How to Renew Your California Real Estate License
Every CA salesperson and broker license runs on the same 4-year clock and the same 45-hour CE requirement. Here's the whole process in plain language.
1. Find your renewal deadline
Your license expires exactly 4 years from the date it was issued — not from when you started working, not from your last renewal reminder. If you don't know the exact date offhand, look it up here in a few seconds.
2. Complete 45 hours of CE
The DRE requires 45 total clock hours of approved continuing education, split across a few required categories:
- Ethics3 hrs
- Agency3 hrs
- Trust Fund Handling3 hrs
- Risk Management3 hrs
- Fair Housing3 hrs
- Implicit Bias Training2 hrs
- Consumer Protection18 hrs
The categories above add up to 35 of the 45 hours. The remaining 10 can be Consumer Service courses or additional Consumer Protection coursework — most CE providers bundle these into a single package.
3. File the renewal itself
Once your CE is done, renewal is handled through the DRE's eLicensing system — it's the fastest way to file and pay the renewal fee, and it processes faster than mailing in paper forms (the Salesperson Renewal Application, RE 209, and CE Course Verification, RE 251, if you go that route).
4. What happens if you miss it
An expired license means you can't legally practice real estate or earn commission until it's reinstated — so it's worth treating this deadline the same way you'd treat a closing date.
Don't want to track this by hand?
Renewal Tracker logs your CE hours as you complete them and emails you reminders at 90, 30, and 7 days before your deadline.
Look up my renewal dateInformational only, not legal advice — verify with the California DRE.