NJ real estate license renewal and CE: the 2025 to 2027 term explained

How the 2025 to 2027 term works

Every New Jersey real estate license is issued for a two-year term. The current term started July 1, 2025 and ends June 30, 2027. By that date your license has to be renewed, and for most licensees that means finishing 12 hours of continuing education (CE) first. The Commission's licensing FAQ puts the cycle simply: all real estate licenses are issued on the basis of a 2-year license term.

As of October 27, 2026, the renewal for the next term (July 1, 2027 to June 30, 2029) has not opened, and the Commission has not announced when it will. What is already fixed are the two deadlines below and the hours you need on your record before your broker can renew you. A new law also changes CE starting with that next term; it does not change what you owe now (covered in the 2027 to 2029 section below).

The 12 hours and the core mix

The requirement comes from the Commission's rule at N.J.A.C. 11:5-12.3 and the CE statute at N.J.S.A. 45:15-16.2a et seq. The rule sets 12 hours of approved CE in the 24 months before renewal, including 2 hours of ethics. The agency hour is newer: P.L. 2024, c.32 amended the statute, and the Commission's Bulletin 24-11 (August 1, 2024) said it would enforce at least one agency credit starting with the 2025 to 2027 term. The Commission's breakdown page shows how the 12 hours fit together:

Substitution only runs one way. Ethics, fair housing and agency hours can fill core or elective slots, and core hours can fill elective slots. Electives can never stand in for core hours, and general core hours cannot replace the required ethics, fair housing or agency hours. So if all 12 of your hours are electives, only 6 of them count, and you still need 6 core hours, including the 2 ethics, 1 fair housing and 1 agency.

The Commission's CE page lists these core topics: agency; disclosure; legal issues such as listing agreements, contracts, leases and attorney review; ethics; fair housing and the LAD; New Jersey license law and rules; state and federal environmental laws that apply to brokerage; escrow and financial recordkeeping; licensee safety; and real estate financial literacy and planning. Electives include commercial real estate, property management, seasonal rentals, the Real Estate Sales Full Disclosure Act and Real Estate Timeshare Act, financing, land use, valuation, foreclosure and short sales, and specific aspects of residential transactions. The rule also says every core course other than ethics has to cover how ethics applies to its subject.

April 30 vs June 30: two deadlines, two jobs

April 30, 2027 is a fee deadline for CE. June 30, 2027 is the license deadline. Under N.J.A.C. 11:5-12.3(b), licensees who finish CE on or before April 30 of the second year of the term pay no processing fee, and those who finish between May 1 and June 30, or during a late renewal period, pay $200. The Commission's CE FAQ adds that there are no extensions.

How renewal works, step by step

You do not renew a New Jersey salesperson license on your own. The Commission's instructions for salespersons describe three steps, and your broker files the last one:

1. Finish your CE with approved providers, unless you are exempt. Providers report your hours to PSI, and from there they reach the Commission.
2. Complete the online Qualifying Questionnaire yourself through the Commission's Online Licensing Services. It is required for every renewal, reinstatement, or reactivation after 45 days or more inactive. Each answer is yes or no, and you certify that your answers are true. Your broker cannot answer it for you, and paper versions are not accepted.
3. Your broker of record submits the renewal. The broker cannot renew you until your questionnaire is in and any required CE has posted. The salesperson renewal fee is $100.

Submitting the questionnaire does not renew your license on its own. Renewal notices go to your employing broker's office, so this is a good conversation to have with your broker early in 2027. If you are still picking a firm, the sponsoring broker guide has questions worth asking about how a broker handles renewals and CE. The license cost breakdown covers the other fees.

Who is exempt this term

• New salespersons licensed in the second year of the term. Under N.J.A.C. 11:5-12.3(a)(3), a salesperson first licensed in the second year owes no CE to renew at the end of that term. For this term, that is a first salesperson license issued on or after July 1, 2026. Licensed between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026? You need all 12 hours. Our new licensee CE guide covers the edge cases.
• Referral agents. Salespersons licensed with a referral company are exempt. If you later switch to a salesperson, broker-salesperson or broker license, the Commission requires CE, and its breakdown page says the hours must be in core topics only.
• Brokers with 40 or more years as a broker or broker-salesperson, with an approved exemption. Years as a salesperson do not count.
• Anyone who completes a broker prelicensure course. Under N.J.A.C. 11:5-12.3, finishing broker prelicensure education satisfies CE for the term in which you finished it.

Exempt is not the same as done. Exempt licensees still renew by June 30, 2027, still answer the questionnaire, and still certify at renewal that they were exempt.

Approved providers, online courses and your CE record

Only courses from Commission-approved providers, with a New Jersey course number, count. You can search approved providers and courses, see your CE record and print your transcript in PSI's New Jersey CE system at njrece.psiexams.com. The Commission's Education Bureau answers CE questions at 609-292-7272 or realestate@dobi.nj.gov.

Classroom and online courses both count when the provider, instructor and course are approved. Each credit hour needs at least 50 minutes of instruction. Online and other distance courses have extra rules under N.J.A.C. 11:5-12.14: they must be interactive, they time you out so you are not credited while idle, and you sign a statement that you personally completed the course. For this term, the rules set no separate hour limits for live versus on-demand courses; what matters is that the course itself is approved. That changes in the 2027 to 2029 term.

• No carryover. The CE FAQ answers it in one line: "No. CE credits do not roll over for credit in the next licensing term."
• No repeats. You cannot get credit for the same course twice in one term.
• Teaching counts. Under N.J.A.C. 11:5-12.3, a licensee who teaches an approved CE course for an approved provider earns credit, but only the hours an attendee would get for completing it once, no matter how many times it is taught in the term. Teaching prelicensure courses earns no CE credit.
• Out-of-state courses count only if the other state approved them, they also carry a New Jersey course number, and they are electives.
• Courses for appraisers or mortgage professionals count only as electives, and only with a New Jersey real estate provider and course number.
• Local board of Realtors classes do not count unless approval was pending when the course started and was later granted.
• Exam-review courses, sales meetings, motivational seminars and prelicensure courses do not qualify as CE.

Providers have to upload completions to the Commission's system weekly (N.J.A.C. 11:5-12.8) and give you a certificate showing your name, the course name and New Jersey course number, the completion date, the credits earned and the provider's New Jersey ID. Keep every certificate. If an hour is missing from your PSI record after about 10 business days, ask the provider first, since they report it, then contact the Education Bureau. For PSI login trouble, the CE FAQ lists PSI at 877-526-6833.

If you miss the deadline

Missing CE does not put you in a grace period. There are no extensions, and the CE FAQ is direct: if you have not finished CE by the expiration date, "You will not be able to renew and your license will expire." The salesperson instructions add that an expired license has to be reinstated, showing a break in service as of July 1. You cannot work as a licensee during that gap.

To reinstate, a salesperson completes the 12 CE hours for the term that was missed, answers the Qualifying Questionnaire, and has an active broker of record file the reinstatement through Online Licensing Services (Hire / Reinstate Licensees). The salesperson reinstatement fee is $150. The Commission's reinstatement CE page says those hours can be taken in the following term, but you must tell the provider to apply them to the earlier term.

How long do you have? The Commission's licensing FAQ says licenses "can be inactive for 2 years after the expiration date of the last license issued," citing N.J.S.A. 45:15-9. For the last cycle, its reinstatement page says licenses that expired in 2025 can be reinstated until June 30, 2027. It has not yet posted a deadline for licenses that expire in 2027, so go by the rule: two years after your license's expiration date, and confirm with the Commission. Past that, N.J.S.A. 45:15-9 applies: anyone who fails to maintain or renew a license "for a period of two consecutive years or more" must attend a licensed school and pass the state exam again.

Waivers exist but are narrow. Under N.J.A.C. 11:5-12.5, the Commission may waive CE for incapacitating illness, active military duty of a year or more in the term, an emergency, or other substantial and unavoidable hardship. Financial hardship and business or personal conflicts do not qualify. Requests are due by March 15, 2027 for this term, except emergencies. Waived core hours have to be made up next term on top of the usual 12, except for military waivers.

What changes in the 2027 to 2029 term

On July 22, 2026, the Governor approved P.L. 2026, c.52, which rewrites the CE statute. It takes effect July 1, 2027 and applies to license terms starting on or after that date, so it does not change the 12 hours you owe for the June 30, 2027 renewal. It does change what you will owe for the renewal due in 2029. The Commission still has to adopt rules, and as of October 27, 2026 it has not posted guidance on its CE pages, so treat the details below as the statute's text, not final Commission procedure.

The practical point: once you renew in 2027, the next term starts the next day with a bigger requirement. Watch the Commission's CE page and our rule changes post for the rules that put this law into practice.

A sensible plan for the rest of the term

These dates are our suggestions, not Commission rules. They leave room for the reporting lag and a course that does not post.

For the rules behind all this on the state portion of the exam, see licensing and the Commission.