Michigan Real Estate License Renewal in 4 Steps

Michigan real estate license renewals happen every three years regardless of when you get your license, which means all real estate professionals have the same deadlines; the next one is October 31, 2021. Within each three-year cycle, agents and brokers must complete 18 hours of continuing education (CE) classes, comprising both mandatory and elective courses.

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These are the four steps for Michigan real estate license renewal.

1. Determine Coursework Requirements

Every calendar year, licensed agents and brokers in the state of Michigan must complete a minimum of six credit hours of CE courses. Over the course of three years, you must complete a total of 18 CE credit hours and submit proof of course completion along with a $78 fee. To ensure you understand what credits you need to complete when, first determine the state’s course deadlines, then examine the mandatory and elective course requirements.

Determine General Course Deadlines

Even though you only submit your CE courses once every three years, you are expected to take six hours of CE coursework every year. The deadline for completing all six credit hours is December 31, unless it is a license renewal year. In license renewal years (2021, 2024, and so on), you must have your six credit hours completed on or before October 31, as this is the renewal deadline.

Consider Prorated Requirements

Depending on the date when you first received your Michigan real estate license, the total credits required for license renewal may be prorated. The Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) department offers these specifications:

• If you received a new license between July 1, 2018 and October 31, 2019 or you were relicensed between July 1, 2018 and October 31, 2019, then you will need a total of 18 credit hours of CE before your license renewal in 2021. These requirements are the same for all Michigan real estate professionals who renewed their licenses in 2018.
• If you will be issued a new license between November 1, 2019 and October 31, 2020 or you are relicensed between November 1, 2019 and October 31, 2020, you will need a total of 12 credit hours of continuing education before your license renewal in 2021.
• If you are issued a new license between November 1, 2020 and July 3, 2021 or if you are relicensed between November 1, 2020 and July 3, 2021, you will only need six total hours of CE before your license renewal in 2021. Two of those CE hours must involve real estate law, rules, and court cases, and the remaining four hours can be electives.
• If you are relicensed, you cannot repeat any CE courses for your 2021 license renewal.

The vast majority of real estate sales agents and brokers will have the same requirements and will have to submit their renewal by the deadline on October 31, 2021. These specifications are only necessary in special cases, like for relicensure or if you receive your license for the first time in the middle of the three-year cycle.

Review Mandatory Course Requirements

Out of the six credit hours required yearly, a minimum of two must involve real estate law, rules, and court cases. This ensures that real estate professionals understand how legal and governmental changes affect you and your clients. Click here for a calendar of upcoming in-person classes through CE Marketplace; each class is labeled with the number of mandatory credit hours or elective credit hours you will receive.

Some examples of mandatory continuing education courses are:

• Ownership and Landlord/Tenant Basics
• Cases, New Laws, and Occupational Code Changes
• Michigan Court Cases and Statutes That Affect Your Real Estate Business
• Fair Houses: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
• Anti-trust Laws
• Property Management

Many of the courses that fulfill the mandatory course requirements will be updates on court cases and law changes, but there are also many others. Even though these law-focused CE hours are mandatory, you can still choose a topic that will benefit your business growth the most.

Review Elective Course Requirements

Each calendar year, agents and brokers seeking license renewal also must complete four hours of elective CE. There is a huge variety of elective topics available, covering everything from business management to trending topics on environmental issues in real estate.

Here are some of the elective classes available:

• Business practices
• Consumer resources (home inspections, property management)
• Civil rights and fair housing
• Environmental issues
• Finances (property taxes, financing, home insurance)
• Industry-related issues (consumer communications, negotiation, marketing)
• Principles of real estate (property law, foreclosure, trusts, landlord and tenant law, appraisal)
• Real estate market
• Real estate ethics
• Smart growth and land use (placemaking, community development)
• Technology

The topics, length, and credit hours for each course vary, and you are responsible for tracking your required credit hours. Make sure you take a minimum of four elective credit hours within each calendar year.

2. Schedule Your Continuing Education Courses

In 2015, the state of Michigan created CE Marketplace as a free tool to find approved continuing education courses and keep track of them. You can look for classes on other websites, but all CE courses must be certified by CE Marketplace in order to be approved for your license renewal. Start by considering which course providers you can use to complete your annual CE credits, then register for the required courses.

Choose Your Continuing Education Course Provider

If you are a licensed agent in Michigan, it is free to be a part of CE Marketplace; here, you can find courses and keep track of them. You can also choose a third-party course provider as long as they are certified by the CE Marketplace. Consider the cost of each and the availability of courses before choosing your preferred provider.

Michigan Institute of Real Estate: $39–$45

The Michigan Institute of Real Estate offers courses and study tools for a large variety of real estate professionals, including brokers, builders, appraisers, and inspectors. Each year, they offer an updated, six-hour package that will fulfill all of your yearly continuing education requirements.

You can take their courses in a classroom for $45, online for $39, or you can do home study for $45. For the home study option, you will receive printed material and audio CDs. You’ll also take a paper exam and mail it in as part of the course completion requirements.

The CE Shop: $45–$85

The CE Shop is one of the most well-known real estate schools because they offer approved courses and packages for each state in the country. For your Michigan license renewal, you can get a 14-hour CE package with an ethics course for $85, or a 12-hour CE package with the ethics course for $79.

If you want to purchase an annual package to fulfill your requirements, it will be $45. That package includes two hours of legal CE coursework and four hours of elective courses.

Kaplan Real Estate Education: $19–$49

Kaplan Real Estate Education offers two forms of online learning. You can watch videos on-demand, or you can choose a more traditional click-through format.

Kaplan offers a continuing education package with all six required credit hours for $39, or two hours of legal updates for $19. If you choose the latter, you can select elective courses separately; individual courses can be purchased in your preferred format for $19 to $49 each.

OnCourse Learning: $64

OnCourse Learning conveniently offers a single package of CE courses online. This $64 12-credit course selection focuses only on elective coursework, however; mandatory courses must be completed elsewhere.

While the above schools are popular options for Michigan license renewal coursework, there are also many local options offered through CE Marketplace. Additionally, you can read more on our review of the best online real estate schools.

Register for Your Courses & Complete Credits

Once you have chosen your provider, register for coursework as soon as possible. Many agents and brokers put off their renewal course requirements, leading to harried, last-minute scheduling or worse—expired licenses. If this is a concern for you, consider registering for a course provider with an annual membership and on-demand classes to ensure you can always complete necessary credits.

3. Keep Track of All CE Hours & Certificates

After completing each CE credit hour, you will receive a certificate of completion. In previous years, the State of Michigan would track each of your hours as you completed them. Since CE Marketplace was created, this has changed. Each real estate professional is now solely responsible for keeping track of their credit hours.

After you register with CE Marketplace, you can upload your certificates and keep track of all your continuing education credits. As long as you keep your records updated, all you will have to do to view your progress is log in to your dashboard.

If you are a real estate salesperson, your broker will also be able to see your continuing education credits. According to CE Marketplace, a broker responsible for verifying that each of your courses is complete will reduce your risk of an audit.

Keep in mind that you do not actually need to submit proof of your CE credits with your Michigan real estate license renewal. However, the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs department (LARA) routinely conducts continuing education audits, so it will be able to see if you have met renewal requirements.

4. Complete License Renewal Online

LARA will mail a renewal notification to all real estate professionals in Michigan approximately 90 days before the renewal deadline. The renewal notification will give you specific dates for renewal and instructions on where to renew online; follow these closely and complete them by the renewal deadline. As part of the online renewal process, you will be required to pay a $78 renewal fee.

If you do not submit your renewal by the deadline, your license will expire. If you continue to practice real estate, you may be the subject of legal action. However, there is a 60-day grace period from November 1, 2021 to January 2, 2022. Licensed real estate brokers, associate brokers, and salespeople whose license renewals were due but not completed by October 31 can renew their licenses in this window, but will have to pay a late fee of $20.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How do I renew my real estate broker license?

Michigan real estate brokers have the same CE credit hour requirements as real estate agents. You must complete 18 total hours of CE credits during the three-year cycle. Broker’s licenses must also be renewed online; the renewal fee is $108.

How do I renew my branch office license?

Real estate branch office licenses—of primary concern for brokers—also expire triennially, with the next deadline being October 31, 2021. The renewal fee is $60 and must be paid on the LARA website.

How much does it cost to renew my real estate license in Michigan?

If you complete your renewal requirements and application on time, the renewal fee is $78 for agents and $108 for brokers. If, however, agents are late completing the requirements but still do so during the grace period (by January 2, 2022), they must pay an additional $20 late fee.

Does Michigan accept real estate license reciprocity?

Real estate license reciprocity is when two states allow licensed real estate agents to be licensed in both states. Michigan has no reciprocity agreements with any other state, but certain experience, training, and coursework may count toward your licensure. Read more about real estate license reciprocity.

How can I get relicensed?

After your license expires, you will have to submit a relicensure application on the LARA website. If your license has been expired for less than three years, you will have to complete six hours of real estate continuing education for each year and partial year missed. Two of these hours must be legal real estate courses, and the other four can be electives.

If your license has been expired for more than three years, you can choose between three options. The first is taking the real estate licensing exam; you will receive your license when you pass. The other two options require submitting proof of coursework. If you’ve completed 40 hours of prelicensure coursework within 12 months of your re-application or completed six hours of CE credits for every year and partial year missed, your application will be accepted.

How can I get my license reinstated?

If your license is revoked, you will need to fill out an application for license reinstatement on the LARA website. Along with the application, you will need to send a check or money order and supporting documentation. This includes a petition to the department stating reasons for reinstatement and evidence that you can and will conform to the law.

Bottom Line: Real Estate License Renewal Michigan

To renew your Michigan real estate license, complete six hours of continuing education requirements each year and submit your renewal application before the three-year deadline. Also, be sure to consider prorated renewal exceptions and ensure that your education provider is certified by CE Marketplace.

To make completing your elective coursework easy, consider a provider like OnCourse Learning. Their celebrated platform delivers intuitive, in-depth lessons for agents and brokers that cover everything from prequalification of buyers to handling short sales. Stay on top of the latest real estate trends by registering for an affordable elective CE package today.

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