How to Become a Real Estate Agent in Colorado: License, Contracts, Rules

Getting your Colorado license

You may not work as a real estate broker in Colorado without a license from the Real Estate Commission. You apply to the Commission on its forms or in the way it prescribes, and you must be at least 18. The Commission does not grant a license until you show the required education, experience, and testing; truthfulness, honesty, and good moral character; and the competency to do the work in a way that protects the public. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
You need either a degree with a major in real estate from an accredited college or university, or Commission-approved courses at an accredited college or university or a qualifying private occupational school: 48 hours of real estate law and practice, 48 hours of Colorado real estate contracts, and 72 hours of trust accounts and record keeping, real estate closings, current legal issues, and practical applications. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
The 72 hours are at least 8 hours of trust accounts and record keeping, 24 of real estate closings, 8 of current legal issues, and 32 of practical applications. You complete this education, and file proof as the Commission prescribes, before you take the exam and apply for an Associate Broker license. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
Before you apply, you submit fingerprints to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a state and national criminal history check that uses CBI and FBI records. You pay the CBI fee, and CBI sends the results to the Commission. If you have an arrest record without a disposition, the Commission gets a name-based judicial record check, and you pay its costs. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
A third-party testing service gives the exam in two parts: a national (general) portion and a Colorado (state) portion. You may retake a part you fail. A passing score on either part is valid for one year, and it becomes invalid if you do not submit a complete application within that year. Your application comes with the fee, proof of the required education and experience, and proof that you passed the exam within the year before the Division receives it. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
PSI's candidate bulletin for Colorado (updated October 1, 2023) says the Division contracted with PSI Services LLC to run the exam. On the national portion, 60 correct out of 80 questions passes; on the state portion, 53 correct out of 74 questions passes. (Source: PSI)
Every licensee keeps errors and omissions (E&O) insurance that covers all licensed work, except an inactive broker, or an attorney licensee whose malpractice insurance covers errors and omissions in the licensed work. The Division offers a group policy, and you may buy your own policy if it meets the Division's minimum requirements. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
Applying does not guarantee a license, and you may not present yourself as a broker or do licensed work until the Commission issues it. Your first license expires December 31 of the year it is issued. If your application is approved but you have not sent proof of E&O insurance or named an employing broker to supervise you, the Commission issues the license on Inactive status. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
The Division's fees page lists an $83 broker application fee and a $252 base renewal fee, and says application fees are non-refundable. The page shows no effective date. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
A Division advisory dated September 28, 2026 says broker initial licensing fees and renewal fees are unchanged for fiscal year 2026-2027. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)

Keeping your license

When you want to work for an employing broker, you tell the Commission, and the employing broker has custody of your license. You give the Commission immediate notice of any change of business location or employment; a change without notice automatically makes your license inactive. The Commission's records show no more than one employer for you for the same period. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
Active or inactive, you renew on or before December 31 of every third year after your license is issued; a first license issued on or after April 23, 2018 expires at midnight on December 31 of the year it is issued. If you miss the renewal, you can reinstate: within 31 days after the license expires by paying the renewal fee; after 31 days and within one year by paying the renewal fee plus a reinstatement fee of half that amount; after one year and within three years by paying the renewal fee plus a reinstatement fee equal to it. After three years, you apply as a new applicant. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
To renew a three-year license, you certify that you passed the Colorado portion of the exam within the previous three years, or that you completed at least 24 hours of credit, 12 of them the Commission's own update credits, which require passing a written exam. Renewing a first license that expires December 31 of the year it was issued needs no continuing education. The Commission may inactivate your license if you do not comply. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
You may meet continuing education with 12 hours of the Commission's Annual Commission Update, which comes as a 4-hour course each year, plus 12 hours of electives, for 24 hours in the licensing cycle. Beginning in 2027, you complete the Annual Commission Update by July 1 of each year. You may not take the same version twice for credit, and you pass its course exam with a score of 70%. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
Instead, you may pass the Colorado portion of the exam; complete the 24-hour Broker Reactivation Course, if you did not use it in the previous licensing cycle; or complete 72 hours of Colorado Real Estate Contracts (48 hours) and Real Estate Closings (24 hours). You meet the requirement before you renew on Active status, activate a license you renewed on Inactive status, or reinstate an expired license to Active status. If your license was Inactive or Expired for up to 36 months in total and you did not complete continuing education in that time, you complete the 24-hour Broker Reactivation Course before you activate it or reinstate it to Active status. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
An Employing Broker license needs two years of active licensure as a Broker, a 24-hour brokerage administration course, and enough experience and knowledge to supervise other brokers in your area. You show at least two years as an Active Broker in the five years before you apply, and at least 50 points earned in those five years under the Commission's point system (for example, 10 points for each full year as an Employing Broker, 3 points for each closed residential sale, and 1 point for each hour of approved continuing education in your area after January 1, 2018, up to 20 points), on the Commission's worksheet or form. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)

Working under your employing broker

Under Colorado law, a real estate broker is a person or entity that, for compensation or with the intention of receiving it, does, or offers or attempts to do, acts such as these, by a continuing course of conduct or by a single act: selling, exchanging, buying, renting, or leasing real estate; negotiating the purchase, sale, or exchange of real estate; listing real estate for sale, exchange, rent, or lease; auctioning real estate; and soliciting a fee from a prospective tenant for information about available rentals. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
The definition does not apply to some persons the statute lists, among them a natural person acting personally for property that person owns or leases, an attorney-at-law representing clients in the practice of law, and a broker licensed in another state who receives a share of a commission or a finder's fee on a cooperative transaction from a licensed Colorado broker. It is unlawful to work as a real estate broker in Colorado without first getting a license from the Real Estate Commission. Acting as a broker without a license, or while the license is revoked or suspended, is a class 2 misdemeanor. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
Under the Commission's rules, as amended effective September 30, 2026, an Associate Broker must not present or hold themselves out to the public as an Employing Broker or Independent Broker. The Employing Broker supervises the Associate Brokers that the Commission's records show it supervises, and all unlicensed employees, including Unlicensed On-Site Managers, secretaries, bookkeepers, and Associate Brokers' personal assistants. The Employing Broker keeps the trust accounts and transaction records, develops the firm's written policies, takes reasonable steps to make sure that violations do not occur or reoccur, and supervises all its branches or offices. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
For all Associate Brokers, a "Reasonable-Level of Supervision" includes a written Office Policy Manual, which each Associate Broker receives and signs, a review of all executed contracts to make sure that they are competently prepared, and a review of all transaction files to make sure that they are complete and contain the required documents. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
A New Associate Broker, one with less than 2 years of cumulative Active experience, also gets a "High-Level of Supervision": training in office policies and procedures, an Employing Broker who is reasonably available, help to prepare contracts, monitoring of transactions from contract to closing, and review of documents before closing. The Employing Broker, or an Associate Broker with more than 2 years of Active licensure, attends closings with the New Associate Broker or is available during closings to help. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
The Employing Broker may delegate supervision to other Associate Brokers who have the skills and knowledge to supervise. The delegation is in writing and signed by both the Supervisory Broker and the Employing Broker. The Supervisory Broker has the same supervision responsibilities as an Employing Broker for the delegated duties, and the Employing Broker stays ultimately responsible. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
A broker registered with the Commission as employed by another broker may accept a commission or other valuable consideration for acts that need a license only from the broker's employer, who must be a licensed real estate broker. After a hearing, the Commission may fine a licensee up to $2,500 for each separate offense, censure the licensee, place the licensee on probation, or suspend or revoke the license, for acts that include: paying a commission or valuable consideration for a broker's functions to a person not licensed under Part 2 of Article 10, except a finder's fee or a share of a commission on a cooperative sale paid to a broker licensed in another state or country; representing a broker other than the licensee's employer without that employer's express knowledge and consent; and, for a broker, failing to exercise reasonable supervision over the activities of licensed employees. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
Commission Position Statement CP-8, which is non-binding guidance and not law, says that you accept a commission for brokerage services only from your Brokerage Firm, which may allocate an earned commission among its Brokers under its compensation agreements or Office Policy Manual. The firm may pay earned commissions to an entity wholly owned by the Broker, or by Brokers acting as a Team, when the Broker assigns all interest in the commissions to that entity. This does not lessen the firm's duty to supervise or the Broker's personal civil responsibility. A firm's failure to pay a Broker is not a violation of the license law: the Commission does not decide or arbitrate such a money dispute, and the claim goes to the civil courts or to arbitration. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
Every Active Broker, including a Brokerage Firm with more than one Broker, must have errors and omissions insurance in effect that covers all acts that need a License. The Division contracts for a group policy, and a Broker may instead buy an independent policy. The group policy and an independent individual policy each give at least $100,000 for each covered claim and a $300,000 annual aggregate per licensee, with investigation and defense costs covered in addition to those limits, a deductible of no more than $1,000 for each occurrence, and at least $25,000 per occurrence for the Broker's use of lock boxes. An Active Broker or Brokerage Firm that does not give the Commission certification of current or continued coverage is placed on Inactive status immediately. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)

Advertising and teams

Under the Commission's rules, Advertising is the promotion, solicitation, or representation of brokerage services that need a License. It may include business cards, brochures, websites, signage, property flyers, paper or electronic mailings, social media, letterhead, email signatures, and contract documents. The rules define Electronic Media to include websites, electronic mailings, social media, banner advertisements, virtual tours, and YouTube. When your License is suspended, revoked, expired, or made Inactive, you immediately stop all Advertising, including office signs, yard signs, billboards, the internet, direct mailings, and multiple listing services. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
Under the rules as amended effective September 30, 2026, all Advertising is done clearly and conspicuously in the name of your Brokerage Firm, and you must not mislead the public about your identity or your Brokerage Firm's identity. A Broker who advertises real property the Broker owns that is not listed with the Broker's Brokerage Firm does not have to advertise it in the firm's name. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
A Trade Name is a name under which a Brokerage Firm does business other than its legal name. A firm may use a Trade Name, which must be filed with the Commission, and uses no more than one. A firm that uses a Trade Name or Trademark owned by a third party shows, clearly and conspicuously, one of these statements: "Each (insert general Trade Name) brokerage business is independently owned and operated." or "Each office independently owned and operated." (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
Under Rule 6.10.D, as amended effective September 30, 2026, when you own or control Electronic Media, each Viewable Page includes the name of your Brokerage Firm. You remove expired listings from your or your firm's Electronic Media within 3 days after a Listing Contract expires, and you send third-party syndicators a written request to remove them within those same 3 days. When you advertise brokerage services by email, chat, instant messages, blogs, or similar means, you use the firm's name, but you need not repeat it to a Consumer to whom you already disclosed it. When space is limited, you disclose the firm's name clearly and conspicuously within the first click. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
Under Rule 6.10.F, as amended effective September 30, 2026, you may not advertise the availability or price of a property for sale or lease without permission from the owner or the owner's Broker. To advertise another Broker's listing, you need the written permission of the owner's Broker and you disclose the owner's Brokerage Firm in a conspicuous manner. To advertise a For Sale by Owner property, you need the owner's written permission and you disclose in a conspicuous manner that the owner is not represented by a Broker. In both cases you make sure that the Advertising is accurate and not misleading to Consumers. The price in any Advertising must be the price that the owner determined, and when you advertise the square footage of a residential property, you disclose the source of the living-area square footage to Consumers on the Commission-Approved Form. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
Commission Position Statement CP-26 (revised August 4, 2026), which is non-binding guidance and not law, says that the Commission does not set specific requirements for how a property is marketed for sale or lease, but a Broker must comply with the license law and other applicable laws, including fair housing and civil rights laws. A Broker advises the Client on the effects of marketing limits such as "coming soon" advertising, private listing networks, requiring a specific contract software, and limiting a property's market exposure. A Broker who does not advise the Client of the effects of the marketing plan or the barriers to access, and does not get the Client's approval, may be subject to discipline. Any limit or restriction on access must be written in the Listing Contract. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
The Commission's rules define a Team as two or more Brokers within a Brokerage Firm who cooperate on an ongoing basis to conduct a substantial portion of their brokerage services together. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
Under Rule 6.10.B, as amended effective September 30, 2026, Brokers who form a Team must not advertise in a way that misleads the public about the Team's Brokerage Firm. A Team's name may not use "Realty", "Real estate", "Realtors", "Company", "Corporation", "Corp.", "Inc.", "LLC", "LP" or "LLP", or any other term that implies an entity separate from the Brokerage Firm. All Team Advertising clearly and conspicuously includes, and is in conjunction with, the licensed name or Trade Name of the Brokerage Firm. When a Consumer, the Commission, or another Brokerage Firm or Broker asks, the firm gives the names of the Brokers on any of its Teams. Brokers may not let Brokers outside the Team's Brokerage Firm use the Team's name. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)

Brokerage relationships and the buyer agreement

A Colorado broker may act in a transaction as a single agent or as a transaction-broker, and may not establish dual agency. From August 12, 2026 (HB 26-1426), a broker establishes either relationship through a written agreement with the party or parties it represents. The agreement specifies and conspicuously discloses the amount or rate of any compensation to the broker, and the broker completes it before performing any act that needs a license, such as buying, offering to buy, or negotiating a purchase. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
In a firm with more than one licensed person, the employing broker designates the broker who works with the buyer, and the relationship does not extend to the employing broker, to brokers who are not designated, or to the firm. One designated broker may work with the seller and the buyer in the same transaction as a transaction-broker for both, or as a single agent for one party who treats the other as a customer, but not as a single agent for both. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
A buyer's agent is a limited agent who promotes the buyer's interests with the utmost good faith, loyalty, and fidelity. A transaction-broker is not an agent for either party: it uses reasonable skill and care, presents all offers and counteroffers in a timely manner, keeps the parties fully informed, and helps them comply with the contract through closing. Both disclose to a prospective seller all adverse material facts they actually know, including the buyer's financial ability to perform and whether the buyer intends to occupy the property as a principal residence. Neither has a duty to inspect the property independently or to verify the statements of the seller or of inspectors. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
Under Commission Rule 6.5, as amended effective September 30, 2026, you give a consumer the written disclosures that C.R.S. 12-10-408 requires before you elicit or discuss the consumer's confidential information related to brokerage services. Preliminary conversations or "small talk" about location and property styles, or about market conditions or property prices when you answer a potential consumer's general factual questions about advertised properties, are not part of this. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
Under Rule 6.9, as amended effective September 30, 2026, a broker who changes from single agent for one client to transaction-broker for both clients gives the Commission's Change of Status form to the client whose relationship changes, when the broker begins to assist both, and no later than when the consumer signs the real estate contract. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
The seller, the buyer, a third party, or a split between brokers may pay a broker's compensation, and the payment does not create an agency relationship with the party who pays. A buyer's agent gets the buyer's written approval before proposing to the seller's agent that it be paid from compensation the seller pays. Before a brokerage or listing agreement or a contract to buy is signed, the parties are told who pays compensation to any broker. A broker may be paid by more than one party only if those parties consent in writing before they sign the contract to buy. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
The Commission's Exclusive Right-to-Buy Listing Contract (BC60, mandatory from January 1, 2026) is an exclusive, irrevocable contract between the buyer and the Brokerage Firm, and the parties check Buyer Agency or Transaction-Brokerage at the top. It states that compensation charged by brokerage firms is not set by law and is fully negotiable. The buyer agrees to negotiate only through the Broker and to refer all communications to the Broker. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
On that form, the Brokerage Firm is paid a Success Fee, an hourly fee up to a maximum, a nonrefundable retainer, or other compensation, as the parties write in. Unless the parties check § 7.3.2, the Broker asks the seller's brokerage firm or the seller to pay the Success Fee, and the buyer pays any part they do not pay, but only if the Broker discloses that amount to the buyer in writing before the buyer enters into a contract with the seller. Without the buyer's written approval, the Brokerage Firm may not take added compensation, bonuses, or incentives from the seller's side. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)

The Commission's forms and the Colorado real estate contract

The Commission's Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate (Residential), form CBS1, was adopted August 5, 2025, with a mandatory use date of January 1, 2026. Users may not modify it except as Commission Rule 7.2 permits, and the provisions written in § 30 (Additional Provisions) have not been approved by the Commission. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
You must use a Commission-Approved Form when one exists and is appropriate for the transaction, and advise the parties that Standard Forms have important legal consequences and that they should consult legal counsel before they sign. A deletion or change to the printed body of a form must come from negotiations or a party's instructions, and is made by a legible strike-through that does not hide the deleted text. Text inserted in blanks is in a font that clearly differs from the form's, and you explain all modifications, insertions, and addenda to the principal party. A Broker who is not a principal party may not insert personal provisions, personal disclaimers, or exculpatory language that favors the Broker, the Employing Broker, or the Brokerage Firm into a Standard Form. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
The Division of Real Estate's forms page lists, among the notice forms, the Inspection Objection Notice (for use on and after January 1, 2026), the Inspection Resolution, the Title-Related Objection Notice, the Appraised Value Objection Notice, and the Notice to Terminate (2024). It also lists the Counterproposal and the Agreement to Amend/Extend Contract (for use after August 14, 2024). (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
The parties write the date or deadline for each event in the contract's Dates and Deadlines table, such as the Seller's Property Disclosure, Inspection Objection, Inspection Resolution, Association Documents, Record Title, New Loan, Appraisal, and Closing deadlines. A deadline left blank or completed with "N/A" or "Deleted" does not apply, and the provision that contains it is deleted. "MEC" means the date both parties signed the contract. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
On the contract, a "day" ends at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time. If the parties write a Time of Day Deadline, every Objection, Resolution, Examination, and Termination Deadline ends at that time on its date. In a period of days with no stated end date, such as three days after MEC, the first day is not counted and the last day is counted. The parties check whether a deadline that falls on a Saturday, a Sunday, or a federal or Colorado holiday moves to the next day; if they check neither box, it does not move. Time is of the essence for all dates and deadlines, which are strict and absolute. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
The offer expires unless both parties accept it in writing and the offering party receives notice of acceptance by the Acceptance Deadline Date and Time. A written notice is effective when the party, a person named to receive notices, the Broker, or the Brokerage Firm of the Broker working with that party receives it, except that a notice after Closing must reach the party. For an electronic notice, in the form's words, "any notice or delivery after Closing, cancellation or Termination must be received by the party, not Broker or Brokerage Firm." (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
A termination is effective when the other party receives a written Notice to Terminate by the deadline. If it does not arrive by the deadline, the party with the right accepts the matter as satisfactory and waives that right, and a Notice to Terminate delivered after the deadline does not terminate the contract. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)

Inspection, the loan, and the appraisal

The buyer, acting in good faith, may have the Property inspected at the buyer's expense. If the physical condition, the services or systems, a proposed or existing transportation project, or any activity, odor, or noise is unsatisfactory in the buyer's sole subjective discretion, the buyer may either give written notice by the Inspection Termination Deadline that the contract is terminated, or deliver by the Inspection Objection Deadline a written description of the conditions the seller must correct (an Inspection Objection). The buyer's right to terminate under § 10.3.1 ends when the buyer delivers an Inspection Objection. The buyer pays for all inspections and for any damage they cause. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
If the seller receives an Inspection Objection by the Inspection Objection Deadline and the parties do not agree in writing to a settlement by the Inspection Resolution Deadline, the contract terminates on the Inspection Resolution Deadline, unless the seller receives the buyer's written withdrawal of the objection by then. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
A buyer who pays with a New Loan must, if the lender requires it, make an application the lender can verify by the New Loan Application Deadline, and must use reasonable efforts to get the loan. The contract is conditional, for the buyer's sole benefit, on the buyer's satisfaction with the loan's payments, interest rate, conditions, costs, and other terms, in the buyer's sole subjective discretion, and the buyer may terminate by the New Loan Terms Deadline if they are not satisfactory. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
The contract is also conditional on the buyer's satisfaction with the availability of the New Loan, based on the lender's review and underwriting, and the buyer may terminate by the New Loan Availability Deadline. The buyer may not terminate for New Loan Availability when the reason is the New Loan Terms, the Appraised Value, the Lender Property Requirements, insurability, or a sale conditional on the buyer's own property. If the seller is not in default and does not receive the buyer's written Notice to Terminate in time, the buyer's Earnest Money becomes nonrefundable, except as the contract provides otherwise, for example for appraisal, title, or survey. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
For a Conventional or Other loan, or a cash purchase, the buyer has the right to get an Appraisal. If the Appraised Value is less than the Purchase Price, or the buyer has not received the Appraisal by the Appraisal Deadline, the buyer may, by the Appraisal Objection Deadline, either give a Notice to Terminate or deliver an Appraisal Objection with a copy of the Appraisal or a lender's written notice that confirms the Appraised Value is less than the Purchase Price. If the parties then do not agree in writing to a settlement by the Appraisal Resolution Deadline, the contract terminates on that deadline, unless the seller receives the buyer's written withdrawal of the objection by then. The Appraisal deadlines do not apply to FHA-insured or VA-guaranteed loans when those boxes are checked in § 4.5.3. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
The form warns that, unless exempt, federal and state laws impose licensing and other requirements on sellers and private lenders, that seller or private financing provisions and documents should be prepared by a licensed Colorado attorney or a licensed mortgage loan originator, and that brokers should not prepare or advise the parties on the specifics of financing. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)

Earnest money, title, and closing

The parties write the Earnest Money amount, its form, and the Earnest Money Holder, which holds it in its trust account for both the seller and the buyer. The buyer tenders the Earnest Money with the contract, unless the parties agree to an Alternative Earnest Money Deadline in the Dates and Deadlines table. If the Earnest Money Holder has agreed to it, interest on the Earnest Money goes to a fund for affordable housing for Colorado residents. A payment, Earnest Money included, that is not paid when due is a default. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
When the contract terminates, all Earnest Money is returned to the buyer in a timely manner, and the parties are relieved of their obligations, subject to §§ 10.4 and 21. Except in an Earnest Money dispute, if it has not been returned after a Notice to Terminate, the seller signs and delivers written mutual instructions, such as the Earnest Money Release form, within three days after receiving them; a seller who does not is in default, unless the seller is entitled to the Earnest Money because of a buyer default. The buyer has the same three days when the seller is entitled to it. A brokerage firm that is the Earnest Money Holder releases it within five days after it receives the signed mutual instructions, provided the Earnest Money check has cleared. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
In a controversy about the Earnest Money, the Earnest Money Holder is not required to release it. In its sole subjective discretion, it may wait for a proceeding between the parties, interplead and deposit the money with a court, or tell the parties that it will return the money to the buyer unless it receives a copy of a lawsuit with a case number within one hundred twenty days. The parties must first try mediation. On a buyer default, unless the box in § 20.1.1 is checked, the seller may cancel and keep all the Earnest Money as liquidated damages, which is the seller's only remedy, except under §§ 10.4 and 21. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
If § 8.1.1 is checked, or if neither § 8.1.1 nor § 8.1.2 is checked, the seller selects the title insurance company, pays for the owner's title insurance policy, and furnishes a Title Commitment in the amount of the Purchase Price by the Record Title Deadline. If § 8.1.2 is checked, the buyer selects the company and pays. The parties check whether the commitment will contain Owner's Extended Coverage (OEC) and who pays its added premium, and the title company may still not provide OEC. The seller delivers a special warranty deed unless the parties select another deed. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
The buyer may object to the Title Commitment and the Title Documents by the Record Title Objection Deadline, in the buyer's sole subjective discretion. The seller delivers existing surveys and discloses known off-record matters by the Off-Record Title Deadline, and the buyer objects by the Off-Record Title Objection Deadline. After a Notice of Title Objection, if the parties do not agree in writing to a settlement by the Title Resolution Deadline, the contract terminates on that deadline unless the seller receives the buyer's written withdrawal; the buyer may instead terminate by the applicable deadline. A buyer who does not object or terminate in time accepts the condition of title. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
Under Commission Rule 6.14.E, as amended effective September 30, 2026, you may not give advice on exceptions to title, which would be the unauthorized practice of law. Before the applicable deadlines, you recommend that the consumer examine all title exceptions, and encourage the consumer to get guidance from a licensed attorney about the title and any potential objections. Under Rule 6.19, as amended effective September 30, 2026, the broker for the client is responsible for the proper closing: the broker makes sure the client receives an accurate, complete, and detailed closing statement signed by the broker, and reviews the closing documents and attends the closing or is reasonably available for the client, or another broker the firm designates does so. (Source: Code of Colorado Regulations)
All amounts payable at Closing must be Good Funds: wire transfers, certified, teller's, or cashier's checks, and real-time or instant payments. A party that does not pay by Closing is in default. The parties check who pays the closing services fee, any record change fee, and any Local Transfer Tax (the buyer, the seller, one-half each, or N/A). The buyer's brokerage firm is paid at Closing as written in: by the seller, by the buyer under a separate agreement, or under a separate agreement between the brokerage firms. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)

Seller disclosures and association documents

The Commission's Seller's Property Disclosure (Residential), form SPD19, was adopted August 5, 2025, and its mandatory use date is January 1, 2026. The form says that the seller, not the broker, should complete it. The seller answers to the seller's current actual knowledge and has no duty to investigate or inspect, and a known adverse material fact must be disclosed whether or not the form has an item for it. Its items include the water supply and the well permit, any proposed or existing transportation project, radon tests and mitigation, the metropolitan district and its official website, and use as a methamphetamine laboratory not remediated to state standards. The form is not a warranty by the seller or any broker and is not a substitute for an inspection. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
Under the contract, by the Seller's Property Disclosure Deadline, the seller delivers the most current version of the Commission's Seller's Property Disclosure form, completed to the seller's actual knowledge and current as of that deadline. The seller discloses in writing any adverse material facts the seller actually knows as of the contract date, and discloses in time any adverse material fact discovered later. The buyer may terminate based on a new disclosure until the earlier of Closing or five days after receiving it. Except as the contract provides otherwise, the seller conveys the Property "As Is," "Where Is," and "With All Faults." (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
Under C.R.S. 38-35.5-101, facts or suspicions about circumstances that could psychologically impact or stigmatize a property are not material facts subject to a disclosure requirement. They include, but are not limited to, that an occupant is or was suspected to be infected with HIV, or was diagnosed with AIDS or another disease that medical evidence has determined is highly unlikely to be transmitted through the occupancy of a dwelling, and that the property was the site of a homicide or other felony or of a suicide. No cause of action arises against a real estate broker or salesperson for not disclosing such a circumstance. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
Commission Position Statement CP-27 says that brokers must disclose known adverse material facts to all parties in a transaction, and only the facts the broker actually knows: a broker has no duty to inspect the property independently or to verify the parties' statements. An adverse material fact includes a fact that affects the structural integrity of the property, a documented health risk to occupants (including environmental hazards), and a fact with a material effect on title or occupancy. The examples include building or zoning violations and any type of lien filed against the property. When you are unclear whether a known fact that affects the physical property is adverse or material, you should disclose it. Without the client's informed consent, a broker who represents the owner must not disclose facts or suspicions that may psychologically impact or stigmatize the property. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
Colorado law directs the Real Estate Commission to require that each listing contract, contract of sale, or seller's property disclosure for residential property disclose the source of potable water: a well; a water provider, with its name, address, website, and telephone; or neither, with a description of the source. The disclosure also says that some water providers rely, to varying degrees, on nonrenewable groundwater. When the source is a well, the seller also provides a copy of the current well permit, if one is available. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
As amended effective August 6, 2025, an owner who sells residential property within a metropolitan district organized on or after January 1, 2000 gives the buyer, at or before the signing of the contract: a copy of, or a link to, the district's most recent notice to electors and its service plan; a written statement of the district's debt authority, its maximum debt service mill levy (or that there is none), its operating mill levy, its power to impose fees and other charges, and that its actions may increase costs to residents; an estimate of the district's property taxes on the property for the year of the sale; and the most current certificate of taxes due or tax statement from the county treasurer. A seller complies when the disclosures are based on a good-faith effort to be accurate. On or after January 1, 2024, the seller also gives the buyer the district's official website. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
Under a law effective August 7, 2023, a buyer has the right to be informed whether the property was tested for elevated radon. Each contract of sale for residential property contains a bold-faced statement that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment strongly recommends an indoor radon test before purchase, and that the seller must give the buyer any known radon test results. The contract of sale or the seller's property disclosure includes the seller's knowledge of whether a radon test was done, the most recent radon records and reports, any concentrations detected or mitigation performed, whether a mitigation system is installed, and a copy of the department's most recent radon brochure. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
A buyer of residential property may have it tested for use as a methamphetamine laboratory by a certified industrial hygienist or an industrial hygienist under the state board of health rules. If the test shows contamination not remediated to those standards, the buyer promptly gives the seller written notice of the results and may terminate the contract, and the contract may not limit the right to test or to cancel on the results; the seller has 30 days after the notice to do a second independent test. The seller discloses in writing whether the seller knows the property was previously used as a methamphetamine laboratory. A seller who remediated the property to the state standards and received certificates of compliance need not disclose the former use. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
For a Property in a common interest community, the seller provides the Association Documents at the seller's expense by the Association Documents Deadline; the duty is met when the buyer receives them, whoever provides them. They include the governing documents and minutes, the assessments, the current budget, the most recent financial statements, any reserve study, and any notice of a construction defect action in the past six months. The buyer may terminate by the Association Documents Termination Deadline for any unsatisfactory provision, in the buyer's sole subjective discretion. If the documents arrive after the Association Documents Deadline, the seller must receive the buyer's Notice to Terminate within ten days after the buyer receives them, or by Closing if they never arrive or that date is after the Closing Date. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
For most housing built before 1978, federal law requires sellers and real estate agents, before a buyer signs a contract, to give the buyer the EPA pamphlet "Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home", disclose any known information about lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards, provide all available records and reports, and provide a Lead Warning Statement. The buyer gets a 10-day period for a lead-based paint inspection or risk assessment, which the parties may lengthen or shorten in writing and the buyer may waive. Agents are responsible, along with the seller, for compliance, unless the seller does not disclose to the agent all information on lead-based paint and its hazards. (Source: EPA)

Trust money

The Commission may discipline a broker employed by another broker who does not place deposit money or other money entrusted to the broker, as the employing broker's representative, in the employing broker's custody as soon after receipt as is practicably possible. (Source: Colorado Revised Statutes)
All Money Belonging to Others is kept separate from the Broker's or the firm's own money and is deposited in a Trust or Escrow Account. That account holds only Money Belonging to Others, is held at a bank, savings and loan association, or credit union insured by the FDIC or the NCUA, and has a deposit agreement that uses the word "trust" or "escrow" and a label for its purpose, such as "sales escrow" or "security deposit escrow". The Employing Broker or Independent Broker is responsible for each account. A firm that holds no Money Belonging to Others does not have to keep a trust account. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
Money Belonging to Others is deposited in the firm's trust account no later than 3 business days after receipt of the funds or mutual execution of the contract, whichever is later. Money that a Brokerage Firm receives for Property Management is deposited no later than 5 business days after receipt of the funds or mutual execution of the lease, whichever is later. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
A Broker who receives earnest money delivers it to the earnest money holder to be deposited as the contract says, and gets a dated and signed receipt from the person or entity the Broker was told to deliver it to. When the Brokerage Firm holds the earnest money, it deposits it within the Rule 5.7.B time limit. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)
For each trust account, the Employing Broker or Independent Broker keeps a journal that records in date order all money received and disbursed, and a ledger for each beneficiary, which may never show a negative balance and whose total must agree with the journal. Every month, a three-way reconciliation is done to show that the journal balance, the sum of all ledger balances, and the reconciled bank balance are the same on one date, and a report of it is kept. (Source: Colorado Division of Real Estate)

Not in this guide

A license for a person licensed in another state, the path for a licensed attorney, the Independent Broker level, and licenses for servicemembers and their spouses: the Colorado Division of Real Estate.
The exam fee, the fingerprint fee, reinstatement fee amounts, and the date when renewals open each year: the Colorado Division of Real Estate.
Referral fees, affiliated business arrangements, RESPA, and conflicts of interest when a broker buys or sells on the broker's own account: your employing broker.
The Exclusive Right-to-Buy Listing Contract and the Brokerage Disclosure to Buyer for use on and after January 1, 2027: the Division of Real Estate's forms page.
Land, income-residential, manufactured home, and foreclosure-protection sales, and a builder's own contract: the Commission publishes other forms; read the form used.
Water rights, mineral rights, a new survey, and a sale conditional on the buyer's own home: read the contract itself.
Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure timing, and FHA, VA, and other loan program rules: the buyer's lender.
Rental listings, rental applications, security deposits, and tenancy rules in Colorado.
Property taxes, the state documentary fee, and the transfer declaration on a sale.
Your city's and county's ordinances, a local transfer tax, and your MLS's rules: the local page below, and your employing broker.
What the blanks of a given contract say, whether a buyer may terminate in a given case, what a title exception means, and who gets disputed earnest money: the contract itself, your employing broker, or an attorney.

Colorado: your license, the contract forms, and the rules of a deal

Getting your Colorado license

Keeping your license

Working under your employing broker

Advertising and teams

Brokerage relationships and the buyer agreement

The Commission's forms and the Colorado real estate contract

Inspection, the loan, and the appraisal

Earnest money, title, and closing

Seller disclosures and association documents

Trust money

Not in this guide

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