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A Colorado home sale runs through five stages: pricing, preparation, marketing, contract and closing. A listing agent's job is to run each stage on a calendar, hit every deadline in the Colorado Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate, and hand the seller a net proceeds number that matches the one quoted at the listing appointment. This post lists what a Kenna Real Estate Group listing agent does in each stage so a seller knows what they are paying for before signing a listing contract.
The Kenna Real Estate Group at Keller Williams DTC has sold Front Range homes since 2002 and holds 332 five-star Google reviews. The stages below are the same on a $400,000 townhome in Aurora and a $1.5 million home in Castle Pines; only the numbers change. Read the client reviews to hear how sellers describe each stage, and meet the agents who run them.
Stage 1: Pricing with a Smart Pricing Report
Every Kenna Real Estate Group listing starts with a Smart Pricing Report built from REcolorado sold data: the last six months of closed sales within one mile and 20 percent of the home's square footage, adjusted for finished basement, garage count, lot, roof age and condition. The report shows three numbers: the price that draws multiple offers in the first two weekends, the price that sells in 30 to 45 days, and the price where the home sits. The seller picks the strategy; the agent shows what each one costs in time and dollars.
Pricing is also where the paperwork begins. The Exclusive Right-to-Sell Listing Contract is a Colorado Real Estate Commission-approved form that sets the list price, the listing period, the brokerage relationship and the compensation. Commissions in Colorado are negotiable and written into that contract. Since August 2024 the MLS no longer carries offers of buyer-broker compensation, so any payment to a buyer's agent is negotiated in the purchase contract instead. The pricing your Colorado home page explains how the report is built and how to request one.
Seller's agent or transaction broker
Colorado law lets a seller hire a broker as a seller's agent, who owes the seller advocacy, loyalty and confidentiality, or as a transaction broker, who assists both sides without advocating for either. The choice is made in the listing contract and disclosed to buyers. The Kenna Real Estate Group lists homes as a seller's agent unless the seller asks otherwise.
Stage 2: Preparation before the home goes live
The agent walks the home room by room and produces a prep list ranked by return: what to fix, what to leave, and what to disclose instead of fixing. On a Front Range home the list includes the items Colorado buyers' inspectors flag most: the sewer line, radon, the roof after hail season, the furnace and water heater, and grading against the foundation on expansive clay soil.
- Pre-listing reports: the agent schedules a sewer scope ($150 to $250) and a radon test ($150 to $250) so the results sit in the showing binder.
- Disclosures: the agent prepares the Colorado Seller's Property Disclosure, the square footage disclosure, the source of water addendum where it applies, the federal lead-based paint disclosure on homes built before 1978, and HOA or metro district documents.
- Vendors: cleaners, handymen, painters and stagers the group has used on prior listings, scheduled in the right order so paint dries before photos.
- Staging plan: an occupied-home consult ($200 to $500) or vacant staging ($1,500 to $3,500 a month) when the home is empty.
The ranked list of prep work with Denver metro costs lives on the preparing and adding value before selling page, and the minimal-investment prep list covers what to do under $2,000.
Stage 3: Marketing the listing across the Denver metro
A listing agent's marketing starts three to seven days before the home is live and runs until the contract is signed. On a Kenna Real Estate Group listing that includes:
- Professional photography, a floor plan and a 3D tour shot after prep is complete. Listings with a floor plan draw more showing requests on REcolorado and the portals, which the group covered in why floor plans matter for selling a Colorado home.
- The MLS entry on REcolorado, written to the search filters buyers use (bedrooms, bathrooms, finished basement, garage, lot) and syndicated to Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin and Homes.com within hours.
- A coming-soon period where the MLS allows it, so the first weekend of showings is full.
- Email to the group's buyer database of active Front Range buyers, matched to the home's price band and city.
- Showing management through ShowingTime: the agent confirms every request, collects feedback after each showing and reports it to the seller weekly.
- Open houses the first Saturday and Sunday, staffed by a licensed agent from the group.
The full plan is on the marketing your Colorado home page. The agent also reads the market each week: if showings drop below eight in the first two weekends with no offer, the pricing conversation reopens on day 15, not day 45.
Stage 4: Offers, negotiation and the Colorado deadlines
Every offer arrives on the Colorado Real Estate Commission's Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate (Residential), which carries a dated deadline table. The listing agent's job is to compare offers on more than price, then manage every deadline once one is accepted.
Comparing offers
The agent builds a side-by-side of each offer: price, earnest money, loan type and lender, down payment, appraisal gap language, inspection terms, seller concessions requested, closing date, possession, and any contingency on the buyer's own sale. A $10,000 higher price with a 3 percent concession request and a home-sale contingency nets less than a clean offer at list. The agent presents that net to the seller in writing and drafts the Counterproposal when the seller wants changes.
The deadline table
| Deadline in the Colorado contract | What happens | What the listing agent does |
|---|---|---|
| Title and off-record matters deadlines | Buyer receives the title commitment and HOA or metro district documents | Orders title, delivers HOA documents, resolves liens or open permits |
| Inspection Objection deadline | Buyer submits repair or credit requests, or terminates | Reviews requests against the pre-listing reports, advises which to accept |
| Inspection Resolution deadline | Both sides sign an agreement or the contract terminates | Negotiates repairs versus credit, gets contractor bids, papers the resolution |
| Appraisal deadline | Lender's appraisal is delivered; buyer objects if low | Meets the appraiser with the comps, negotiates the gap if the value comes in short |
| Loan Termination deadline | Last day the buyer walks on financing and keeps earnest money | Confirms loan status with the lender in writing before the date |
| Closing date | Deed and funds exchange at the title company | Reviews the settlement statement line by line before signing |
Every deadline in the table is a date the buyer chooses in the offer and the seller accepts or counters. Missing one has a defined consequence in the contract, which is why the agent tracks them on a shared calendar with the title company and the buyer's agent.
When the appraisal comes in low
A low appraisal in the Denver metro has four resolutions: the buyer covers the gap in cash, the seller reduces to the appraised value, the two split the difference, or the buyer's lender re-reviews the value with new comps. The listing agent supplies the comps for that re-review and models the seller's net under each option before the appraisal deadline passes.
Stage 5: Closing at the title company
Colorado closings are conducted by title companies, not attorneys. The listing agent coordinates the closing date, the walk-through the day before, and the seller's signing, which happens at the title office or by mail-away with a notary when the seller has already moved out of state.
What a Colorado seller pays at closing:
- The owner's title insurance policy for the buyer, which is customarily paid by the seller in Colorado.
- Brokerage compensation as written in the listing contract, plus any buyer-broker compensation agreed in the purchase contract.
- Prorated property taxes. Colorado property taxes are paid in arrears, so the seller credits the buyer for the months owned in the current year.
- HOA transfer and status letter fees and any metro district payoff or proration.
- Colorado documentary fee of one cent per $100 of the sale price, and recording fees.
- Mortgage payoff and the release of the deed of trust through the county Public Trustee.
The agent compares the title company's settlement statement to the net sheet from the listing appointment and explains every line that moved. The home equity and net proceeds guide shows how that net sheet is built, and what is needed to close on a house in Colorado walks through closing day.
How long the five stages take in the Denver metro
Pricing and listing paperwork take one meeting. Prep takes one to three weeks depending on repairs. Marketing runs until an offer is accepted, which on a correctly priced Denver metro home is the first two weekends. The contract period runs 30 to 45 days on a financed purchase and 10 to 14 days on cash. From the listing appointment to funds in the seller's account, a well-run Front Range sale takes 45 to 75 days.
A seller who wants a shorter timeline than that, or has a home that needs work, has other routes; the group covered them in cash home buyers: what they are and when they make sense.
Where to go next
- How the Kenna Real Estate Group helps sellers
- How to sell a house in Colorado, stage by stage
- The Colorado home seller's guide
- The best times to sell a house in Colorado
- Questions to ask before selling your Colorado home
- Meet the Kenna Real Estate Group agents
Talk to the Kenna Real Estate Group
The Kenna Real Estate Group at Keller Williams DTC prices, prepares, markets and closes Front Range homes, and has since 2002. Call or text 303-955-4220. A live person answers. Not a robot, not a phone tree. Buying next? Search every home for sale in Colorado.