Selling Land or Acreage in Colorado: The Seller's Checklist

Selling land or acreage in Colorado takes six documents a house sale never needs: a current survey or ILC, the well permit and any water rights, a septic transfer inspection where the county requires one, proof of legal access, the agricultural tax classification, and the oil, gas and mineral disclosure. Get those six in a folder before the listing goes live and the parcel sells in one contract instead of three.

This checklist is for Colorado owners selling vacant land, a horse property, a 35-acre parcel or a home on acreage anywhere from Elizabeth to Berthoud and the foothills west of Golden. It covers what each item costs on the Front Range, which county rules apply, and what to grade, clear and fence before photos.

1. Survey or ILC: which one a Colorado land sale needs

An Improvement Location Certificate (ILC) is a surveyor's drawing of where the buildings sit relative to the platted lines. It costs $300 to $600, it is not a survey, and it does not set corners. An Improvement Survey Plat, stamped by a Colorado-licensed professional land surveyor, sets and marks the corners, shows every recorded easement, and is what a land buyer's lender and title company ask for. On 5 to 40 acres it runs $1,500 to $5,000; on rough or unmarked ground, more.

• Sell with a survey when: the parcel is over 2 acres, the fence line and the deed line disagree, the last survey is older than 10 years, or there is a shared driveway.
• An ILC is enough when: the lot is platted in a subdivision and the house sits well inside the setbacks.
• The contract: the Colorado Contract to Buy and Sell has a Survey Deadline. A seller who hands the buyer a current survey on day one closes the survey objection before it opens.

Our guide to the Colorado ILC vs. land survey covers what each document shows.

2. Water: well permits and water rights transfer separately from the land

Colorado runs on prior appropriation. The land does not come with the water; the permit and the rights do, and only if the contract says so. The Colorado Division of Water Resources (the State Engineer's Office) issues every well permit, and the permit type sets what the buyer is allowed to do with the water:

• Household-use-only permit: the standard permit on parcels under 35 acres. Water inside the house only. No lawn, no garden, no horses.
• Domestic permit: in-house use, up to 1 acre of irrigation, and livestock. Standard on 35-acre and larger parcels and on wells permitted before 1972.
• Livestock or irrigation wells, ditch shares and augmentation plans: separate rights that convey by deed and must be listed in the Water Rights section of the contract.

Before listing, pull the permit from the Division of Water Resources' online well database, order a well yield test and a water quality test (bacteria and nitrates, $300 to $600 together), and file nothing until closing; the buyer files the Change in Ownership form with the state after the deed records. A horse property buyer walks from a parcel with a household-use-only well, so state the permit type in the listing. The Colorado horse property buying guide lists what those buyers verify.

3. The 35-acre rule

Colorado's 1972 subdivision law exempts parcels of 35 acres or more from county subdivision review, which is why so much Front Range acreage comes in 35-acre pieces and why splitting a 40-acre parcel into two 20s means a county subdivision process. Sellers pricing land per acre price a 35-acre parcel with a domestic well above a 34-acre parcel with a household-use-only well, every time.

4. Septic: which counties require an inspection at transfer

Colorado's Regulation 43 sets the statewide rules for onsite wastewater treatment systems, and the counties enforce them at sale. Jefferson County requires a Use Permit through Jefferson County Public Health before a property with a septic system changes hands. Douglas County, Boulder County (the SepticSmart program), Larimer County and El Paso County each require a transfer-of-title inspection by a county-certified inspector. Elbert and Weld counties follow their own health department rules; check before listing.

The inspection runs $400 to $800, plus $350 to $600 to pump the tank first. A failed system costs $15,000 to $40,000 to replace on the Front Range, and the county will not issue the permit until it is fixed, so order the inspection 60 days before listing. Our post on selling a horse property in Colorado covers the same timing for barns and arenas.

5. Access: prove the road is legal

A parcel with no recorded access is landlocked and unfinanceable. Before listing, pull the recorded easement or confirm frontage on a county-maintained road. On a shared private road, most lenders ask for a recorded road maintenance agreement; if none exists, drafting one with the neighbors before listing costs $500 to $1,500 in attorney time and removes the buyer's largest objection. Note the winter reality too: a county road plowed within 24 hours and a private road plowed by whoever has a blade are two different listings.

6. Agricultural status: keep it or lose it

Colorado assesses agricultural land on its earning value, not its market value, so 40 acres with a grazing lease carries a tax bill that is a fraction of the same 40 acres classified as vacant residential land, which is assessed at roughly four times the residential rate. The county assessor grants ag status after the land has been used as a farm or ranch for the prior two years with intent to profit. A buyer keeps it by keeping the use: a written grazing or hay lease with a neighbor is the standard way. Hand the buyer the current lease and the assessor's classification letter, and the tax bill stays where it is.

7. Mineral rights and the oil and gas disclosure

Much of the land along the northern Front Range, and in Weld, Adams, Arapahoe and Elbert counties, was sold decades ago with the minerals reserved. Colorado law (Colorado Revised Statutes 38-35.7-108) requires every contract to carry the Oil, Gas, Water and Mineral Disclosure stating that the surface estate and the mineral estate are separate and that a mineral owner has the right to enter. The Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission maps every well and permit online. Pull the title commitment before listing, read the mineral reservation, and state plainly in the listing whether minerals convey.

8. Fences: Colorado is a fence-out state

Under Colorado's fence law, the owner who wants livestock kept off the land builds the fence. A buyer of unfenced acreage next to a grazing lease inherits the neighbor's cattle until a lawful fence goes up. A four-strand barbed wire or smooth wire fence runs $3 to $6 per linear foot installed on the Front Range; a mile of it is $16,000 to $32,000. Show the buyer what is fenced, what is not, and whether the existing fence sits on the surveyed line.

9. Grading, drainage and clearing before photos

Land sells on drainage first. Buyers judge a parcel by where the water goes in a June thunderstorm and by whether the building site is dry. Water pooling against a barn, a driveway with a washout, or a low spot that holds runoff reads as a foundation problem waiting to happen. Grade so the site sheds water away from every structure at 6 inches of fall in the first 10 feet.

• Grading equipment: for a building pad, a driveway or a washed-out drainage swale, contractors run a skid steer grader and finish with a compacted road base. Front Range pricing runs $1,500 to $5,000 per day with an operator.
• Get it right: Forbes reports that misgrading can result in costly repairs and water damage, and on Colorado's expansive clay a slope toward a foundation shows up as a heaved slab in one wet spring.
• Clear the junk: dead trees, old vehicles, fence wire and a collapsed shed cost $1,500 to $6,000 to haul and cost far more in offer price. Mow to 4 inches and mark the corners with flagged stakes.
• Presentation: a maintained yard signals to buyers that the property has been cared for. Agents outside Colorado see the same pattern; the leading estate & letting agents Peckham in London report that outdoor presentation decides buyer confidence before the front door opens. On acreage, the driveway and the first 100 feet do the same job.

Whether a barn or shop adds value depends on the buyer pool; see whether a big shop adds value to Colorado acreage before you build one to sell.

What each item costs a Colorado land seller

Pricing, financing and how long Colorado land takes to sell

Land is priced per acre against closed sales of similar water, access and zoning, not against houses. Financing sets the buyer pool: land loans from Colorado banks and farm credit lenders ask for 20% to 35% down, so most raw-land buyers are cash or seller-financed, and a home on acreage with a domestic well qualifies for a conventional or VA loan. Vacant parcels on the Front Range take 6 to 12 months to sell; a horse property with a house, a barn and a domestic well sells in the same 30 to 60 days as a suburban home. Our guide for Colorado landowners selling vacant property and the post on selling Colorado land for cash cover the buyer types. The pricing your Colorado home to sell page explains how we run the comparable-sales report on acreage.

What a Colorado land seller must disclose

The Colorado Real Estate Commission publishes a Seller's Property Disclosure for land. It asks about the well and its permit, the septic system, easements, encroachments, flood zones, soil reports, mineral leases, ag leases and any known environmental issue. Fill it in from the folder above, attach the survey, permit, inspection reports and leases, and the buyer's inspection period turns into a confirmation instead of a discovery.

Where to go next

• Colorado horse properties for sale
• Colorado horse property buying guide
• How to sell a house in Colorado
• Colorado ILC vs. land survey
• Meet the Kenna Real Estate Group agents
• Search every home and property for sale in Colorado

Talk to the Kenna Real Estate Group

The Kenna Real Estate Group at Keller Williams DTC has sold Front Range acreage, horse properties and 35-acre parcels since 2002. We pull the well permit, the mineral reservation and the county septic rule before we price, and we market land to the buyers who finance it. Call or text 303-955-4220. A live person answers. Not a robot, not a phone tree. To see what competing parcels list for, search every home for sale in Colorado.