Newly licensed agents no longer need to wait a year to take continuing education courses for credit. On March 17, 2016, the Virginia Real Estate Board (VREB) approved the VREB Education Committee’s recommendation for CE carryover credits earned by new licensees in the last six months of their first licensure period.     

Virginia real estate licensing regulations provide that all newly licensed agents must complete 30 hours of post licensing education (PLE) within one year of obtaining their salesperson license. The license renewal period, however, is two years. This created a “gap year” during which the licensee was previously unable to earn credit for courses completed between the one-year deadline for completion of PLE credits and the beginning of the second-year of the license renewal period.

Current regulations allow salespersons or brokers who are within six months of the end of their license renewal period and have met the credit hours required for that period, to take additional CE credit classes and carry over the credits to the next renewal period. Initially, the VREB determined that this carryover provision did not apply during the licensee’s first license period when only PLE credits could be earned. 

A proposal was made to the VREB Education Committee that the carryover provision should also apply to a licensee’s first license renewal period, so that licensees aren’t forced to wait an entire year (or longer) before they can take continuing education courses for credit.  

The VREB Education Committee agreed with the proposal and made the following recommendation to the Board: “If a new salesperson completes all of the required 30 hours of post-licensing education, and then completes any continuing education courses in the last six months of his first licensure period, the continuing education hours can be carried over into the next two-year renewal period.”

The Board approved the recommendation by a unanimous vote.

The example below illustrates how the new education requirement will benefit a licensee:
Sue obtains her salesperson license on August 1, 2016.
Sue must complete 30 hours of PLE credits no later than July 31, 2017.

Sue’s two-year license renewal period does not begin until August 1, 2018, and Sue must complete 16 hours of CE credits between August 1, 2018 and July 31, 2020.
Sue may NOW obtain CE credit for classes completed during the last six months of her first licensure period (between February 1, 2018 and July 31, 2018). Previously, Sue had to wait a full year before she could take classes for CE credit. 
The VREB has closed the gap by six months with this new interpretation of the carryover regulation. For more information, email education@nvar.com or click on: go.nvar.com/carryover. 

Brenda Heffernan is the NVAR vice president of education, counsel.