Education

My contract file from a closing back in early January looked different from every file I'd worked with before it. Same address format, same layout, but the Dates and Deadlines page had a few new lines I had to explain twice to my buyers. Colorado's Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate got an update this year, and as of January 1, 2026, the new version is the only one brokers are supposed to use. If you...

You get a letter from your HOA. Certified mail, return receipt requested. Somewhere in your yard, your fence, or your trash cans didn't sit right with the architectural committee, and now there's a fine attached. Most homeowners' first instinct is to just pay it and move on. Here's what a lot of people in Parker and Aurora don't realize: under Colorado law, your HOA legally cannot fine you the moment it...

If you're buying a new construction condo or townhome in Colorado this year, one thing changed on January 1 that almost nobody outside the legal and building industry noticed. Your HOA now needs a lot more agreement among owners before it can sue a builder over a construction defect, and builders who sign up for a new state incentive program get real legal protection in return for offering a written...

A client outside Castle Rock called me in June holding an insurance renewal letter that had jumped almost $900 for the year, and buried in the fine print was a line about her home's "wildfire risk score." She'd never seen that number before, had no idea how it was calculated, and had no real way to push back on it. That's about to change. Starting July 1, 2026, Colorado law requires insurers to actually...

A lot of people hear "homestead exemption" and assume it works like a tax break you have to apply for every year. In Colorado, that's not what it is, and I've had homeowners find that out the hard way, usually after a lawsuit or an old debt shows up and they're trying to figure out how much of their equity is actually safe. What the Homestead Exemption Actually Does This isn't a property tax discount....

A woman in Aurora called me last spring, not about buying or selling, but because her mother had passed away owning her house free and clear, no mortgage, no will drawn up in twenty years. She assumed the house was hers already since she was the only child. It wasn't, not legally, not until the estate cleared probate court, a process that took almost eight months and cost more in filing and attorney fees...

A client of mine who owns a rental property in Parker got an email a few months back from the county letting her know a document had just been recorded against her address. She hadn't sold anything, hadn't refinanced, hadn't signed a thing. It turned out to be a filing error, nothing sinister, but for about twenty minutes she was convinced someone had taken her house out from under her. That's exactly the...

A client of mine in a Lone Tree townhome had a neighbor's washing machine overflow into her unit last spring. Water came through the ceiling, ruined the flooring, and damaged cabinets she'd upgraded when she bought the place. She assumed the HOA's master insurance policy would cover it. It didn't, not most of it. The master policy covered the shared structure. Everything inside her unit's walls was on her,...

A seller asked me recently whether it mattered that the agent bringing her a full-price offer also represented the buyer. It's a fair question, and the honest answer is: it depends on what "represented" means in that specific transaction, and Colorado's rules on this are more layered than most people realize.Colorado's default isn't full representation at allHere's the part that surprises most buyers and...

Picture this. You find a home you love, you write what feels like a strong offer, and you still lose to someone who came in higher. After that happens once, a lot of buyers ask me the same thing: can we just tell the seller we will beat any other offer? That instinct is exactly what an escalation clause tries to do. It can be a smart tool. It can also backfire. Let me walk you through both sides so you can...