-friendly real estate education platform is the way to go.

Once that’s done, you have two options for license renewal: renew online or renew by mail.

If Your License Expired 6+ Months to 2 Years Ago . . .

 Request Reinstatement  At this juncture, you’ll be requesting reinstatement, not renewal. To request reinstatement you’ll need to submit Form SBLR-6 and make sure you’ve met the continuing education requirements noted above.

If Your License Expired 2+ Years . . .

 Reapply and Pass the Exam  Sometimes circumstances in life change and you may decide to put your real estate career on hold. Now it’s time to get back in action and put your real estate education to use.

But first, you have to reapply. The bad news is you’ve got to take the Texas real estate pre-license courses again and pass the licensing exam. The good news is if you did it once you can do it again!

This time around you can complete the courses from anywhere whenever you want using mobile devices. Before starting the coursework it’s a good idea to double check with TREC just in case the policies have changed. They tend to do that from time to time.