Transfer a Real Estate License to Hawaii

Verified July 2026 · 30 official sources

Start over, about $382 plus exam, no state exam waiver

Hawaii honors no other license and says so twice in its own words, that it is not reciprocal with any other state or country; a 2004 statute lets the Commission sign license recognition agreements, but none has ever been published under it. What you can buy instead is three separate partial credits, each with its own paper application, its own fee and its own Commission vote, covering prelicense education ($50), the 80-item national exam section ($50), and for brokers the three-year Hawaii experience rule ($75). Nothing waives the 50-item Hawaii state exam section at either tier, so every arriving licensee sits it in person at a PSI test center. Time the move if you can, because every Hawaii license expires December 31 of an even-numbered year; licensing now buys a $282 license that dies on 2026-12-31 and a $268 renewal bill due by November 30, 2026.

First year: $382 + exam feeRenewal: $268 / 2 yrsWait: Up to 4 monthly board votesWork while waiting: No, no temporary permit existsTravel required: Yes, 1 Hawaii trip for the exam

What carries over to Hawaii, and what does not

Comes with you

Your current out-of-state license, which is what triggers all three equivalencies
Your national exam pass, as a $50 equivalency riding on the license, not on a score
Prelicense education from a state with similar or better requirements, $50
An out-of-state broker license, which covers the entire 3-year experience rule, $75
Home-state CE at renewal, for the 14 elective hours only

New for this state

The 50-item Hawaii state exam, in person at a PSI test center, with no exception
A Verification of License from your old regulator, original, issued within 6 months
Paper applications mailed to the Licensing Branch, with your SSN on every one
A Hawaii brokerage firm to associate with; the license is inert until you do
6 hours of Hawaii Core Course A and B at every renewal, plus the recovery fund fee

If you hold a broker license

An arriving broker adds the $75 Broker Experience Certificate, and a current unencumbered out-of-state broker license satisfies it outright with no years counted, so budget about $457 plus the exam fee; PSI will not register you until the Commission approves it. The trap is the education asymmetry, because the $50 prelicense education equivalency at the broker level is open only to an out-of-state BROKER, so an out-of-state SALESPERSON going straight for the Hawaii broker license cannot use it and faces the 80-hour Hawaii broker course plus proof of three of the last five years worked full-time, which may mean a second trip. Candidates from broker-only states are told to call the Real Estate Branch first, because no published guidance maps them onto Hawaii's two tiers.

Working in Hawaii without a Hawaii license

On a single deal Hawaii is a verified physical location state, which is one of the few places the industry's long-standing label holds up. HRS 467-14(14)(A) lets a Hawaii broker pay a full negotiated commission, not a capped referral fee, to a licensed broker of another state, territory or possession, and subparagraph (B) gives brokers licensed in a foreign country the same deal, provided that broker "does not conduct in this State any of the negotiations for which a commission is paid," with no agreement, no filing, no registration, no fee and no transaction cap, and no commercial or residential distinction anywhere. There is no cooperative mechanism at all, so no licensed act on Hawaii soil is available to you, supervised or not, and the payee must be a broker; and like Rhode Island, Hawaii has no clause deeming electronic contact to be in-state activity, so whether negotiating from the mainland by phone or email counts is unsettled and worth a call to the Real Estate Branch.

Referrals Yes, and it is better than a referral fee, because the same subsection pays a real share of the commission rather than a capped finder's cut, with no paperwork of any kind. The condition is purely geographic, that none of the negotiations you are paid for happen inside Hawaii. The permitted payee is a licensed BROKER of another state or country, so an out-of-state salesperson is not covered and the payment runs broker to broker.

Your send-off checklist

YOUIf your record includes convictions, licensing discipline or charges of any kind, pending suits, unpaid judgments, tax debts or liens, file a Request for Preliminary Decision before you spend on anything else. It is advisory, not binding and not appealable, and an unfavorable answer does not block a later application. confirming REB forms

YOUOrder the Verification of License from your current regulator. You fill in Part I, they complete Part II and mail it back to you rather than to Hawaii. Photocopies of a license are rejected, the form must be issued within the last 6 months, and each equivalency application needs its own, so order more than one. old state may charge

YOUMail the Prelicensing Education Equivalency and the Uniform Section Examination Equivalency applications to the Licensing Branch (PO Box 3469, Honolulu, HI 96801), each with its own Verification of License and its own nonrefundable fee. Both must be granted before you may register for the exam, and you may claim only one education category with no partial credit. $50 + $50 Real Estate Branch

STATE BOARDSThe Commission votes on each equivalency at a monthly meeting, normally the fourth Friday. An application that is incomplete or arrives without adequate processing time does not make the agenda at all. Each certificate is good 2 years, and the education one gets no extension.

YOUR SCHOOLOnly if an equivalency is refused, take the 60-hour salesperson prelicense course from a Hawaii-registered school and get the School Completion Certificate, valid 2 years. The rule says the course is given in Hawaii; whether any school delivers it remotely to a mainland candidate is confirming. school sets price

YOUReserve the exam with PSI at (855) 579-4640 or psiexams.com and fly out. Walk-in testing is not available, and the original certificates must be physically presented at the test center or you are turned away and any score is voided. With the national equivalency you sit only the 50-item state section in 90 minutes; without it, 130 items in 240 minutes. The fee and the passing score are both confirming. confirming

YOUPass, and PSI hands you the license application packet right there; there is no online initial application. Mail it to the Licensing Branch within 2 years of the exam date with the payment named on your score report, the original certificates, and full disclosure of convictions, discipline, suits, judgments, tax debts and liens. Original wet signature in black ink, and no notarization is needed anywhere in the form set. $282 even year, $382 odd year

STATE BOARDSThe Commission reviews the license application at a meeting and approval issues the license. No advertising, no assuming to act and no licensed work of any kind before that point.

YOUAssociate with a current and active Hawaii brokerage firm or sole proprietor, which is the only way the license goes on active status, then calendar the renewal immediately. If you licensed in 2026 the license expires 2026-12-31 and the filing deadline is November 30, 2026. $268 renewal

The money

Original license, even-year arrival (now)	$282
Prelicensing education equivalency	$50
Uniform (national) section equivalency	$50
PSI examination fee	confirming, DCCA publishes it nowhere
Verification of License from your old state	varies, some states charge
Recovery fund fee	inside the license total, the split is confirming
Fingerprints and background check	$0, Hawaii runs none
E&O insurance	$0, not required
60-hour Hawaii course, only if the education equivalency is refused	school sets price
Renewal again if you license in an even year	$268 by Nov 30 of that same year
Odd-year arrival instead	$382, and it runs up to 23 months
TOTAL First year, typical	about $382 plus the exam fee
Then: renewal every 2 years	$268

Watch out in Hawaii

The calendar is the biggest single cost here. Every Hawaii license expires December 31 of an even-numbered year, a fixed statewide date with no proration, so licensing now in 2026 means paying $282 for a license that dies on 2026-12-31 and then owing $268 by the November 30, 2026 filing deadline, about $550 in license fees for a few months of license. Arrive in an odd year and $382 buys up to twenty-three months and pushes the next $268 to late 2028. Sharper still at the broker tier, because the published relief that deems even-year licensees to have met the 20 CE hours names only SALESPERSONS, so a broker licensed in an even year appears to owe the full 20 hours immediately; the research file flags this as unresolved, so budget the hours until the Commission says otherwise.
HRS 467-8(a)(6), unrepealed and last amended in 1999, bars a broker license to anyone without a current Hawaii salesperson license, which contradicts the newer HRS 467-9.5 and three of the Commission's own applicant-facing documents. This is the file's most consequential open question, and Hawaii votes on every single application at a meeting, which is exactly where a literal reading would bite. Call REB at (808) 586-2650 and get the answer in writing before paying anything at the broker tier.
One trip to Hawaii is required, for the exam, and everything else is remote, with paper applications by mail, no notarization anywhere in the form set, and renewal online through MyPVL. Hawaii runs no fingerprinting and no criminal background check at all, and mandates no E&O insurance, which deletes the step that is the critical path in most states; it does have a real recovery fund, paid at original licensure. Whether PSI administers the Hawaii exam at any mainland test center is confirming, so ask PSI before booking travel.
Three clocks run at once and one of them is someone else's. The Verification of License is good 6 months, each equivalency certificate 2 years, and the license application must be filed within 2 years of the exam or you are deemed unsuccessful and retake it. After licensure, your own license flips to involuntary inactive if your principal broker, broker-in-charge, branch office or firm forfeits, lapses or goes inactive, and a missed CE deadline puts the renewed license on inactive status without notification.

Official links for Hawaii

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