What Happens If You Miss Your Florida Post-Licensing Deadline?
It is the single harshest rule in Florida real estate, and the one new licensees most often don’t see coming: your first renewal requires post-licensing education — 45 hours for a sales associate, 60 for a broker — not the ordinary 14-hour CE. Complete it before your first renewal, and you’re fine. Miss it, and your license is rendered null and void — it cannot be renewed or reactivated, and you must re-qualify from scratch. This guide lays out exactly what is at stake and how to make sure it never happens to you.
By Scott Schubiner
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker & Instructor · Published August 30, 2026
The stakes: null and void, not just inactive
Most licensing deadlines in Florida are forgiving. Miss your ordinary 14-hour continuing education and your license goes inactive — inconvenient, but recoverable: complete the hours, pay the fees, and you can reactivate. Post-licensing is different, and the difference is the whole point of this article.
If you do not finish post-licensing before your first renewal, your license becomes null and void. That is not the same as inactive. A void license cannot be renewed and cannot be reactivated — there is nothing left to bring back. To operate in that role again you must requalify: retake the pre-licensing course and pass the Florida state exam again (Fla. Stat. § 475.17(3)(c) for sales associates, § 475.17(4)(c) for brokers). Every dollar and hour you spent to get licensed the first time, you spend again.
Put plainly: missing your CE costs you a reactivation fee and some hours. Missing your post-licensing costs you your license. A sales associate who lets that first deadline pass is back to square one — the 63-hour pre-license course, the state exam, the application — as if the past two years never happened. That is why, among everything on a new licensee’s to-do list, this is the deadline to protect above all others.
What’s due, and by when
| License class | Post-licensing required | Deadline | Miss it → |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales associate | 45 hours | Before first renewal | Null & void |
| Broker | 60 hours | Before first renewal | Null & void |
Post-licensing is one-time and license-class specific. Only the first renewal works this way — from your second renewal onward, sales associates, broker associates, and brokers all complete the same 14 hours of continuing education each cycle instead (Fla. Stat. § 475.17(5)(b)).
One route back is open to a broker and not to a sales associate. Both licenses are “null and void” in the same words, but § 475.17(4)(c) lets a broker whose license goes void be issued a sales associate license on proof of completing the 14-hour continuing education course within the 6 months following expiration. It is a hard deadline and it does not restore the broker license — that still takes the broker pre-license course and the state exam.
All applicants for licensure who pass a broker or sales associate licensure examination must satisfactorily complete a Commission-prescribed post-licensing course prior to the first renewal following initial licensure. The course totals at least 45 classroom hours for a sales associate and at least 60 for a broker (Fla. Stat. § 475.17(3)(a), (4)(a)).Read the full text
Find your real deadline first. Florida renews in staggered groups whose expiration dates are March 31 or September 30 (Fla. Admin. Code R. 61-6.001(4)), and the DBPR says your initial expiration date is the one printed on your license. Do not calculate it — look it up on MyFloridaLicense.com and treat it as immovable. Confirm your status with the DBPR before relying on any date you read here.
What to do — and how it works
- 1Confirm your expiration date. Look up your license on MyFloridaLicense.com and note the exact first-renewal date. This is the deadline every other step works backward from.
- 2Enroll in the right course for your class. Sales associates take the 45-hour post-licensing course; brokers take the 60-hour course. It is not the 14-hour CE — that comes later.
- 3Work through it at your own pace, on any device. The course is fully online and self-paced — no live sessions, no proctoring — and your place is saved automatically, so you can finish across a few sittings.
- 4Finish, get your certificate, and let us file. Your certificate of completion is issued the moment you finish, and Comet CE files your completed hours with the Florida DBPR on your behalf. You simply complete your renewal online with the DBPR and pay the fee â we handle the rest, including reporting your completed hours.
Each purchase carries a 6-month access window from your purchase date, shown at checkout; when it closes, access ends whether or not the course was finished. The window that actually matters, though, is your first-renewal date. Don’t plan to start the week it’s due: give yourself room, because a void license is not something you can undo after the fact.
Don’t let your license go void — finish post-licensing now
100% online, self-paced, FREC-approved. Certificate issued the moment you finish, with your completed hours filed to the DBPR on your behalf.
Sales Associate Post-Licensing · FREC Course #0032920 · Broker Post-Licensing · FREC Course #0032919
- Fully mobile and self-paced — no live sessions and no proctoring.
- Completed hours filed with the DBPR on your behalf, certificate issued the moment you finish.