LicensedAnywhere

Transfer a Real Estate License to District of Columbia

Verified July 2026 · 38 official sources

Two doors set by who licensed you, both end in one exam

The District runs two named inbound doors, Reciprocity and Endorsement, and which one is yours is decided purely by who issued your license. Reciprocity covers Virginia brokers and salespersons, Maryland brokers, and Maryland salespersons licensed from 1996 to the present; everyone else in the country, plus Maryland salespersons licensed before 1996, comes in by Endorsement. Both doors waive the national exam portion and both require the DC state law portion at 75 percent, a 3-hour DC Fair Housing course and a 3-hour DC Property Management course, so the real difference is paperwork. Endorsement adds a documentary burden, proving your home jurisdiction's pre-license hours met or exceeded DC's 60 for a salesperson or 135 for a broker, plus CE certificates, a resume and a written description of the course you took, and the Commission reads all of it only after you have sat and paid for the exam.

First year: $380 to $500Renewal: $190 / 2 yrsWait: confirming, 6 to 10 weeks likelyWork while waiting: No, no temporary permitTravel required: None, PSI tests anywhere in the US

What carries over to District of Columbia, and what does not

Comes with you

  • Your current license itself, which powers the whole waiver
  • The national exam portion, waived at both doors
  • All pre-license hours, never even examined on the Reciprocity door
  • Broker experience from any state, at full statutory weight
  • Your last two years of CE certificates, for the Endorsement file

New for this state

  • The DC law exam at PSI, 75 percent to pass
  • 3-hour DC Fair Housing and 3-hour DC Property Management courses
  • An original sealed certification letter dated within 90 days
  • A notarized application and a $60 Guaranty Fund payment
  • Affiliation with a DC-licensed broker before you do any work

If you hold a broker license

A broker pays $170 for the license rather than $130, so $356.50 in hard fees and $420 to $560 all in, and sits a 40-item state exam instead of 30. Your outside years count at full weight, because D.C. Code 47-2853.162 accepts 2 years licensed and actively practicing in the District or elsewhere, provable by certification from the commission that licensed you, though the Endorsement door also audits your hours against 135. DLCP's live page asks reciprocity brokers for those 2 years as well while the rule itself does not, so be ready to document them. If your work is property management, know that DC licenses that separately as a genuine third credential with its own exam, its own $170 fee, its own CE track and no pre-license education at all, and it covers leasing and operations, never sales.

Working in District of Columbia without a District of Columbia license

On a single deal No. DC is a verified turf jurisdiction, with no cooperative brokerage provision, no commercial carve-out and no out-of-jurisdiction exemption anywhere in the code or the regulations, so one DC deal needs a DC license. Unlicensed practice carries up to 1 year in jail and a $10,000 fine, rising to $25,000 on a repeat, and the Commission reported 23 unlicensed-practice cases in the last published year with $2,500 fines against individuals and $5,000 against firms. One real carve-out survives, since 17 DCMR 2624.4 lets an unlicensed person show a DC rental unit and pass along applications, leases and deposits, but that is leasing only and never sales.
Referrals Yes, and it is statutory rather than a courtesy. D.C. Code 47-2853.197(38)(A) expressly permits a DC-licensed broker to pay a referral fee to a nonresident cooperating broker who is properly licensed in their own jurisdiction. It buys the referral and nothing more, so no co-brokerage and no commission split on the DC transaction, and because the payer must be a broker, a DC salesperson cannot pay you directly.

Your send-off checklist

YOUFind your door first, because who issued your license decides everything after it. Reciprocity covers Virginia brokers and salespersons, Maryland brokers, and Maryland salespersons licensed from 1996 to now. Everyone else, including Maryland salespersons licensed before 1996, files Endorsement. Virginia is the cleanest two-way pair we have verified, since Virginia's own statute names DC a neighboring state and recognizes DC licenses immediately without examination. DLCP Real Estate Commission
STATE BOARDSOrder an original license certification letter from your old regulator, sealed and dated within 90 days of your filing. Pocket cards and photocopies are refused. Whether DC wants your current jurisdiction or the one that licensed you first is confirming, so order both if they differ. varies
YOUR SCHOOLTake the 3-hour DC Fair Housing course and the 3-hour DC Property Management course from Commission-approved providers. Distance education is approved, so neither needs a trip. The posted provider and course lists are stamped 2023 to 2025 and the current-cycle approvals are confirming, so check with the Education Coordinator before paying. $60 to $180
YOURegister with PSI and ask for the state exam only, then pass at 75 percent, 30 items in 90 minutes for a salesperson. To test outside DC, file the Out-of-State Testing Request on the accommodations form, name the state, allow about 4 days, and send no documentation. There is no online proctoring, so it is a test center either way. Bring your out-of-state license and your Fair Housing certificate to check in. $61.50 PSI exams
YOUEndorsement only, assemble the four exhibits before you file. Proof your home pre-license hours met or exceeded 60 for a salesperson or 135 for a broker, CE certificates for the last two years, a professional resume or biography, and a written description of the pre-license course you took with its subject areas. Reciprocity applicants file none of this.
YOUOpen a free Access DC account and file at the OPLA new license portal within 6 months of passing, with a 2 inch by 2 inch passport-style photo in .jpeg, an unexpired government ID, the sealed letter and both course certificates. The application must be sworn before a notary, and any state's notary works. Whether the portal takes the Guaranty Fund payment by card is confirming, since the fee rule still says cashier's check, certified check or money order. $255 OPLA new license portal
STATE BOARDSWait on the Commission, not on staff. Files must land 15 business days before the second Tuesday of the month to be heard that month, and there is no August meeting, so a mid-July filing can sit until September. Four of nine seats are vacant against a five-member quorum. DLCP publishes no processing estimate, so treat 6 to 10 weeks as our figure, not theirs.
YOUSign on with a DC-licensed broker before you touch any DC work. There is no temporary permit, no provisional license and no grace period, and a salesperson who leaves a brokerage stops working until the license is reissued to the new one.

The money

Application fee$65
Salesperson license, up to 2 years$130
Guaranty and Education Fund$60
PSI exam, DC state portion only$61.50
DC Fair Housing course, 3 hours$30 to $90
DC Property Management course, 3 hours$30 to $90
Sealed certification from your old statevaries
Fingerprints and background check$0, DC requires none
E&O insurance$0, DC mandates none
TOTAL First year, typical$380 to $500
Then: renewal every 2 years$190, license plus fund

Watch out in District of Columbia

  • The first-renewal CE exemption is unsettled and it can cost you 15 hours. 17 DCMR 2605.1 exempts only a licensee seeking first renewal of a license granted by examination, while the PSI bulletin states the exemption broadly for anyone newly licensed. Someone who arrives by reciprocity or endorsement could reach a first renewal owing 15 unplanned hours, so budget them until the agency says otherwise rather than trusting the bulletin.
  • Endorsement files are reviewed only after the exam. DCREC reads your education after you have sat and paid for the test and filed a complete application, so you find out whether your home hours qualified once the money is already spent.
  • 17 DCMR 2611.1(d) grants the waiver only if the other jurisdiction admits DC licensees in the same manner. Read literally that would shut out licensees from most states, since most do not reciprocate with DC, and Maryland is the live example, because its own commission names Pennsylvania and Oklahoma only and never DC while DC still hands Maryland licensees its better door. The traffic runs one way, into DC, and the 1996 cutoff for Maryland salespersons reads as the fossil of a lapsed bilateral deal. This is unresolved and the answer would reclassify the whole entry, so ask OPL before relying on anything here.
  • DLCP is cutting over to a new licensing system called BOSS in August 2026 and warns of service interruptions, and every portal link here still sits on the old dcra.dc.gov domain. August is also the Commission's recess month, so a late-summer filing can stall twice.

Official links for District of Columbia

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