We Buy Houses for Cash in Colorado

Colorado's real estate rules live in contract forms as much as in statutes. The Seller's Property Disclosure is a Real Estate Commission form whose deadline comes from the purchase contract, the state documentary fee is tiny, a few towns add a transfer tax of their own, and foreclosures are handled by a county public trustee. Sellers here also disclose things rarely seen elsewhere, like where the drinking water comes from and whether someone else may own the minerals under the house. Swifty Home Buyers buys Colorado houses for cash, as-is, from Front Range suburbs to mountain towns, without agent commissions or repair demands, on the closing date you choose. Here is how the Colorado pieces work.

We buy houses in all 50 states. This guide covers the rules that matter in Colorado.

Colorado's documentary fee under C.R.S. 39-13-102 is one cent for each $100 of consideration, or major fraction of $100, when the price is more than $500, and nothing when it is $500 or less. That is about $25 on a $250,000 sale. The statute places the fee on whoever offers the deed for recording, and the county clerk and recorder collects it. A real property transfer declaration signed by either the grantor or the grantee has to accompany the deed, and if it is missing, the assessor may impose a penalty of $25 or 0.025 percent of the sale price, whichever is greater. The larger surprise can be local, because some towns have their own real estate transfer tax. The Town of Vail, for example, charges a 1 percent real estate transfer tax and says everyone involved in the transfer is jointly responsible for paying it, so your contract should spell out who covers it. A local title company can tell you whether your town has one. Otherwise the main seller expenses are a listing commission (negotiable and usually the largest), title and closing fees, loan and lien payoffs, HOA or district charges, and prorated property taxes. Selling to Swifty means no commission, and we put every closing cost in writing up front.

Colorado foreclosures under a deed of trust are handled by the county public trustee, and the process begins when the lender records a notice of election and demand. For non-agricultural property, C.R.S. 38-38-108 sets the first sale date no less than 110 and no more than 125 calendar days after that recording, and 215 to 230 days for agricultural property. You can cure the default, but under C.R.S. 38-38-104 you must file a written notice of intent to cure at least 15 calendar days before the sale and then pay all sums due by 12 noon on the day before the sale. Colorado's redemption statute, 38-38-302, describes redemption by lienors, so homeowners should not plan on buying the house back after the sale. Colorado also has a Foreclosure Protection Act that covers an equity purchaser, meaning a buyer who is not going to live there, acquiring a principal residence that is in foreclosure or at least 30 days behind. The buyer must use a written contract that complies with the Act, and the homeowner may cancel until midnight of the third business day after signing or until noon on the day before the foreclosure sale, whichever comes first. Any buyer purchasing a Colorado home in foreclosure, including us, has to follow those rules. For free counseling, the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority points homeowners to Colorado Housing Connects at 1-877-601-HOPE. With only about four months between the notice and the sale, an owner who wants to sell should start early enough to close before the sale date.

• Sell as-is
• Inherited house
• Foreclosure
• Tenants or rental property

Eagle County and Vail

The Eagle County Public Trustee holds foreclosure sales every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. online, and bidders must register and deposit at least 10 percent of their anticipated bid by 5:00 p.m. mountain time the day before. The office posts notice of intent to cure and notice of intent to redeem forms for people with those rights. Inside the Town of Vail, sales also carry the town's 1 percent real estate transfer tax, created in 1980 to fund parks, recreation and open space and later expanded to environmental programs, with everyone involved in the transfer jointly responsible for payment. On a $1,000,000 Vail sale that is $10,000, compared with a state documentary fee of about $100.