Skip to content
RE License Guide

HI real estate licensing guide

Hawaii

Hawaii is a two-year-certificate PSI state that still tests Land Court against the Regular System, and the Commission will not seat you until the School Completion Certificate is uploaded and unexpired.

Verified 2026-09-02

The Hawaii Real Estate Commission sits inside DCCA's Professional and Vocational Licensing Division, staffed by the Real Estate Branch at 335 Merchant Street. It does not write its own exam the way California DRE does. PSI has had the contract since 2009. What the Commission keeps — and what actually fails files — are the clocks around that exam: a School Completion Certificate that dies two years after class completion, a Broker Experience Certificate that must exist before a broker candidate is even allowed to schedule, and a two-year window after the last examination date to get a complete application onto the Commission's desk. Effective December 10, 2025, PSI reviews the uploaded certificate before it will let you pick a seat. That is a vendor-enforced prerequisite, not a school-blog suggestion.

Hawaii still issues a salesperson license after sixty class hours and a broker license after eighty more, each against a Commission-adopted curriculum. The salesperson outline in force since January 1, 2021 is 18 named sections. The posted broker outline is still the 2004 80-hour appendix, with a replacement announced for May 1, 2027. Neither is a mainland hour-blob. HAR §16-99-61 requires 80 percent attendance and a passing school final; HAR §16-99-29 sets the cuts at 70 percent (salesperson) and 75 percent (broker) on both the uniform and state portions. The PSI bulletin effective January 16, 2026 is the live item-count document: salesperson 80/50, broker 75-items-for-80-points/50, $61 for one or both portions.

The state paper is why a California or Washington score report does not move this file. Hawaii records title two ways at the Bureau of Conveyances — Land Court (HRS 501) and the Regular System (HRS 502) — and it withholds on nonresident sellers under HARPTA. The Residential Landlord-Tenant Code is on the salesperson state outline. GENINFO states, without decoration, that Hawaii does not reciprocate with any other state or country. Equivalency certificates exist for education, for the uniform exam section, and for broker experience. They are named products with two-year lives, not a mutual-recognition list.

Licenses expire December 31 of even-numbered years and are supposed to be filed by November 30 so the pocket card exists on January 1. Active CE is 20 hours: Core A and Core B (both required for the six core hours) plus 14 electives. A salesperson first licensed in the even year who renews by November 30 is deemed complete for that cycle. Brokers are not. Original fees on the posted HAR 16-53 table are $282 in even years and $382 in odd years for the individual salesperson/broker-salesperson/PB/BIC line, plus $61 to PSI, plus — for brokers — $75 for the Experience Certificate. Fees are not prorated, which is how a 2026 original also owes a 2026 renewal.

Licensing authority

Hawaii Real Estate Commission (DCCA Professional and Vocational Licensing, Real Estate Branch)

Hawaii REC / DCCA PVL REB

The Real Estate Branch of DCCA PVL staffs a nine-member Commission that licenses salespersons and brokers, registers condominium projects and managing agents, and sits as trustee of the Real Estate Recovery Fund. PSI Services LLC has delivered the licensing exam since July 1, 2009. The Commission does not write the test in-house the way California DRE does, but it still owns the two-year School Completion Certificate, the two-year Broker Experience Certificate, and the two-year post-exam application clock.

HRS Chapter 467; HAR Chapter 16-99; HAR Chapter 16-53 (fees); HRS Chapter 501 (Land Court) and Chapter 502 (Regular System); HARPTA (HRS Chapter 235); Residential Landlord-Tenant Code (HRS Chapter 521) King Kalakaua Building, 335 Merchant Street, Room 333, Honolulu, HI 96813 (808) 586-2643

Official commission site

License types in Hawaii

Next steps