The Second (Or Third) Licensing Process

After she moved to Boston, Portia Green, a principal agent at Compass Real Estate in San Diego, decided to keep her California license. When, 10 years later, she and her fiancé moved back home to California, that license came in handy. But she kept her Massachusetts license, as well.

“I knew I wanted to have that referral avenue, having that experience in real estate and always kind of using both places as touch points,” she says. Getting licensed in both places was “pretty easy,” she says, however, the real estate laws of the two states—literally on opposite sides of the country—aren’t similar at all. That added the need to study hard for licensing exams in each place but helps Green to keep the rules straight between the two. Since the differences aren’t subtle, she never has to think hard about which rules to follow in which states.

For Peter West, CRS, broker owner of Bishop West Real Estate in Venice, Florida, having years of real estate experience was key to the process, even though some of those states had only partial or no reciprocity. West holds licenses in Massachusetts, Vermont, New York and Florida, and the process was slightly different for each place.

The only way to know exactly what you’ll have to do to get licensed

Marketing to the multistate masses

Although he started selling in Massachusetts and owns homes in both places, West said he now considers Florida his home base—and good thing, since he’s the state’s 2023 RRC president. But he still maintains close ties with his New England clients, continuing to operate an office in Massachusetts.

“The CRS Designation is the best tool to cross-market yourself, by far,” he says, adding that he always hands out his Florida business card at conventions in the Northeast and his Massachusetts business card at conventions in Florida. That way, people in a new state (and whether it’s worth your time and effort) is to research beforehand, West says.

The good news is, once you’re licensed, a lot of information is similar enough among some states—even those without reciprocity— that keeping licenses in each place is possible without duplicating continuing education classes, says Rob Levy, CRS, a principal broker with Keller Williams Realty Professionals in Portland, Oregon.

“The generic stuff— titling, company information—the classes on those items work for multiple states. So you pay for it in one state and get credit for it in the next state,” Levy says. “You don’t have to do double the hours.” know you’re licensed in a place they may be looking to move, and other REALTORS® know to refer clients to you in those states.

Portia Green, a principal agent at Compass Real Estate in San Diego, has licenses in both Massachusetts and California. For her, it’s all about maintaining close contacts in both places so your word-of-mouth business booms.

“It’s a small world, as they say,” Green says. “It’s just one more thing you can share to stay top of mind, to essentially just kind of be part of the community from afar. It’s all about keeping in touch with people wherever you are, wherever they are.”

Is your state real estate license recognized by another state?

Check at NAR. realtor/licensereciprocity-licenserecognition