Moving states with a real estate license

Some published guides on this topic are out of date, and several repeat a list of “reciprocal states” that the states themselves no longer publish. Here is what the licensing authorities actually say right now — and the distinction almost everyone gets wrong.

Three different things, routinely confused

Before looking at any state’s rules, it is worth separating three mechanisms that get lumped together as “reciprocity”. They answer different questions.

Reciprocity almost never means “no exam”. In nearly every state that offers it, you still sit that state’s state-law portion. What gets waived is the pre-licensing education and the national portion.

A note on the vocabulary: some states insist their arrangement is “mutual recognition” rather than reciprocity, on the grounds that they are recognizing the education and experience behind your license rather than the license itself. Do not read too much into the label — Florida’s own agreement with West Virginia, signed in April 2025, is titled “Mutual/Reciprocal” and its text refers to reciprocity throughout. What matters is what the specific agreement requires of you, not what it is called.

What states actually offer

Verified from each licensing authority’s own site, September 2026.

Florida is worth a closer look because its list is the one most often reported wrongly. As of September 2026 the Department of Business and Professional Regulation names nine states — Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Rhode Island and West Virginia. Many guides still list ten and include Illinois; Illinois abolished reciprocity altogether and replaced it with an endorsement process open to licensees of any state, so it no longer belongs on anyone’s list.

Florida’s route waives the pre-licensing course — 63 hours for a sales associate, 72 for a broker — but you must not be a Florida resident when you apply, and residency is a defined term rather than a vague one: four months or more in Florida within the preceding year. You still sit a 40-question Florida law exam and need 30 points. Post-licensing and continuing education still apply in full.

Kentucky is the other list reported wrongly. The commission names exactly five: Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee under signed agreements, plus Illinois and Ohio under memoranda of understanding. West Virginia appears on most published lists and is not among them. Kentucky also waives pre-licensing education only to replace it with a 40-hour Kentucky license law course and its own reciprocity exam, so “waived” is doing less work than it sounds.

Several states have stopped publishing a list at all. Mississippi says so outright — its own application warns that requirements “vary greatly by state and are not listed on our website”. Alabama names no states either, applying a test instead: your existing license must be an original one earned through coursework and a full exam, not itself a reciprocal license. If you were licensed by reciprocity somewhere else, you do not qualify.

The biggest states mostly offer nothing

This is the part that surprises people, and it is worth knowing before you plan a move. Five of the largest real estate markets in the country have no reciprocity with any state at all, and each says so in plain language on its own site.

Verified from each state’s own licensing authority, September 2026.

Texas’s concession is the most useful of the five and the least well known: if you hold an active license in a state that participates in ARELLO’s national exam accreditation, you can be exempt from the national portion — submit a license history with your application and the commission decides. The Texas state portion is never waived, and out-of-state broker applicants must file on paper rather than online.

New Jersey deserves a specific warning if you are already a broker. Its broker license requires three years’ continuous full-time licensure as a New Jersey salesperson immediately preceding the application. An out-of-state broker moving to New Jersey therefore starts again as a salesperson — the education waiver helps with the coursework and does nothing about that.

California adds a piece of paperwork rather than an obstacle: there is no residency requirement, but if you live outside the state you must file a notarized Consent to Service of Process (form RE 234) with your application, and brokers doing business in California must maintain a California business address.

The bilateral-agreement era is ending

For decades states negotiated named partner lists with each other. That model is being dismantled, and it did not start recently. North Carolina abolished its agreements with ten named states on 29 February 2012 and replaced them with recognition open to any jurisdiction. Ohio did the same on 29 December 2023, scrapping an eight-state list for a universal recognition statute — which is why guides still naming Ohio’s old partners are describing a regime that ended nearly three years ago. Illinois abolished reciprocity for endorsement. Colorado now recognizes every US state and territory rather than a list, Maine recognizes every jurisdiction outright, and Virginia and Pennsylvania both moved to general endorsement standards based on substantial equivalence.

It is not all liberalization, though. New York has dropped reciprocity with everyone, and Pennsylvania has specifically stopped issuing reciprocal licenses on the strength of a New York license. In both directions, the bilateral layer is disappearing — sometimes by being replaced with something broader, sometimes by simply being abandoned.

Working across a state line without a second license

This is the portability question, and Georgia’s statute is the clearest published example of how a co-operative state handles it. An out-of-state broker may enter a written agreement with a Georgia broker and work a Georgia transaction without a Georgia license — but the Georgia broker is responsible for everything the out-of-state broker does, the listing must be in the Georgia broker’s name, advertising must identify them, and trust funds sit in their account.

States vary enormously here, and you will find lists online sorting them into “co-operative”, “physical location” and “turf” states. Treat those lists with suspicion — the widely-copied version is not traceable to any statute. Check the actual rule in the state where the property sits before you rely on it.

What you will actually have to produce

Continuing education is the one thing that often does transfer: Georgia deems its CE requirement met if you have met your home state’s — unless your home state has none, in which case you meet Georgia’s in full.

One last warning about any list of this kind, including the one above. Individual agreements can add conditions the general description omits — Florida’s West Virginia agreement requires a year of active licensure for a sales associate and two years for a broker — and they are terminable at will on thirty days’ written notice. Check the destination state’s own page before you rely on it, because these lists go stale quietly.

Common questions

Why does Georgia exclude Florida residents?

It is explicitly retaliatory. Georgia’s rule says that because Florida does not grant full reciprocity to Georgia licensees, Georgia imposes substantially equivalent requirements on applicants from Florida. Florida residents must pass Georgia’s state-law supplement exam.

Does moving house cancel my license?

It can change its status. Georgia licensees who move out of state must either convert to non-resident licensure or go inactive — and while inactive they may not conduct brokerage business in Georgia. Florida gives you 60 days to notify the commission once you become a non-resident.

Is there a national real estate license?

No. Licensing is a state function and there is no federal license, which is why the national portion of the exam is only ever half the requirement.