How Do I Run My Real Estate Business While Taking Time Off?

You can take time off in Arizona real estate, but only through your broker: a licensee may be paid only by the legally licensed broker to whom the licensee is licensed, a licensee who is unable to perform any act required by rule or statute must expeditiously notify the designated broker, and transaction records still have to be kept for 5 years after termination of the transaction. Coverage is not an informal favor between friends. It is a compensation question, a supervision question, and a file question, and all three have Arizona rules attached.

A coverage plan is the written arrangement that keeps your active transactions moving while you are unreachable. It names who acts on your behalf, how that person is paid, what your clients were told before you left, what access they have to the property and the file, and what notice your designated broker received.

Your backup has to be paid through the broker, not by you

A.R.S. § 32-2155(A) provides that a broker shall employ and pay only active licensees, and that a licensee shall accept employment and compensation as a licensee only from the legally licensed broker to whom the licensee is licensed. That is the rule that governs every backup arrangement. You do not write your coverage agent a check out of your own commission as a private side deal.

A.R.S. § 32-2155(C) makes it unlawful for any person, firm or corporation, including an escrow holder, to pay compensation to anyone performing broker acts who is not licensed at the time the service is rendered. Arizona courts have held that a salesperson may receive a commission only from a legally licensed broker, and not, for example, from a title company, and that a real estate employment agreement to the contrary is unenforceable.

There is one narrow alternative. Under A.R.S. § 32-2155(A)(2), a licensee may be paid by an employer other than their own licensed broker only if that employer holds a license, has the same employing broker as the licensee, and obtains written permission from the employing broker to pay the licensee. In that arrangement the licensee must be the employer's employee and receive a federal Form W-2 wage and tax statement. Effective September 24, 2022, Arizona HB 2172 allowed a real estate licensee to hire another licensee as a W-2 employee, subject to broker approval and other conditions. If a licensee is licensed through a professional corporation or professional limited liability company, the employing broker may pay compensation only through that licensed entity.

What to formalize before you leave, in writing, routed through your designated broker:

• Which files the backup covers and for which dates.
• The split, documented with the broker so the disbursement comes out of the brokerage.
• Written permission from the employing broker if you are using the W-2 employment path under § 32-2155(A)(2).
• Confirmation that the backup is an active licensee for the entire coverage window.

An unlicensed assistant can schedule, collect documents, and keep a calendar. An unlicensed assistant cannot perform broker acts, because compensation for broker acts performed without a license at the time the service is rendered is unlawful under § 32-2155(C).

Telling your designated broker is a rule, not a courtesy

Under the 2025 update to A.A.C. R4-28-1101(C), a licensee who is unable to perform any act required by rule or statute must expeditiously notify their designated broker of that inability to perform. Vacation is exactly that circumstance. The notification is the trigger that lets supervision work.

R4-28-1103 requires an employing broker and designated broker to exercise reasonable supervision and control over licensed activities. R4-28-1103. Since December 13, 2025, an Arizona broker's compliance system must include a progressive disciplinary policy, and an agent who cannot perform a required act must tell the designated broker.

The brokerage side of coverage has its own rule. A.R.S. § 32-2127 covers licenses for additional places of business, branch office managers, and a broker's temporary absence, and requires a written designation for each temporary absence. If you are the broker, the designation is written, and it is written for each absence.

On notice: A.R.S. § 32-2151.01(G) requires the designated broker to review each listing agreement, purchase or nonresidential lease agreement or similar instrument within ten business days after execution, by placing the broker's initials and date of review alongside the parties' signatures. Build your notice around deadlines like that one rather than around a number of days you picked yourself. Tell the broker before you leave, not from the airport.

What your clients are owed while you are gone

Under A.A.C. R4-28-1101(A), a licensee owes a fiduciary duty to the client and shall protect and promote the client's interests, and shall also deal fairly with all other parties to a transaction. R4-28-1101(C) requires a licensee to expeditiously perform all acts required by the holding of a license and prohibits delaying performance, either intentionally or through neglect. Being on a plane is not an exception written into that rule.

Arizona licensees must promptly present all offers unless the client gives proper written instructions otherwise, and Arizona rule requires that a salesperson or broker promptly submit to the client all offers to purchase or lease the listed property. If nobody is positioned to present an offer the day it arrives, you do not have a coverage plan.

R4-28-1101(D) says a licensee shall not allow a controversy with another licensee to jeopardize, delay, or interfere with the initiation, processing, or finalizing of a transaction on behalf of a client. R4-28-1101(E) prohibits a salesperson or broker from acting directly or indirectly in a transaction without informing the other parties, in writing and before the parties enter any binding agreement, of a present or prospective interest or conflict in the transaction. If your backup has any interest in a property they are covering, that disclosure is written and it comes before a binding agreement.

Before you go, put it in front of the client in writing: the dates you are away, the name and license status of the covering licensee, who presents offers in your absence, and how the client reaches the brokerage directly.

The contract clock does not pause for your calendar

The standard Arizona form is the Arizona Association of Realtors Residential Resale Real Estate Purchase Contract, currently the February 2026 edition. Arizona contract deadlines are counted in calendar days, weekends and holidays count, and days end at 11:59 p.m. A week away covers seven of those days whether anyone is working or not.

The buyer's inspection period runs for a set period after contract acceptance unless otherwise indicated. Buyers may disapprove items on the Seller's Property Disclosure Statement within the inspection period or within a set period after receiving the SPDS, whichever is later. A seller typically has a set period from receipt of the BINSR to respond, and if the seller does not respond, silence is treated as refusal and the buyer's three-day cure period begins. On the AAR contract, if a non-compliance is not cured within three days after delivery of a cure notice, it becomes a breach. The loan contingency has its own fulfillment deadline before close of escrow, and an unfulfilled loan contingency can cancel the contract.

Arizona is an escrow state, where escrow companies handle the process from earnest money to recording. Your contact sheet needs the escrow officer on it, because that is who is holding the file in motion while you are out.

The handoff sheet your backup should receive for every live file:

• The contract date and the specific calendar date each deadline falls on, including the end of the inspection period, the BINSR response date, the three-day cure date, and the loan contingency fulfillment date.
• The escrow company and escrow officer, the lender contact, and the title contact.
• Client names and the client's preferred contact method.
• Which disclosures have been delivered and which are outstanding.
• Any non-compliance notice already delivered, with the date of delivery.

Lockbox access is the part most agents get wrong

An individual who wants access to the Lockbox Service must become an authorized Keyholder, and sharing of keys is prohibited. Local association lockbox rules operate in addition to the Supra lease agreement terms and the Lockbox Security Requirements of the National Association of REALTORS®. The National Association of Realtors requires local associations that operate a lockbox system to meet specific security requirements, in part so the association is eligible for coverage under NAR's blanket errors and omissions insurance program.

Section 4B of the Lockbox Rules prohibits sharing, loaning or giving an ActiveKey or eKey to any other person, because the device records who opened the lockbox, and the violation carries a fine and sanctions including loss of service. No more than one Supra key device may be leased to any licensee affiliated with an MLS Participant or Designated REALTOR. There is a limited "office key" available under strict notification requirements in Section 4, but it is not a general key to be shared by agents in the office; it is issued only as a temporary replacement when an agent's key is not working. Handing your phone or your key to a covering agent is a rules violation, and the log shows it.

The supported path is per-person access. Supra's Single Access feature lets a listing agent grant one-time, time-limited lockbox access through the eKEY app using a person's cell number, with a non-transferable credential rather than a shared code, an access window of up to 72 hours, and a log of who accessed the property and when. Use of the lockbox system is not an open invitation to enter a property, and appointments are mandatory, which applies to your backup the same way it applies to anyone else.

The iBox BTLE (Beetly) is the approved lockbox for the MLS of Southern Arizona, and eKEY-enabled smartphones use Bluetooth to access the listing keys stored in the key container.

The file belongs to the brokerage, so that is where your backup finds it

Arizona transaction records must be kept for 5 years after termination of the transaction, including earnest money receipts, closing statements showing all receipts, disbursements and adjustments, sales contracts, and copies of listing agreements. Files are kept in an Arizona office or an Arizona storage location the broker has disclosed to the department. Rejected offers are kept one year, or five years when a binding contract follows. Under the revised ADRE rules, brokers must retain all disclosures and all documents signed by the parties, not just escrow and settlement documents.

Brokers must maintain copies of all documents pertaining to any Arizona transactions handled by the broker, where those documents are immediately available. That standard is the reason a coverage plan that depends on documents living in your personal inbox fails. If the signed addendum is only in your email and your phone is off, the file is not immediately available and your backup is working blind.

Put everything in the brokerage system before you leave. Executed contract, every addendum, every disclosure, delivery receipts, and the dated broker review page required by § 32-2151.01(G).

Going inactive is a different decision from taking a week off

Under A.R.S. § 32-2130, an active Arizona licensee must sever from the employing brokerage before requesting inactive status, and the Department may inactivate the license for a period not to exceed 15 years. That is a severance, not a vacation. As of December 3, 2024, the Arizona Department of Real Estate renamed the historic "inactive" status to "eligible" status, meaning the licensee is current with continuing education and renewal obligations, is not actively practicing in transactions but remains in good standing, and may move from eligible to active without extra continuing education.

An inactive licensee is expressly prohibited from performing any licensed real estate activity for compensation. Under the Commissioner's rules, an inactive licensee acting directly or indirectly in a transaction must comply with all duties of a licensee under R4-28-1101 except those duties owed to a client. Inactive status does not relieve an Arizona licensee from renewing and paying fees. Failure to renew causes expiration, an expired inactive license stays expired for one year and may be renewed in that year, and the Department terminates an inactive license expired more than one year.

For a trip or a family emergency, you stay active and you arrange coverage. Inactive status is for stepping away from practice, and it carries a severance from your brokerage.

A nonresident licensee may accept employment or compensation only under section 32-2155 and only from a broker who is actively licensed in Arizona. Working your Arizona business from somewhere else does not change who may pay you.

The Bottom Line

Time off works when the brokerage is the system of record and your backup is an active licensee paid through the broker, because a licensee may accept compensation only from the legally licensed broker to whom the licensee is licensed under A.R.S. § 32-2155(A). Notify your designated broker before you go, since a licensee unable to perform a required act must expeditiously notify the designated broker under the 2025 update to R4-28-1101(C). Load the file into the brokerage system, grant lockbox access through a non-transferable credential with a window of up to 72 hours rather than handing over a key, and give your backup every calendar deadline in writing, because Arizona contract deadlines count weekends and holidays and end at 11:59 p.m.

If you want your coverage plan, your file retention, and your backup compensation structure reviewed against Arizona rules before your next trip, reach out to our team and we will walk through it with you.

Written by Laurie Johnson, part of the Kristan Cole Network team.

Sources

Pages read on October 26, 2026.

• 32-2155 (azleg.gov)
• 2026 Arizona Real Estate Law Book Updated Feb. 2026 azre.gov (azre.gov)
• 100 North 15th Avenue, Suite 201 Phoenix, AZ, 85007 602.771.7700 KATIE HOBBS (azre.gov)
• The release of this Chapter in Supp. 25-4 replaces ... (apps.azsos.gov)
• 100 North 15th Avenue, Suite 201 Phoenix, AZ, 85007 602.771.7700 KATIE HOBBS (azre.gov)