Community Association Manager License: Which States Require One?

The answer depends on the state, and the states that regulate do not all regulate the same way.

One issues a license, another a certificate of registration, another a certificate of its own, and one writes the requirement into its real estate license law instead of creating a CAM credential.

Start with the two industry trackers.

CAMICB, the Community Association Managers International Certification Board, lists eight states with laws and regulations governing the practice of community association management, and tells readers to confirm current rules with individual state regulators.

CAI's manager-licensing map shows the same eight states.

Regulated does not always mean licensed.

Alaska has no separate CAM registration: collecting fees for community association management there is a real-estate-licensed activity under AS 08.88.161(5)-(6).

California sits at the other pole and says a common interest development manager may not be required to hold a real estate or broker's license.

Credentials are a separate track from all of this.

The CMCA, the CPM and the rest are voluntary industry credentials, not licenses.

IREM, for example, requires CPM graduates to hold an active real estate license only if one is required for their position in their state.

If you are still sizing up the role itself, our community association manager career guide covers the work, the employers and the pay.

This page stays on the licensing question.

CAMICB's list and CAI's map agree on the eight states: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada and Virginia.

What differs is the instrument each state uses.

Read the range, not just the count.

Florida, Georgia and Illinois issue what you would recognize as an occupation license.

Nevada certifies community managers, Connecticut registers them, and Virginia licenses the management firm while certifying individual employees.

Alaska reaches the same work through its real estate license law, California offers only a voluntary title, and Colorado ended its licensing program on June 30, 2019.

Treat the list as a starting point rather than a verdict.

CAMICB's own advice is that state rules in this area change, and it tells readers to contact individual state regulators or CAI to confirm what applies today.

The states with a CAM-specific instrument ask for the same three ingredients in different proportions: approved education before licensure, a state-recognized exam, and continuing education to keep it.

Fingerprints or a criminal history check come up in several of them.

An empty cell means our research captured no background-check requirement for that state, not that none exists; confirm with the regulator before you apply.

The floors around those numbers vary too.

Florida applicants must be at least 18 and certified as of good moral character.

Georgia sets the same age floor but lets you test at 17, requires a high school diploma or equivalent, and requires no management experience.

Illinois expects 18 plus high-school completion.

Nevada requires 18, and Virginia requires 18 and a high school diploma or equivalent.

Experience is the other swing factor.

Nevada's full certificate needs management experience: 12 months immediately before applying, or at least 2 of the preceding 4 years.

Meet the education requirement without that record, and you start on the provisional route.

Virginia's credential routes trade between the credential and the years — a PCAM plus 3 months of recent experience, or a CMCA or AMS plus 2 years.

Virginia's training-program route needs 2 years of experience in providing management services.

California is the state on the list whose law stops short of any license.

Business and Professions Code §11501(a) says a common interest development manager may not be required to hold a real estate or broker's license to provide CID manager services.

The statute defines that work as providing, or contracting to provide, management or financial services to an association for compensation.

What the state offers instead is a title.

A manager who completes at least 30 hours of combined coursework and passes a competency exam or exams can use the voluntary title "certified common interest development manager" under §11502.

The coursework covers common interest development law, including the Davis-Stirling Act, and general management.

No state agency runs it.

The education and exam are provided by professional associations for CID managers or by postsecondary institutions.

The title also belongs to individuals, not to management firms.

The statute polices the title rather than mandating it.

Using the "certified" title without meeting §11502, or advertising that you are certified, registered or licensed by a government agency as a CID manager, is an unfair business practice.

Managers must also disclose to the association board every year whether they hold the certification, which association certified them, their primary office, their fidelity insurance coverage, and whether they hold an active real estate license.

The practical reading for a California job seeker is that no state agency issues a CAM license.

The certified title is a voluntary statutory designation with its own truth-in-advertising rules, and the annual disclosure to the board is the duty the chapter writes in for managers.

If your state is not on the CAMICB and CAI lists, neither industry body names a state community association management law for it.

CAMICB still tells readers to confirm with their own state regulator, because these laws change.

That leaves three things to check before you assume the question is closed.

First, the general real estate license question does not go away.

Alaska shows one version: community association management is not licensed separately there because it sits inside the real estate license.

Illinois shows the other: a CAM license there does not authorize leasing or brokerage work that requires a real estate license.

Whether a state's license law reaches your duties depends on what you do and who employs you, so put the question to the state real estate commission.

Second, a state can stop regulating.

Colorado's Division of Real Estate ended its CAM licensing program on June 30, 2019, and the Division no longer has jurisdiction over community association managers.

The bill that would have created a community association management entity license from July 1, 2025, HB24-1078, was lost on May 14, 2024 and did not become law.

Colorado's HOA Information and Resource Center registers homeowners' associations — the association registers, not the manager.

Third, industry credentials fill the gap voluntarily.

The next section takes up the one CAMICB built for the role: the CMCA.

The Certified Manager of Community Associations (CMCA) is CAMICB's credential for the role — in its own words, the only international certification program designed exclusively for homeowner, condominium and cooperative association managers, and one it describes as entry-level for HOA, condominium and cooperative managers.

There are three ways in.

Pass an approved prerequisite course, document at least two years as a community association manager for a one-time waiver, or hold an approved state license or credential.

That route names an active Arizona CAAM, California CCAM (California's voluntary certified title, not a license), Florida CAM, Illinois CAM or Nevada CAM.

Candidates who use the experience waiver and then fail the exam must complete a prerequisite course before retesting.

The exam runs 120 multiple-choice questions in 2.5 hours, 100 scored and 20 pilot, covering governance and compliance, financial management, risk management, meetings and events, property maintenance and contracting.

It is given year-round at Pearson VUE test centers, with one year from application approval to sit it.

Scores are scaled from 100 to 800, and 600 passes.

The money, per CAMICB's July 2026 handbook: the $360 exam fee covers the application, the exam and the first year of certification, a retake costs $200, and the annual service fee is $135.

Recertification runs every two years on 16 hours of continuing education, plus the annual service fee each year.

Courses approved for state manager licensing in Nevada, Florida, Connecticut and Illinois count toward those hours.

Keep the license-credential line bright.

The CMCA is a credential, not a license — the same distinction IREM draws for its CPM, whose graduates need a real estate license only where their position requires one in their state.

The case for calling the CMCA the closest thing to a national benchmark rests on CAI's stated policy: the association advocates credential programs so community managers can self-regulate, and where states do regulate, it supports mandatory education and testing, standards of conduct and insurance requirements.

The traffic between the credential and the states runs in both directions.

Connecticut writes the CMCA exam into its registration route, and Virginia accepts the CMCA plus two years of experience as one path to certification.

In both, the credential feeds a state requirement rather than replacing it.

Here is the shape of each state's regime — what the instrument covers, who sits outside it, and what it costs to keep — as of our October 2026 research.

The table above holds the education and exam detail.

When you are ready to apply, the state agency named in each entry is the one to confirm with, and open HOA manager jobs will show you which markets are hiring.

Florida.

DBPR licenses both managers and firms, advised by the Regulatory Council of Community Association Managers.

No one may manage a community association, or hold themselves out as able to, without the license.

The requirement reaches paid management of associations with more than 10 units or an annual budget over $100,000, except that clerical staff working under a licensed CAM's direct supervision, and maintenance-only staff who do not assist with management services, need no license of their own.

A firm is not covered by an individual's license: one managing more than 10 units or a budget of $100,000 or greater needs its own firm license and must designate a licensed CAM.

Individual licenses expire September 30 of even-numbered years, and DBPR lists a $105 renewal fee for individuals and firms as of October 2026.

Georgia.

The CAM license exists to plug community association management into the broker structure: a CAM acts on behalf of a real estate broker and provides only community association management services.

The licensed services include collecting, controlling or disbursing association funds, obtaining insurance, arranging maintenance and overseeing day-to-day operations.

After passing, you either activate the license under a sponsoring broker or hold it inactive.

Full-time employees of an association, and a member managing only the association they belong to, are exempt.

The exam fee is $175 and the license fee is $170, covering the first four years.

Illinois.

IDFPR licenses managers and management firms under the Community Association Manager Licensing and Disciplinary Act.

The Act does not apply to people serving associations of 10 units or less, unpaid association directors or officers, attorneys acting incidentally to their practice, court appointees, or an owner's unlicensed support staff such as bookkeepers and administrative assistants.

A firm needs its own license with a designated licensed CAM.

For the 2027 renewal, managers licensed on or before May 31, 2027 owe 12 hours of CE, while those licensed on or after June 1, 2027 owe none for that cycle.

The Act is scheduled for repeal on January 1, 2032.

Nevada.

The certificate attaches to the person: no one acts as a community manager without one.

Exemptions cover financial institutions, Nevada-licensed attorneys acting as attorneys, trustees, receivers, and executive board members or officers acting within their association duties.

Meet the education requirement without the experience record, and you qualify as a provisional community manager, supervised for at least 2 years with 3,120 logged hours of active experience; a supervising manager may oversee no more than five provisionals.

A 1-year temporary certificate serves managers who hold a professional designation in community management from a nationally recognized organization, have 5 years of experience and no discipline elsewhere.

It also serves new hires with an association's offer of employment whose board judges their management experience sufficient.

Temporary holders add 18 hours of instruction on the Uniform Common-Interest Ownership Act within the year.

Connecticut.

The instrument is a certificate of registration, and the statute defines the trigger broadly: paid association management services mean collecting, controlling or disbursing funds, preparing budgets, running meetings, advising on insurance or coordinating overall operations.

Trainees may work up to six months under a registered CAM but may not control association funds, and the trainee certificate does not renew.

Managers and their staff may not handle association funds unless a crime or theft policy names the association as obligee and covers at least three months of assessments plus reserves.

Unregistered administrative staff can answer phones, schedule meetings and draft approved checks, but may not have direct access to funds.

Registration costs a $60 application fee plus a $100 registration fee, and certificates expire each January 31 with a $200 renewal.

Virginia.

The state has run its two-layer system through DPOR's Common Interest Community Board since January 1, 2009.

The firm holds the license.

To get it, the firm must hold CAI's Accredited Association Management Company (AAMC) designation.

It must also carry a fidelity bond or employee dishonesty policy equal to the lesser of $2 million or the highest aggregate operating and reserve balances of the associations under its control in the prior fiscal year, with a $10,000 minimum.

Principal and supervisory employees must hold a certificate within 2 years of hire or work under a certified employee's direct supervision.

Association employees managing their own association, unpaid volunteers, attorneys, CPAs and licensed real estate brokers and agents selling, leasing, renting or managing lots in a common interest community sit outside the licensing.

The firm license runs 1 year and individual certificates 2; fees as of October 2026 were $125 for a firm application ($100 plus a $25 recovery fund fee) and $75 to apply for or renew an individual certificate.

Alaska.

There is no separate CAM registration: paid community association management requires a real estate license — broker, associate broker or salesperson — issued by the Alaska Real Estate Commission.

The statute defines the work as budgets, handling funds, insurance, maintenance contracts and supervising day-to-day operations under the board.

Resident unit owners managing a self-managed association, and developers holding at least 51 percent control, are exempt.

A broker the board allows to control association funds must show the Commission a blanket fidelity bond covering the maximum funds under their control.

The state's old CAM-only license was a grandfather route for managers with 24 months of practice before January 1, 1999, so it is not a current entry path.

California and Colorado.

California's statute reaches managers through the voluntary certified title described above and the annual disclosure they owe their boards — nothing in it mandates a license.

In Colorado, the HOA Information and Resource Center registers associations rather than managers.

Career information, not legal, tax or licensing advice. License, registration, certification, education and CE rules are set by the state agencies named above and change often — confirm the current requirements with your state regulator before you apply, enroll, hire or renew.