A Contract Built Around a Calendar
Colorado and Texas have something in common: both make licensees use state-approved forms. That’s where the similarity ends. A Texas file runs on day counts from the Effective Date and one option period. A Colorado file runs on a Dates and Deadlines table with dozens of separately dated items, and several of them end the contract automatically if nobody acts.
This guide is for agents writing Colorado contracts and TCs tracking them. It’s written from the Colorado Real Estate Commission’s Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate (Residential) (CBS1), mandatory since January 1, 2026, and the Commission’s related forms.
Not legal advice. Practical guidance from people who manage these files every day.
The Forms
Commission rules require a broker to use a Commission-approved form when one exists and fits the transaction. Any deletion of printed text has to be a negotiated, legible strike-through. The core set:
| Form | What it does |
|---|---|
| Contract to Buy and Sell (CBS1) | The residential purchase contract |
| Counterproposal | Counters an offer |
| Agreement to Amend/Extend | Changes terms or deadlines after MEC |
| Inspection Objection Notice / Inspection Resolution | The repair negotiation |
| Seller’s Property Disclosure (SPD19) | The seller’s disclosure |
| Earnest Money Receipt / Release | Tracks and releases the deposit |
| Notice to Terminate | Ends the contract under a termination right |
| Closing Instructions (CL8) | Engages the closing company |
For TCs: Colorado rolls to new form versions on January 1. The forms page already has versions for use on and after January 1, 2027, with redlines. Check versions at intake every January.
Dates and Deadlines: Calendar Every Line
Section 3 of the contract is a table of more than 40 numbered items, grouped into title, owners’ association, seller’s disclosures, loan and credit, appraisal, survey, inspection and due diligence, and closing and possession. A few rules decide how you calendar it:
- MEC is mutual execution, the date both parties have signed. “3 days after MEC” excludes the first day and includes the last.
- A day ends at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time, unless the parties enter a Time of Day Deadline, which then applies to the objection, resolution, examination and termination deadlines.
- Blank or “N/A” deletes the provision. A deadline left blank isn’t just missing; that part of the contract is gone.
- Weekends and holidays don’t automatically extend anything. There’s a Will / Will Not box. If neither is checked, a Saturday deadline stays on Saturday.
- Time is of the essence, and a late Notice to Terminate is ineffective. Silence means the party accepts the item and waives the right.
For agents: fill in the box on weekend extensions. Leaving it blank is a choice, and usually not the one you meant.
Objection, Resolution, or the Deal Ends
Here’s the part that catches Texas agents. Colorado has no option fee. The buyer’s protections are termination and objection rights, and the objection paths end on their own:
- Inspection Termination and Inspection Objection are separate rights. Once the buyer delivers an Inspection Objection, the buyer gives up the Inspection Termination right.
- If the objection isn’t resolved in writing by the Inspection Resolution Deadline, the contract terminates that day, unless the buyer withdraws the objection first.
- Appraisal works the same way: objection, then resolution, then an automatic result.
- Lender-required repairs beyond what was agreed terminate the contract 3 days after the seller receives them, unless the parties resolve it.
- Miss the New Loan Availability Deadline and the earnest money becomes nonrefundable, except as the contract otherwise provides.
For TCs: every objection gets three dates on your calendar: the objection, the resolution, and the day before the resolution deadline, when you check whether an Agreement to Amend/Extend is signed.
Earnest Money
Earnest money is tendered with the contract unless the parties set an alternative deadline, and it’s held by the named Earnest Money Holder, usually the brokerage or the title company. A brokerage that holds it has to deposit it within 3 business days of receiving the funds or mutual execution, whichever is later.
After a valid termination, each party has 3 days to sign a release once they receive it; a party who doesn’t is in default. In a dispute, the holder can wait for the parties, interplead the funds, or give notice that it may return the money to the buyer unless a lawsuit is filed within 120 days. Mediation comes before litigation.
Who’s entitled to disputed earnest money is a legal question. That belongs with an attorney.
Closing Instructions and Title
Most Colorado closings are handled by a title company. The contract has a box for whether the Commission’s Closing Instructions are signed with the contract, and the Commission strongly encourages using them and delivering them to the title company with the earnest money.
- The seller picks the title company by default, and pays for the owner’s policy, unless the buyer-selects box is checked.
- The default deed is a special warranty deed.
- The seller requests the HOA Status Letter at least 14 days before closing.
- The Tax Certificate is due by the Record Title Deadline.
Colorado-Only Disclosures
- Source of water: whether it’s a well, a provider or neither, with the well permit when it’s a well, and water rights addressed in the contract itself.
- Metropolitan and special districts: a required disclosure, with the district’s website, and a Tax Certificate listing the districts.
- Radon: a state disclosure required in every residential contract.
- Methamphetamine, oil and gas, and mineral rights disclosures, plus a Mineral Rights Examination Deadline.
- Lead-based paint for homes built before 1978, with its own deadlines.
The TC’s Colorado Checklist
- At intake: confirm the form versions, then calendar every live line of the Dates and Deadlines table.
- Note the Time of Day Deadline and the weekend Will / Will Not box.
- Confirm the earnest money reached the holder, with a receipt.
- Confirm the Closing Instructions went to the title company.
- Track each objection with its resolution deadline, and get any Agreement to Amend/Extend signed before it passes.
- Order the HOA Status Letter at least 14 days out, and watch the Tax Certificate.
- Check the water, metro district and radon disclosures are in the file.
The Bottom Line
Colorado rewards the calendar. Every protection has a date, every objection has a deadline that ends the deal if nobody acts, and a blank box can delete a whole provision. Calendar it all on day one and the file runs itself. Miss one line and the contract can end on a Tuesday afternoon without anyone deciding to end it.
Agents: we coordinate Colorado files from mutual execution to closing. See our Colorado TC services.
TCs: our TC Training Course covers the contract-to-close workflow that every state’s forms plug into.
