Year one: the post-license course
A new Georgia salesperson is not finished learning at licensure. O.C.G.A. 43-40-8(d) requires completion of a Commission-approved course of at least 25 instructional hours plus a passing examination on the course content, within one year of issuance of the original license.
Miss it and the license lapses — the wall certificate and pocket card are surrendered at once. A lapse is not a suspension; suspension is a sanction imposed after a hearing. No fine attaches to the post-license failure, and the consequence is lapse, not revocation.
Continuing education for renewal
Rule 520-1-.05(1)(d) requires 36 instructional hours of continuing education during each renewal period to renew an active license, and 520-1-.05(1)(e) requires at least 3 of those hours to be on license law.
The statutory floor in O.C.G.A. 43-40-8(e) is six hours per year, which computes to 24 over a four-year period — but 36 is the operative number a renewal requires. That is the trap: candidates do the multiplication and answer 24.
Note also that 43-40-8(e) expressly forbids requiring an examination for continuing education. An exam belongs to the 25-hour post-license course only. The 18 hours of broker education requirement applies to brokers and associate brokers renewing on or after July 1, 2025, not to salespersons.
Lapse tiers
What it takes to come back depends entirely on how long the license has been lapsed:
- Less than two years: all renewal fees, late charges and a reinstatement fee.
- More than two years but less than five: those fees plus either the applicable prelicense course taken within one year before applying, or retaking and passing the qualifying examination including the national portion (O.C.G.A. 43-40-12(f); Rule 520-1-.05(4)).
- More than five years: requalify in every respect as an original applicant.
The $25.00 penalty fee is unrelated; it belongs to failing to notify the Commission of a change of address, a trust account, a transfer, or going inactive.