You should complete CE before submitting your renewal application to TREC. Doing it out of order will make a mess of things for you.
TREC’s website will allow you to submit an application, but you will be charged a $200 deferral fee if you have not completed CE. If you have done this by accident, contact TREC immediately in order to get this fixed.
If you are worried about missing your deadline, DO NOT submit a renewal application without finishing CE. If you have active deals going on, we recommend paying TREC the $200 deferral fee to keep your license status active for another 60 days. If you do not have any active deals going on, you can either renew as inactive or let your license expire and submit a late renewal.