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Reciprocity & Continuing Education as Professional Self Care: Loving Your License

February is a good time to tend to the relationships that matter, and for real estate professionals in the DMV, few relationships are more important than the one you have with your license. A little attention now can save you stress at renewal time and set you up for cross-border business all year.

Think of District of Columbia renewal cycles as predictable date nights. They come around every two years in odd-numbered years and are easy to miss if you don’t set reminders. Brokers and property managers renew by February 28 and sales agents by August 31. Core Continuing Education requirements never change: Fair Housing, Ethics and Legislative Update for all, with Property Management and Broker Supervision added for brokers. Hold on to your completion certificates. D.C. audits CE for up to five years, and system updates have occasionally delayed reporting. Check your hours in the portal before you click renew.

Maryland rewards early planning. Under the updated Maryland Broker Act, CE must be completed at least 30 days before your renewal date. Providers have up to 14 days to report completed coursework. If your CE is submitted inside that 30-day window, the Commission adds a $168 reinstatement fee. Finishing early and confirming that your courses have posted keeps that fee off your bill. New Maryland licensees must complete the required post-licensing education and cannot substitute coursework from another state. In practice, the safest move is to treat CE like a proposal: plan ahead, document everything and avoid surprises.

Virginia has its own love language when it comes to license renewals. For first-time renewals, Salespersons must complete 30 hours of Post-Licensing Education within their initial two-year cycle, no exceptions, even if you’ve held a license elsewhere. After that first renewal, the relationship shifts: Salespersons need 16 hours of CE every two years, covering Fair Housing, Ethics and Standards of Conduct, Legal Updates and Emerging Trends, Contracts, and Agency. Brokers have a bigger commitment: 24 hours every two years, including mandatory topics like Fair Housing, Ethics, Legal Updates, and Broker Supervision.

Cross-border ambition is part of the DMV DNA, and reciprocity is the romance language of multistate practice. The District of Columbia offers reciprocity with Maryland and Virginia, but it isn’t automatic. Expect a D.C. law course, a passing score on the D.C. exam portion and a current license history in good standing. Even reciprocity applicants must file their application within six months of passing the exam. Brokers and salespersons should be ready to take D.C. Fair Housing and D.C. Property Management as part of the courtship.

Maryland’s reciprocity is more selective. It has formal agreements with Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. Beyond those, Maryland reviews requests case by case. You’ll need a recently issued certified license history, a cover letter explaining your full licensing chronology and, realistically, some patience. Maryland sometimes says yes, but it prefers an applicant who arrives organized and understands the limits of reciprocity. In other words, don’t assume Virginia-to-Maryland will look like D.C.-to-Maryland. Confirm the rules before promising clients a cross-state team.

Treat all of this as professional self-care. Set aside time now to book your CE, double-check required topics, download certificates and mark D.C.’s odd-year renewal dates. If you’re planning to expand your reach, map out the reciprocity steps and prep for whatever exams are required. A little affection for the administrative details today protects your practice, your clients and your peace of mind tomorrow. That’s a relationship worth renewing every cycle.

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*drafted with the assistance of AI

About the Author

Erin August is an attorney in the Real Estate Department at Shulman Rogers, P.A. She was born in Washington, DC and raised in Montgomery County, Maryland, where she lives with her husband, son and cat.