New York real estate education changes/requirements by licensing law - by Edward Smith

Prior to July 1, 2021, if you were a real estate broker for 15 years or more you were exempt from taking Continuing Education courses, known as being “grandfathered”. As of July 1, 2021, grandfathering ended and all real estate licensees must take 22.5 hours of continuing education, every two years, for license renewal.

The change in the law also mandated that the 22.5 hours must include three hours of fair housing or discrimination training, 2.5 hours of ethics, one hour of agency (two hours if this is your first renewal) and one hour of legal updates.

On September 21, 2022, two more mandatory courses were added: two hours of implicit bias and two hours of cultural competency. Now for a total requirement of 11.5 mandatory hours within the 22.5hours required for license renewal.

As of December 21, 2022 the state increased the pre-licensing course hours to 152 hours for brokers and 77 hours for salespersons. With the salespersons hours required to include six hours of fair housing.

As a result of these additional requirements, for both new brokers and salespersons the state no longer has direct reciprocity with other states.

Edward Smith, Jr., CREI, ITI, CIC, GREEN, MICP, CNE, e-PRO and CIREC program developer, is a licensed real estate broker, commercial and investment real estate instructor, author, speaker and a consultant.