Do I need a real estate license to manage vacation rentals in Georgia?

Property management for others is brokerage, but O.C.G.A. § 43-40-29 exempts managing stays of under 90 days when a list of conditions is met. The exemption does not apply to license holders. Confirm with the Georgia Real Estate Commission before relying on it.

Where must a Georgia trust account be held?

In a separate, federally insured account at a financial institution in Georgia, designated as a trust or escrow account and registered with the Commission.

How must Georgia brokers handle security deposits?

Each deposit is identified and credited to the tenant, and the trust account must always hold at least the total of the security deposits.

Does Georgia require monthly reconciliation?

Yes. The Commission’s rule calls for a written reconciliation of trust liability to bank balances at least monthly.

Georgia Vacation Rental Trust Accounting Rules

Georgia at a glance

License: Broker license for property management for others; conditional exemption for managing stays under 90 days that are not leases
Trust account: Federally insured trust account at a Georgia institution, registered with the Commission; deposited promptly
Records kept: 3 years
Reconciliation: Monthly written reconciliation of trust liability to bank balances

Details and citations for each point are below.

Who needs a license

A broker includes anyone who, for another and for a fee, collects rents or other trust funds, or performs property management services — marketing, leasing, and the physical, administrative or financial management of real property.O.C.G.A. § 43-40-1
Exemptions include owners and lessors acting on their own property, an attorney-in-fact under a power of attorney to convey, an owner’s full-time employees, and a broker’s employees doing listed property management tasks under the broker’s direction.O.C.G.A. § 43-40-29
None of the exemptions apply to someone who holds a real estate license, or to anyone using them to evade licensing.O.C.G.A. § 43-40-29

Short-term rental rules

Property management for properties occupied for less than 90 days is exempt only if every listed condition is met — among them a written agreement with the owner covering management terms, income and expense reporting and remittance, and guest agreements that are not leases or rental agreements.O.C.G.A. § 43-40-29
The other conditions include: local zoning allows short-term occupancy, each stay is under 90 days, deposits do not exceed the cost of the minimum rental period, the guest pays any required taxes, the manager holds required business licenses, the manager can assign rooms or units, basic utilities are not charged extra, and the unit is not the guest’s permanent residence.O.C.G.A. § 43-40-29

The trust account

A broker who accepts trust funds — including security deposits and rents — keeps a separate, federally insured account at a financial institution in Georgia, designated as a trust or escrow account and registered with the Commission.O.C.G.A. § 43-40-20
Trust funds are deposited promptly unless the parties agree otherwise in writing. A broker who first receives trust funds without an account opens one within one business day.O.C.G.A. § 43-40-20; Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 520-1-.08
Commingling clients’ money with the licensee’s own is grounds for discipline. A broker may keep its own money in trust only for limited purposes, such as a minimum balance or service charges, clearly identified as the broker’s deposit.O.C.G.A. § 43-40-25(b)(3), (4), (5), (27), (29); Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 520-1-.08
An interest-bearing trust account needs the parties’ written agreement on who receives the interest. Brokers who manage property may keep separate rental trust accounts.O.C.G.A. § 43-40-25(b)(3), (4), (5), (27), (29); Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 520-1-.08

Advance rents and deposits

A broker may not take any part of security deposits or other trust funds as a commission or fee until the transaction is consummated or terminated.O.C.G.A. § 43-40-20
Security deposits are clearly identified and credited to the tenant, and the account always holds at least the total of those deposits. A licensee renting their own property keeps security deposits in trust and may not post a bond instead.Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 520-1-.08
Salespersons, associate brokers and community association managers who receive security deposits or other trust funds put them in a trust account kept or approved by their broker, and give the broker a written reconciliation at least quarterly.O.C.G.A. § 43-40-20

Records and how long to keep them

Licensees keep trust account records, and the documents that created the trust funds, for three years, and produce them when the Commission reasonably asks.O.C.G.A. § 43-40-25(b)(3), (4), (5), (27), (29)
The Commission may examine a trust account at any time on reasonable cause, and examines it during each renewal period.O.C.G.A. § 43-40-20

Reconciliation and ledgers

At least monthly, the broker makes a written reconciliation comparing trust liability with the bank balances, and keeps the reconciliation statements for three years.Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 520-1-.08

Check with the Georgia Real Estate Commission

We could not confirm these from a primary source, so we don’t state them as rules:

Statute text was read on FindLaw, current to March 28, 2024, and the Commission’s trust account rule on Cornell LII (history to 2016) — later amendments were not checked against the official sources.
Whether a manager relying on the under-90-day exemption has any trust or escrow duties for guest payments — we found none stated.
How the exemption’s condition that guest agreements are not leases or rental agreements applies to a typical vacation rental booking.
Whether Georgia’s landlord-tenant security deposit statute reaches vacation rental damage deposits — not researched for this page.

Sources

Each source was read on 2026-10-25.

O.C.G.A. § 43-40-1 — FindLawRead on FindLaw (Georgia Code as of March 28, 2024); the official code is published through LexisNexis and could not be fetched.
O.C.G.A. § 43-40-20 — FindLawRead on FindLaw (Georgia Code as of March 28, 2024); the official code is published through LexisNexis and could not be fetched.
O.C.G.A. § 43-40-25(b)(3), (4), (5), (27), (29) — FindLawRead on FindLaw (Georgia Code as of March 28, 2024); the official code is published through LexisNexis and could not be fetched.
O.C.G.A. § 43-40-29 — FindLawRead on FindLaw (Georgia Code as of March 28, 2024); the official code is published through LexisNexis and could not be fetched.
Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 520-1-.08 — Cornell LIIRead on Cornell LII (history to June 1, 2016); the official rules site could not be read.

The reconciliation itself

Whatever your state’s rules, the monthly check is the same idea: the bank, your books and what you hold for each owner and guest should agree. Our three-way reconciliation guide walks through it with a free worksheet. If your reservations run on VacayOps, trust accounting is part of the Full Platform: guest payments are recorded into trust, owner statements build each owner’s balance, and the month’s reconciliation is signed off and exported as a PDF for your accountant. VacayOps records and reconciles the money in your own bank and processor accounts. It never holds or moves funds.

Trust accounting in VacayOps Book a 30-minute walkthrough

Georgia trust accounting rules for vacation rental managers