Licensed in one of these nine states? Florida lets you skip the pre-license course and the 100-question state exam. You take one 40-question Florida law exam instead.
Florida DBPR checks four things. If all four are true, you can apply by mutual recognition.
Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Rhode Island or West Virginia.
You must not live in Florida when you apply. You also need to be 18 or older, with a high school diploma or its equivalent.
You got your license by meeting that state’s education and examination requirements, not by reciprocity from somewhere else.
Your license must be valid, current and active, and in good standing with your state.
The first five get you licensed. The last two keep you licensed.
Apply online, or by mail, with DBPR’s Sales Associate Mutual Recognition application (RE 1), or the Broker Mutual Recognition application (RE 2). You need a U.S. Social Security number and a current Certification of License History from your state’s real estate licensing agency. Applying under the Kentucky or West Virginia agreement? You need one from every state where you have held a license.
Right after you apply, get fingerprinted by any Livescan provider approved by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). Its list includes providers outside Florida. Give them Florida’s real estate ORI number, FL920010Z, or DBPR never receives your results. No approved provider near you? Call DBPR at 850-487-1395 for a fingerprint card, have it rolled locally (a sheriff’s office can do it), and mail it with your application, the $36 fee and DBPR’s consent form.
When DBPR approves your application, it tells Pearson VUE, the state’s testing company. Within 72 hours you can book your exam online or at 888-204-6289, and you pay when you book. Pearson VUE’s Florida fact sheet lists the fee as $15.75; confirm it when you book. Your approval to test lasts two years.
The Florida Real Estate Laws and Rules exam has 40 questions in 1.5 hours, and you need 30 correct to pass. It is closed book and in English, taken in person at a Pearson VUE test center, and you get your score before you leave. What’s on it ↓
After you pass, DBPR issues your license number automatically, which can take up to 48 hours. Print your license from your DBPR online account; nothing comes by mail. The license starts inactive. To practice, you work under a Florida-licensed broker, who adds you through their DBPR online account (or you file form RE 11).
Before the first expiration date printed on your license, complete Florida’s 45-hour post-licensing course, or 60 hours for brokers, with a Florida-approved school. Mutual recognition does not exempt you from it, and online counts. Miss the deadline and the license becomes null and void. The 45-hour course, online →
After your first renewal, Florida requires 14 hours of continuing education every two years, whether your license is active or inactive. It is due with your renewal fee by your expiration date: March 31 or September 30. The 14-hour course, online →
DBPR calls it the Real Estate Laws and Rules exam. It tests Florida’s real estate license law, with the emphasis on Chapters 455 and 475 of the Florida Statutes and the Florida Real Estate Commission’s rules.
Chapter 475, Part I: who needs a license, brokerage relationships, escrow, and violations and penalties.
Chapter 455: the licensing, discipline and continuing-education rules DBPR applies to every licensed profession.
The Florida Real Estate Commission’s rules: offices and signs, advertising, escrow, education and discipline.
The exam booklet lists 39 Florida references in all, among them landlord and tenant (F.S. 83), condominiums (F.S. 718), homeowners’ associations (F.S. 720) and fair housing (F.S. 760).
From DBPR’s candidate booklet for the Laws and Rules exam (February 2025) and rule 61J2-26.001. DBPR publishes no topic weights for this exam.
South Florida Career Center has licensed more than 7,500 agents since 2014. Every course below is online, so you can take it from anywhere.
Practice questions and timed 40-question practice exams, built for the mutual recognition exam.
Coming soonRequired before your first renewal. Online, in English or Spanish.
Required of brokers before their first renewal. Online.
The CE every Florida licensee needs each renewal. Online, in English or Spanish.
Florida calls it mutual recognition, and it has agreements with nine states. Your license doesn’t transfer on its own: you apply to DBPR, get fingerprinted and pass a 40-question Florida law exam. What you skip is Florida’s pre-license course and the full 100-question state exam.
One catch: if you got your current license by reciprocity from another state, it doesn’t qualify.
No. You take it in person at a Pearson VUE test center, and DBPR says its exams are available “at testing sites throughout the world.” Pearson VUE lists centers for this exam in all nine mutual recognition states. It is not offered online.
No. The Laws and Rules exam is given in English only. You may bring one word-for-word translation dictionary, and the test center staff inspect it before you start.
No. Mutual recognition is only for people who are not Florida residents when they apply. Florida counts you as a resident if you have lived here continuously for 4 months or more in the past year, or if you live here now and plan to stay 4 months or more.
The Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut and Nebraska agreements also require you to live in that state when you apply.
Call DBPR at 850-487-1395 before you move, and ask what the move means for your license. Either way, every Florida licensee must update their mailing and email address with DBPR within 10 days of a change.
Yes, to practice. Your license is issued inactive, and it becomes active when a Florida-licensed broker adds you through their DBPR online account (or you file form RE 11). The broker must hold a Florida license, but their registered office can be outside Florida (F.S. 475.22(2)).
Mutual recognition gives you the same kind of license you hold now, so a broker applies as a broker, with the RE 2 application ($70). If you claim experience from another state, your license history can be no more than 30 days old.
DBPR requires brokers from Alabama or Arkansas to have 24 months of active licensure in the past five years, and the Kentucky and West Virginia agreements require two years. Once you’re licensed, Florida requires 60 hours of broker post-licensing before your first renewal.
Harder than 40 questions sounds. In DBPR’s exam report for fiscal year 2025–26, 60% of first-time takers passed the Laws and Rules exam, and 56% of all attempts passed. With 40 questions, 11 misses is a fail.
You get your score before you leave. You can book a retake with Pearson VUE and pay the exam fee again, as long as your two-year approval to test hasn’t run out. You can also ask to review the questions you missed, within 21 days of the exam, at a Pearson VUE center.
Your state got you licensed. Florida is 40 questions away.
Requirements are set by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) and can change. The state list, fees and exam facts on this page were checked against DBPR, Pearson VUE and FDLE sources on September 27, 2026. Each state’s agreement is on DBPR’s mutual recognition page. South Florida Career Center does not issue licenses, and passing the exam is not guaranteed.