You CAN take Postlicensing courses with an inactive license status.
A provisional broker (PB) does not have to be actively affiliated with a BIC to take any of the required Postlicensing education. A PB must complete all 3 Postlicensing courses within 18 months from the date the license is originally issued, whether or not the license is ever activated, [Commission Rule 58A .1902(b)] to remain eligible for an active NC real estate license.
RECOMMENDATION: Plan to complete all Postlicensing as soon as possible after licensure, even if you currently have no plans to activate your license.
You MUST pass the proctored end-of-course exam for an individual Postlicensing course to earn credit for completion.
A Post course must be completed (including successfully passing the end-of-course exam) within 180 days of course enrollment per Commission Rule 58H .0207(b) … not from when the student begins taking the course. This distinction is particularly important for self-paced distance courses where students may not begin the course right away or when scheduling the proctored end-of-course exam may take several days or weeks after completion of the instructional modules. Commission rules do not allow for an extension of the 180-day course completion deadline for any reason.
RECOMMENDATION: Plan to complete courses as soon as possible after enrollment. If you purchase a package containing all 3 Post courses, be sure to take each end-of-course exam as you complete that course’s instruction vs waiting to take all 3 exams together at the end. By delaying the exams, you run the risk of your 180-day courses expiring before all 3 exams can be scheduled or passed. With no possibility of course extensions, the entire course(s) has to be retaken for credit.
You CANNOT get an extension for completion of Postlicensing education.
Commission rules do not allow for an extension for any reason. If all 3 Post courses have not been completed within the 18 months after initial licensure, the license will be placed on inactive status until activation criteria can be met in accordance with Commission Rule 58A .1902(c).
You MAY have to retake a Postlicensing course to activate your license.
To activate an inactive license that was on provisional status, all 3 Post courses must have been completed within the 2 years immediately preceding the request to activate. A Post course completed more than 2 years ago expired and will have to be retaken prior to license activation per Commission Rule 58A .1902(c).
RECOMMENDATION: Finish all 3 Post courses as soon as possible to remove the provisional status from your license.
You CANNOT waive any Postlicensing courses if you waived taking the NC license examination to obtain your NC license based on your licensure in another state.
Commission Rule 58A .1905(c) prohibits a broker from waiving any of the 90 hours of the NC Post education requirement if they were issued a NC license per Rule 58A .0511(b)(2) and thereby did not take any NC Prelicensing coursework or pass the NC license examination.
RECOMMENDATION: As a best practice to protect the brokerage’s clients, BICs who affiliate such brokers might require that they complete all 3 Post courses sooner than the 18 months mandated by Commission rule. The mandatory Post education is important to familiarize brokers from other jurisdictions with NC-specific real estate brokerage laws, rules, and practices.