Transaction file

Key Takeaways

• In Washington the designated broker is the one required to keep the firm's records, including a transaction folder for each transaction (WAC 308-124C-105).
• The folder holds all agreements, receipts, contracts, documents, leases, closing statements, broker price opinions, referral agreements, and material correspondence for that transaction.
• Required real estate records must be retained and available for inspection by the director or the director's authorized representative for a minimum of three years (WAC 308-124C-110).
• Records are kept at an address where the firm is licensed, although transactions closed for at least one year may be moved to one central facility located in Washington.

What It Means

A transaction file is the complete record of one real estate transaction, held by the firm. Washington's rule calls it a transaction folder and requires one for each real estate or business opportunity transaction, and one for each rental, lease, contract, or mortgage collection account the firm handles.

What belongs inside is everything the deal generated: the agreements, receipts, contracts, documents, leases, closing statements, broker price opinions, referral agreements, and material correspondence. In practice that is the services agreement, the purchase and sale agreement with its addenda, the earnest money receipt, inspection responses, the agency disclosure, the closing statement, and the messages where terms were negotiated.

The file exists so the transaction can be reconstructed by someone who was not there. If a client complains or the regulator examines the firm, the folder is the evidence of what was agreed and when. That is why responsibility for keeping it sits with the firm's Designated Broker rather than with whichever broker closed the deal, and why the contents have to stay accurate and up to date instead of being assembled after a problem surfaces.

How It Works in Washington

WAC 308-124C-105 makes the designated broker responsible for the firm's required records and lists what the transaction folder must contain, alongside the Trust Account records the firm keeps separately. WAC 308-124C-110 governs how those records are held. They must be accurate, posted, and kept up to date, and they must be kept at an address where the real estate firm is licensed to maintain an office. All records must be retained and available for inspection by the director or the director's authorized representative for a minimum of three years.

Two practical allowances sit in the same rule. Transactions that have been closed for at least one year may be maintained at one central facility located in Washington, provided the licensed office keeps a listing of every transaction stored remotely and those records stay readily retrievable on demand. Records may also be stored electronically or on remote devices, but only where retrieval of all documents is immediate and the firm's licensed office can view and print them. Behind the rule, RCW 18.85.231 requires every licensed firm to maintain an office or records depositories accessible in this state to representatives of the Department Of Licensing director, and to maintain and produce a complete set of records.

Example

Cascade Realty closes Dana's $540,000 sale on March 12, 2026. Marisol hands the paperwork to the office administrator that week, and the folder ends up holding the signed services agreement, the purchase and sale agreement with two addenda, the receipt for the buyer's $10,000 earnest money deposit, the inspection response and the emails negotiating the repair credit, the agency disclosure, and the closing statement.

The three year minimum means Cascade cannot clear the folder out once the commission is paid, so the firm plans on producing it on demand through at least March 2029. In March 2027, with the transaction closed more than a year, Cascade moves the file to its central storage facility in Spokane Valley. The licensed office keeps a listing of the transactions held there, and staff confirm they can still pull and print any document while a Department of Licensing examiner waits.

Common Mistakes and Exam Traps

• Three years is a minimum, not a ceiling, and it applies to all required real estate records rather than to the trust account records alone.
• The duty to keep the records sits with the designated broker on behalf of the firm, not with the individual broker who closed the transaction (WAC 308-124C-105).
• Electronic storage is allowed, but only where retrieval of all documents is immediate and they can be viewed and printed at the firm's licensed office (WAC 308-124C-110).
• A file may move to a central facility only after the transaction has been closed at least one year, that facility must be located in Washington, and the licensed office still has to keep a listing of what was moved.