Do Florida Real Estate CE Hours Expire?
Short answer: not exactly. Florida CE hours don’t carry their own expiration date the way a certificate does. Instead, they’re tied to your two-year license renewal cycle — the 14 hours FREC requires must be completed within your current cycle and reported to the DBPR before your renewal deadline. Hours finished for a past renewal don’t carry forward, and hours finished too far ahead of your current cycle generally don’t count toward it either. “Expire” is the wrong word — “due by your renewal date” is the right one.
By Scott Schubiner
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker & Instructor · Published August 30, 2026
How Florida’s 2-year CE cycle actually works
Every active Florida real estate license runs on a biennial renewal cycle. Florida’s renewal schedule is staggered into groups whose licenses expire on March 31 or September 30 (Fla. Admin. Code R. 61-6.001(4)), so which of the two dates is yours was fixed when you were licensed. Continuing education isn’t a one-time box you check — it resets every cycle. The 14 hours you complete this renewal satisfy this renewal only; they don’t bank forward, and they don’t retroactively cover a renewal you already made.
That’s what “expire” really means here. There’s no calendar date stamped on a CE certificate that later invalidates it in isolation — what matters is whether the hours fall inside the renewal cycle they’re meant to satisfy. Complete them any time during your current cycle and they count. Complete them before your current cycle opens (aimed at a future renewal) and they typically don’t. Miss your renewal deadline without completing and reporting them, and your license lapses into involuntary inactive status — a different problem than “expired hours,” but the one licensees are usually actually worried about.
The practical takeaway: you can complete your CE any time within your current two-year cycle — the first week or the last week — and it counts the same either way. Doing it early just means one less thing to track as your deadline approaches; doing it at the last minute works too, as long as it’s finished and reported before your license expires.
All persons holding active or inactive licenses as brokers or sales associates must satisfactorily complete a minimum of 14 hours of instruction of 50 minutes each … during each license renewal period excluding the first renewal period of their current license. … The specialty course hours must total at least 8 hours.Read the full text
What’s due every renewal cycle
| Component | Hours every 2 years |
|---|---|
| Core Law (mandatory) | 3 |
| Ethics & Business Practices (mandatory) | 3 |
| Specialty electives | 8 |
| Total | 14 |
This requirement is identical for sales associates, broker associates, and brokers (Fla. Stat. § 475.182; FAC 61J2-3.009), and it resets every biennium — the exception is a licensee’s first renewal, which requires post-licensing education instead of CE. You can also take your hours from more than one provider in the same cycle, with each reporting the hours you completed with it — but finishing all 14 in one place is simplest.
Why “when are my hours due” is confusing
If you complete CE meant for a future cycle before that cycle has opened, it typically won’t apply to it. There’s no penalty for finishing early within your current cycle — the trap is completing hours aimed at a renewal that hasn’t started yet.
Completing CE is self-paced, but reporting still takes time on the provider’s side. Finishing in the final days of your cycle leaves no room for a delay, a failed exam attempt, or a technical issue to be resolved before your license lapses.
The cleanest approach is to complete your 14 hours any time after your current cycle opens and well before your renewal deadline — not the day your last renewal happened, and not the day before this one is due. Comet CE’s courses are self-paced and available on any device, so there’s no reason to wait for a scheduled session — you can start the moment you buy and work at whatever pace fits your two-year cycle.
Get your 14 hours done, well before your deadline
One $24.90 bundle covers every hour Florida requires this cycle — on any device, with your completed hours filed to the DBPR on your behalf.
Start the 14-Hour CE bundle — $24.90