South Carolina · Brokerage recordsSouth Carolina brokerage record retention: five years, with a trust account journal

South Carolina requires the broker-in-charge or property manager-in-charge to keep for at least five years, and furnish to the Real Estate Commission on request, a written copy of each lease, contract of sale and addenda, listing or buyer agency agreement, transaction broker agreement, option contract, property management agreement and residential property disclosure form (S.C. Code §40-57-135(D)(1)); they may be kept electronically if a backup is stored off-site, including in cloud storage (§40-57-135(D)(2)). The records the license law requires are likewise kept for at least five years and copies furnished to a Commission representative on request (§40-57-136(F)(1)). The accounting records the Commission may request include journals, ledgers, folios, client subaccounts, tenant accounts, canceled checks, deposit slips and bank statements (§40-57-136(F)(1)). A broker-in-charge who must keep a real estate trust account also keeps, at the designated principal place of business, a record-keeping system with a journal or accounting system recording, in chronological order, the funds received and disbursed for real estate sales, including the date received and the source (§40-57-136(F)(2)). For a transaction coordinator, the earnest money receipt and the disbursement entries are part of what the broker keeps for those five years.