Selling As-Is in Colorado: The Checklist Before You Decide

Selling a Colorado home as-is means one thing: you will not make repairs, and the price reflects that. It does not remove the Seller's Property Disclosure, the federal lead paint form, the Colorado radon disclosure, or the buyer's right to inspect and terminate under the Colorado Contract to Buy and Sell. Run the checklist below before you decide. The trade-offs and the net-price math are in Selling Your Colorado Home As-Is: Pros, Cons and Net Price; this post is the list you work through first.

What as-is means in a Colorado contract

The Colorado Real Estate Commission's Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate has no as-is checkbox. Sellers write "Property is sold as-is; Seller will make no repairs" in the additional provisions, or the listing states it and the buyer's offer repeats it. That sentence sets the repair position. Every other clause in the contract still runs: the inspection deadlines, the appraisal deadline, the loan deadlines, the title and survey review, and the association documents deadline.

Two facts follow from that. First, an as-is buyer in Colorado still gets an inspection and still terminates with the earnest money if the inspection findings are worse than the price already reflects. Second, the seller still owes the buyer every known adverse material fact about the property. As-is changes who pays for repairs. It does not change what you tell the buyer.

1. Fill out the Seller's Property Disclosure the same way

The Seller's Property Disclosure is a Colorado Real Estate Commission form. You complete it from your actual knowledge, section by section: structure, roof, water, sewer, electrical, mechanical, environmental, HOA. Selling as-is does not shorten it. A seller who checks "no" on a roof leak they patched last spring has a problem after closing, as-is or not. Answer what you know, and attach the receipts, reports and permits that back up the answer.

Write the defects you know about into the listing remarks as well. A buyer who reads "roof has 2023 hail damage, sold as-is, priced accordingly" before showing up writes an offer that already accounts for it. A buyer who finds it on inspection day writes a lower one, or walks.

2. The three disclosures with their own forms

• Lead-based paint (federal, homes built before 1978). The seller signs the Lead-Based Paint Disclosure, hands over the EPA pamphlet, and gives the buyer a 10-day window to test. Most of Baker, Berkeley, Platt Park, Sunnyside, Englewood, Wheat Ridge and Golden falls under this rule.
• Radon (Colorado, since August 2023). Colorado sellers give buyers a radon warning statement and disclose any radon test results, records and mitigation system they know of, along with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment radon brochure. The Front Range sits in the highest EPA radon zone, so a buyer who sees no test on file orders one during inspection. A 48-hour test costs $150 to $250; a mitigation system runs $1,200 to $2,500. Details are in the Denver radon testing and mitigation guide.
• Methamphetamine. Colorado sellers disclose known meth contamination unless the property was remediated to state standards and certified. This one is a yes-or-no on the disclosure form, and a wrong answer follows you after closing.

3. Know the buyer's three inspection deadlines

The Colorado contract sets an Inspection Objection Deadline, an Inspection Resolution Deadline and an Inspection Termination Deadline. On an as-is sale the buyer still uses them. What changes is the seller's answer: the Kenna Real Estate Group tells the buyer's agent at offer time that the seller's response to any objection will be no repairs and no credits, and that the price already reflects the condition. Buyers who accept that in writing before the objection deadline close. Buyers who object anyway are asking to renegotiate, and the seller answers by the resolution deadline with a no.

The one negotiating lever an as-is seller keeps is the closing credit. A $5,000 credit that saves a $600,000 sale is a better outcome than a termination and 30 more days on market. Decide your floor for that credit before the inspection happens, not during it. The full timeline is in the how to sell a house in Colorado guide.

4. Run the three deal-killers before you decide

Three systems terminate more Denver metro contracts than everything else combined. Check each one before you choose as-is, because each one also decides which buyers are able to buy your home at all.

A seller who knows the answers to these three before listing prices with facts instead of guesses. The fixes that return more than they cost are ranked on the preparing and adding value before selling page, and the buyer-side view of the same list is in the inspection red flags that kill Denver home sales.

5. Know which loans your home's condition blocks

An FHA or VA appraiser applies minimum property standards. Peeling paint on a pre-1978 home, a roof with under two years of remaining life, exposed wiring, a non-working furnace, a missing handrail, or a water heater without a pressure relief line each produce a required repair before the loan funds. On an as-is sale the seller has said no to repairs, so an FHA or VA buyer walks or the seller fixes it anyway. Conventional appraisals are less strict, and cash has no appraiser at all.

That is why an as-is home with a bad roof or an old panel sells to a smaller pool: cash and conventional buyers. Sellers who want FHA and VA buyers back in the pool fix the items on the appraiser's list and nothing else. For a read on which loan programs a specific home qualifies for, Mike Oswald, VP of Mortgage Lending at Rate, NMLS 261003, Equal Housing Lender, answers that question for the Kenna Real Estate Group's sellers and buyers. You are free to use any lender. The programs are explained on the Colorado home financing guide.

6. Water, sewer and septic: what Colorado sellers state

The Colorado contract includes a source-of-water statement, and the Seller's Property Disclosure asks whether the home is on public water or a well and on public sewer or a septic system. Well homes in Douglas, Elbert and Weld counties come with a permit on file with the Colorado Division of Water Resources; find it before listing. Septic homes in several Front Range counties, Jefferson County among them, require a county inspection and use permit before transfer. Confirm your county health department's rule before you set a closing date, because the inspection takes a licensed inspector and a few weeks.

7. HOA documents on an as-is sale

If the home sits in a common interest community, the contract's association documents deadline still applies. The seller orders the declarations, bylaws, rules, current budget, reserve study, and the status letter from the management company, and pays the transfer and status-letter fees the association charges. The buyer reads them and terminates by the deadline if something in them is unacceptable. Special assessments for roofs and siding are the item that surprises sellers most; read the last two years of board minutes before you list. Fees and rules are covered in the Denver HOA rules and fees guide.

8. Foundation movement and expansive soil

Bentonite clay under much of the Front Range swells when wet and shrinks when dry. Stair-step cracks in brick, doors that stick in spring and open in August, and a heaved basement slab are the signs. A structural engineer's letter costs $400 to $800 and tells the buyer whether the movement is cosmetic or active. Pier and helical-pile repairs run $15,000 to $40,000 and up. Sellers who obtain the engineer's letter before listing sell an as-is home with a known problem; sellers who skip it sell a mystery, and buyers price mysteries at the worst case.

9. Get a pre-listing inspection and price from it

A general inspection on a Front Range home costs $400 to $700 and takes three to four hours. On an as-is sale it does three jobs: it fills in the disclosure with facts, it lets you post the report in the listing so buyers stop guessing, and it gives you the repair list to price against. The Kenna Real Estate Group prices as-is homes with a Smart Pricing Report that starts from repaired comparable sales and subtracts contractor bids plus a discount for the buyer's hassle. Order that report on the pricing your Colorado home to sell page.

10. Pick the buyer pool on purpose

• Listed on the MLS as-is. The largest pool, the highest price, 30 to 45 days to close with a financed buyer. Best when the home is dated but the roof, panel and sewer pass.
• Listed and marketed to investors. Cash, 10 to 21 days to close, offers land at a discount to repaired value that covers the buyer's rehab and profit. Best when the three deal-killers all fail.
• Direct cash offer without listing. Fastest, and the lowest number. Get two offers and compare them against a listed as-is estimate before you sign. The math is in cash home buyers in Denver: when selling for cash makes sense.

When as-is is the right call in Colorado

As-is fits four situations: an estate sale where the heirs live out of state, a divorce sale under a court deadline, an underwater or short-sale file where the lender approves the price and no one has repair money, and a rental with a tenant in place. In each one the calendar matters more than the last 3 to 5 percent of price. Estate sellers start with selling an estate home in Colorado; underwater sellers start with the Colorado short sales guide.

As-is is the wrong call when the only problems are paint, carpet and a 1990s kitchen. Those homes sell to regular buyers at full price after a $3,000 to $8,000 clean-up, and an as-is label on them costs more than it saves.

Where to go next

• Selling your Colorado home as-is: pros, cons and net price
• How the Kenna Real Estate Group helps sellers
• How to sell a house in Colorado, step by step
• Colorado distressed homes guide
• The as-is sales process in Denver
• Meet the Kenna Real Estate Group agents

Talk to the Kenna Real Estate Group

The Kenna Real Estate Group, Keller Williams DTC, runs this checklist with Front Range sellers before the listing goes live: the disclosure forms, the three deal-killer systems, the loan programs the home qualifies for, and a Smart Pricing Report with the as-is number and the repaired number side by side. 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.