Real Estate Agent License Renewal in Virginia
Virginia salespersons renew every two years with 16 hours of CE and a $100 fee. Eleven of those 16 hours are assigned topics, and brokers owe 24 hours instead.
| Renewal cycle | Every 2 years |
|---|---|
| CE hours required | 16 hours 16 hours per two-year term for active salespersons, of which 11 are assigned topics. Active brokers owe 24 hours, of which 19 are assigned, the difference being 8 hours of supervision and brokerage management. Inactive licensees owe no CE at all. A salesperson in their first year does not take the 16 instead: they owe the separate 30-hour post-license education curriculum, due within one year of the last day of the month the license was issued. |
| Renewal fee | $100.00 |
| Mandatory CE topics | Fair housing laws, 2 hours, Ethics and standards of conduct, 3 hours, Real estate agency, 2 hours, Real estate contracts, including contract principles, forms, and escrow deposits, 2 hours, Legal updates and emerging trends, including flood zone areas and the National Flood Insurance Program, 2 hours, Supervision and management of agents and brokerage firms, 8 hours (brokers only, 2 of which cover broker supervision requirements) |
| Licensing board | Virginia Real Estate Board (DPOR) |
Sourced from Virginia Real Estate Board (DPOR), verified July 24, 2026. Requirements change. Confirm with your board before relying on this.
Virginia does not run on a statewide calendar date. Your license expires two years from the last day of the month it was issued, which means your deadline is yours alone and nobody else’s reminder will match it. Look at the expiration printed on the license itself, because there is no June 30 or December 31 to fall back on.
Sixteen hours, and eleven of them are assigned
An active salesperson completes 16 hours per two-year term, but only 5 of those are genuinely your choice. The other 11 are prescribed by topic:
- 2 hours fair housing laws
- 3 hours ethics and standards of conduct
- 2 hours real estate agency
- 2 hours real estate contracts, covering contract principles, forms, and escrow deposits and accounts
- 2 hours legal updates and emerging trends, which the regulation specifically extends to flood zone areas and the National Flood Insurance Program
The remaining 5 hours come from an elective list in the regulation running from title insurance and appraisal to cyber security and data protection.
There is one narrow escape from the fair housing block. A licensee who files a notarized affidavit with the Board stating they do not practice residential brokerage, residential management, or residential leasing, and will not during the term, takes training in other federal and state discrimination law instead. That is a genuine carve-out for pure commercial practitioners, not a way to skip the subject.
Brokers owe 24, and the extra 8 are supervision
An active broker’s number is 24 hours, with 19 assigned rather than 11. Everything on the salesperson list carries over unchanged, and on top of it sits 8 hours in supervision and management of agents and brokerage firms, including oversight of contracts and agency. Two of those 8 must specifically cover the broker supervision requirements in the Board’s own regulations and Chapter 21 of Title 54.1.
So a broker is not doing a slightly longer version of the salesperson course. They are doing the salesperson course plus a full day on running a firm.
The first renewal is a different animal
New salespersons frequently misread this one. Your first obligation is not the 16 hours. It is a 30-hour post-license education curriculum, required by statute of every salesperson within the initial year of licensure, covering contract writing, handling customer deposits, listing and leasing property, agency, and flood hazard areas.
The clock is the same shape as the renewal clock: one year from the last day of the month your license was issued. Miss it and the Board puts the license on inactive status until the curriculum is finished. The 16-hour requirement in the regulation is written for subsequent renewals, which is exactly why a first-year agent who dutifully takes 16 hours can still end up inactive.
Going inactive is a real option here
Inactive brokers and salespersons owe no continuing education as a condition of renewal. That makes Virginia one of the states where parking a license you are not using is genuinely cheap rather than merely cheaper. You still renew and pay, you just stop buying course hours. The catch is on the way back: reactivating means satisfying the education you skipped, so this works as a deliberate pause, not as a way to let hours quietly disappear.
The fee
Salesperson renewal is $100, broker renewal $120, and a concurrent broker license renews at $80. Firms pay $240 and branch offices $135.
Worth flagging if you are looking at an older guide: this fee schedule is brand new. The Board’s fees moved into a new section of the regulations effective April 1, 2026, and the section that carried them before was repealed outright on the same date. Any figure you find in a pre-2026 PDF is describing a rule that no longer exists.
How this compares
Virginia sits in the middle of the pack on volume, 16 hours over two years against Texas’s 18 and Ohio’s 30 over three, but it is unusually prescriptive about what those hours are. Where Georgia lets a licensee fill 36 hours over four years with mostly free choice, Virginia hands a salesperson only 5 discretionary hours out of 16, and a broker only 5 out of 24. At $100 it costs more than North Carolina’s $45 a year but covers twice the time, and the rolling anniversary date means it will never line up with a colleague’s deadline the way Illinois or New Jersey do.
Add your renewal deadline to your calendar
Enter your expiration date and download a calendar file. Your own calendar will remind you at 90, 60, 30, and 7 days out. We don't ask for your email, we store nothing, and the date never leaves your device.
Works with Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, and Outlook. This is a convenience, not a compliance service. Confirm your exact deadline with the Virginia Real Estate Board (DPOR).
How many CE hours do you have left?
Virginia requires 16 CE hours this cycle. Enter what you've completed and see what's left. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.
Hours alone aren't the whole requirement. Some must be these specific topics:
- Fair housing laws, 2 hours
- Ethics and standards of conduct, 3 hours
- Real estate agency, 2 hours
- Real estate contracts, including contract principles, forms, and escrow deposits, 2 hours
- Legal updates and emerging trends, including flood zone areas and the National Flood Insurance Program, 2 hours
- Supervision and management of agents and brokerage firms, 8 hours (brokers only, 2 of which cover broker supervision requirements)
A convenience, not a compliance service. Confirm your exact requirement with the Virginia Real Estate Board (DPOR). This is not legal advice.
Continuing education hours per renewal cycle
Virginia asks for 16 hours. That is below the median of 18 across the 51 states that set a flat hour count, which run from 7 to 45. Ranked lowest to highest, Virginia is 24 of 51.
Renewal fee
Virginia charges $100. The median across the 48 states that publish a figure is $115, running from $0 to $578. Ranked cheapest to dearest, Virginia is 22 of 48.
Each mark is one state. The taller line is the median, the filled dot is Virginia. States that set no flat hour count, or publish no fee, are left out of that comparison rather than counted as zero.
What will this renewal cost?
Virginia's renewal fee is filled in from the board below. Add what you expect to spend on CE courses, plus a late fee if you're past due, for a running total. Nothing you type is stored.
The renewal fee is from the Virginia Real Estate Board (DPOR) and dated on this page; the CE and late-fee figures are your own estimates. A convenience, not a compliance service, and not legal advice. Confirm fees with your board.