Real Estate Continuing Education Requirements in Georgia: What Agents Need to Know in 2026 If you hold an active Georgia real estate license, continuing education is not optional — it is the non-negotiable foundation of keeping your license alive and your career on solid ground. Yet every renewal cycle, agents across Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, and everywhere in between scramble at the last minute, discover they misunderstood the requirements, or miss deadlines that cost them real money. This guide covers every layer of Georgia's CE system so you can plan ahead, satisfy the Georgia Real Estate Commission (GREC) with confidence, and use your required hours as a genuine competitive advantage — not just a checkbox exercise. --- What Are the GREC CE Requirements for 2026? The Georgia Real Estate Commission (GREC) requires every active licensee with a license number above 100,000 to complete 36 hours of approved continuing education during each four-year license renewal cycle. That number has been in place since July 1, 2015, when GREC increased the requirement from 24 to 36 hours — and it remains the benchmark heading into 2026. Within those 36 hours, GREC mandates: - 3 hours of License Law education from a course specifically approved by GREC for that purpose. This requirement became effective July 1, 2016. Standard CE courses do not satisfy this requirement unless the provider has obtained explicit GREC approval for license law credit. - 33 hours of elective CE covering a wide range of real estate-related topics — contracts, finance, ethics, risk management, technology, fair housing, agency relationships, and more. If your license number is below 100,000, you are grandfathered and exempt from the CE requirement. For virtually every agent who entered the industry in recent decades, however, the full 36-hour requirement applies. Brokers face an additional layer in 2026. Under updated GREC rules, brokers must complete 18 hours of broker-specific CE as part of their 36-hour total. These broker-focused courses must be at least three credit hours each and must address topics such as: - Training and supervising licensees - Reviewing and managing brokerage agreements - Running a real estate firm - Responsibilities unique to the principal broker role In practice, this means a broker's CE plan looks like this: 3 hours of license law + 18 hours of broker-specific content + 15 hours of general electives = 36 total hours. Half of a broker's entire CE portfolio must directly address the operational and supervisory demands of running a brokerage. --- How Many Continuing Education Hours Do Georgia Real Estate Agents Need? Let's break it down cleanly: | License Type | Total CE Required | License Law Required | Broker-Specific Required | General Electives | |---|---|---|---|---| | Salesperson | 36 hours | 3 hours | None | 33 hours | | Broker / Associate Broker | 36 hours | 3 hours | 18 hours | 15 hours | | Community Association Manager (CAM) | 36 hours | 3 hours | None | 33 hours | | Grandfathered (license below 100,000) | 0 hours | N/A | N/A | N/A | The renewal cycle itself: Your Georgia real estate license expires on the last day of your birth month, every four years. You can begin the renewal process up to 120 days (four months) before that expiration date. You do not need to wait until the final month to renew — and you absolutely should not. More on avoiding last-minute panic later. --- What Are the Post-License Requirements for New Georgia Agents? If you just passed your Georgia real estate exam and activated your license, your first education milestone is not a standard CE requirement — it is post-license education, and missing it will lapse your license automatically. The requirement: New salesperson licensees must successfully complete a 25-hour Salesperson Post-License course within their first year of licensure. This course must be: - Specifically approved by GREC as a Salesperson Post-License course (not just any CE course) - Completed with a passing score of 70% or higher on the course exam Failure to complete this course before the one-year anniversary of your license activation causes your license to lapse. There is no grace period. There is no extension. Your license simply becomes inactive, and you must go through a reinstatement process before you can legally practice real estate again. What counts? The Georgia Association of Realtors (GAR) offers a path: new licensees can earn their Post-License credit through GAR's GRI program by completing both the GRI Core Course – Risk Management and the GRI Core Course – Skill Building. Once both are done, GAR posts the Post-License completion to your GREC record. What does NOT count: Regular CE courses — even excellent, comprehensive ones — do not satisfy the 25-hour post-license requirement unless the provider has GREC's specific approval as a Post-License course. Confirm this before enrolling. For agents in Fulton County, DeKa