Iowa Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

To renew an Iowa broker license in active status, a licensee must complete, in each three-year renewal period:

• a.12 hours: 4 hours of law update, 4 hours of ethics, and 4 elective hours
• b.36 hours of electives, with law update and ethics counted as elective credit
• c.24 hours: 6 hours of law update, 3 hours of ethics, and 15 elective hours
• d.36 hours: 8 hours of law update, 4 hours of ethics, and 24 elective hours✓

Rules 481-2016.4(2) and 481-2003.4(2) set the same schedule for brokers and broker associates: a minimum of 36 hours of approved programs per three-year renewal period, made up of an 8-hour law update, a 4-hour ethics course, and 24 elective hours. The law update and ethics courses are named requirements, so treating the whole 36 hours as free electives would let a licensee renew without either one. The other totals are not Iowa's; the figure is tied to the three-year license term set by rule 481-2003.3(2). Two further limits apply: an "hour" means 50 minutes of instruction (rule 481-2016.1), and no more than 24 of the 36 hours may be taken by distance or online learning (rule 481-2016.4(4)). A course counts only once in a renewal period unless both the course number and the instructor differ (rule 481-2016.4(3)), and the licensee keeps documentation for six years.

An Iowa licensee completes more continuing education than a renewal period requires. The excess hours:

• a.Cannot be carried over to any later renewal period under any circumstances
• b.Carry over up to 18 hours, but not toward the law update or ethics courses✓
• c.Carry over in full to the next renewal period, including law update hours
• d.Carry over up to 18 hours, including the ethics course but not law update

Rule 481-2016.4(2) allows a licensee to apply up to 50 percent of the required hours to the following renewal period, sets the ceiling at "a maximum of 18 hours from the previous renewal period," and then closes the obvious loophole: "licensees cannot carry over any hours toward the mandatory eight-hour law update course nor the four-hour ethics course." Eighteen is simply half of the 36 required hours. Full carryover including the law update would defeat the purpose of an annual-style law refresher tied to each three-year cycle. Carrying the ethics course forward is barred by the same sentence that bars the law update, so a rule that separates them misreads it. And carryover is not prohibited outright; only one period's worth may be banked, and rule 481-2016.6 repeats the same ceiling for a licensee who is making up hours to reactivate an inactive license.