Transfer a Real Estate License to Louisiana

Verified July 2026 · 34 official sources

Three doors, and where you live picks yours

Where you live decides everything, and every door ends at mandatory errors and omissions insurance, $149. Stay a legal resident of Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma or Pennsylvania with a current license there and the reciprocal door gives you the same class, no Louisiana education and no Louisiana exam at all. Move to Louisiana and the Welcome Home Act, effective 2024-08-01, waives every pre-license hour, leaving only the 55-item state exam and a decision owed in 60 days. Everyone else gets partial education credit, a 30-hour Louisiana block that never transfers, and a national exam waiver if you passed one within 5 years.

First year: $374 + post-license courseRenewal: $219 / 1 yrWait: About 4 to 8 weeks, LREC publishes noneWork while waiting: No, unless your broker gets written LREC consentTravel required: None

What carries over to Louisiana, and what does not

Comes with you

Your current license, the engine of all three doors
Every pre-license hour on doors 1 and 2
National exam, within 5 years, active license only
Home-state CE, while you stay a reciprocal licensee

New for this state

IdentoGO prints to State Police, good 1 year
Louisiana state exam, 55 items, on doors 2 and 3
License history from every state you held
E&O proof, no active license issues without it
A sponsoring broker on Part B, consent to service

If you hold a broker license

Every door asks the same experience math, 4 years actively licensed in any state with 2 of the 4 immediately preceding, and inactive time does not count. Reciprocity and endorsement waive the education and the exam, never the experience, and your active and inactive history goes stale at 3 months. The application is $165, the 150 hours run Real Estate 201, 202 and 203, and the ordinary path can credit 120 of them.

Working in Louisiana without a Louisiana license

On a single deal Yes, and unusually broadly. LAC 46:LXVII.5101 lets a Louisiana broker cooperate with an out-of-state broker on the sale, purchase, rental, leasing or management of Louisiana property, all property types, no commercial-only carve-out. The trap is per-deal paperwork, the Louisiana broker files a written cooperating agreement with the commission for EACH transaction before the property is advertised or shown.

Referrals Yes, broker to broker. LAC 46:LXVII.5103 lets a Louisiana broker split a commission with an out-of-state broker acting only as a referral agent, and R.S. 37:1446(A) exempts a nonresident broker licensed at home from the ban on paying unlicensed people. A nonresident salesperson has no channel of their own.

Your send-off checklist

YOUPick your door. Resident of one of the nine reciprocal states means no exam and no education. Moved to Louisiana means the Welcome Home Act. Neither means the ordinary path.

YOUOrdinary path only, before applying. Email education@lrec.gov a cover letter and your official license history for the coursework credit and exam waiver ruling.

STATE BOARDSOrder a certified license history from every state that licensed you, sent to you and showing active and inactive dates. varies

YOUMail or hand-deliver Part A with the fee to 9071 Interline Avenue, Baton Rouge, LA 70809. No online initial application, and wrong payment means unfiled. $90

YOUBook fingerprints at IdentoGO under LREC service code 27N4TH. A mailed card is $55.75, slower. $95.74 Fingerprints

YOUDoors 2 and 3 only. Pearson VUE emails your authorization once LREC processes the file. Book 24 hours ahead, no walk-ins, then pass the 55-item state exam. $39 Pearson VUE

YOULine up a Louisiana sponsoring broker and file Part B with E&O proof. Part B is due within 90 days of passing, or the license issues inactive. $149 E&O

YOUR SCHOOLFinish 45 post-license hours within 180 days of licensure. Missing it is a $325 citation, and whether reciprocal licensees owe them is confirming. school sets price

YOUCalendar the renewal. Timely runs August 1 to September 30, but a license issued on or after September 1 renews by December 31, no delinquent fee. $219 / 1 yr

The money

Application, Part A	$90
Louisiana state exam	$39, none on door 1
National exam if no waiver	$42
IdentoGO prints, code 27N4TH	$95.74 out of state, $60.75 in state
E&O, mandatory in 2026	$149, prorated to $19 in December
45-hour post-license course	school sets price
Uncredited pre-license hours	$0 on doors 1 and 2, else school price
TOTAL First year, typical	$374 + post-license course
Then: renewal every 1 year	$219 with group E&O, $77 with your own

Watch out in Louisiana

Initial applications are paper only, by mail or in person to the Baton Rouge office. The portal covers only renewals and transfers, and whether LREC takes an emailed application from out of state is confirming.
Every license expires December 31 of the year it is issued, so a fall transfer pays a full second-year fee within weeks. Prorated E&O softens it, $149 in January to $19 in December.
Reciprocal status dies the day you move, since residency there is a continuing condition. A new arrival gets one 90-day window under LAC 46:LXVII.4903(B) to still count as a nonresident.

Official links for Louisiana

Keep going

The real estate planner, which builds a plan across several states at once.
Errors and omissions insurance by state, the 15 states that mandate it.
All three professions we cover.

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