Who Fixes What: Colorado Agent Duties Before Closing

A Colorado real estate agent is never responsible for making home improvements or repairs; the seller owns the house, the seller's disclosure and every repair on it until closing. What the agent is responsible for is set by Colorado license law and the Colorado Real Estate Commission: advising the seller on what to fix, disclosing every adverse material fact the broker knows, presenting every offer, negotiating the Inspection Resolution, and keeping the contract deadlines.

What Colorado law makes a listing broker responsible for

Colorado's brokerage relationship statute (C.R.S. 12-10-401 and following) recognizes two ways a broker works with a seller: as a seller's agent, with fiduciary duties, or as a transaction-broker, who assists without advocating. Both carry the same uniform duties, which the Colorado Real Estate Commission enforces through DORA's Division of Real Estate:

• Reasonable skill and care, including advising the seller on price, terms and preparing the home for market.
• Presenting every offer and counteroffer, in writing, on time.
• Disclosing to the buyer every adverse material fact the broker actually knows about the property, including known defects, environmental hazards and title problems. The broker is not required to inspect the home or to verify what the seller says.
• Accounting for every dollar of earnest money and client funds.
• Keeping the seller's confidences, except for facts about the property that the law requires disclosed.
• Keeping the contract deadlines in the Colorado Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate, which is a Commission-approved form whose printed language no broker is allowed to change.

Nothing in that list says "repair the furnace" or "mow the lawn." A broker does not hire, pay or supervise contractors on the seller's house; the seller does. And the Commission's own form instructions say the seller completes the Seller's Property Disclosure, not the broker. The line is: the broker advises and negotiates; the seller decides and pays. The how the Kenna Real Estate Group works with you page lays out the brokerage relationship forms you sign at the first meeting.

Who fills out the Seller's Property Disclosure

The seller does, alone. Colorado's Seller's Property Disclosure (SPD) is a Commission form that asks the seller, item by item, about the roof, structure, soils and drainage, water, sewer, electrical, HVAC, radon, mold, unpermitted work and known environmental conditions. The listing broker delivers the blank form, explains the sections, and delivers the completed form to every buyer with the due diligence documents. The broker does not complete it, does not tell the seller how to answer, and does not "clean up" an answer. A seller who is not sure about an item answers "do not know," which is a legal answer; leaving it blank is not.

Two Colorado disclosures sit alongside the SPD. Since 2023 sellers give buyers a radon warning statement and any radon test results and mitigation records they hold. And Colorado law (C.R.S. 38-45-101) requires a working carbon monoxide alarm within 15 feet of each bedroom before the sale of any home with a fuel-fired appliance, fireplace or attached garage. The broker checks both are done; the seller does both.

What the broker never has to disclose: under C.R.S. 38-35.5-101 a death on the property or a prior occupant's health condition is not a material fact.

Who pays for repairs after the inspection objection

Under the Colorado contract, the buyer inspects, then delivers an Inspection Objection by the Inspection Objection Deadline listing the items they want repaired or credited. The seller and buyer have until the Inspection Resolution Deadline (3 to 5 days later in most Denver metro contracts) to sign an Inspection Resolution; if they do not, the contract terminates and the buyer keeps the earnest money. Nothing in the form obligates the seller to repair anything. The negotiation follows a pattern on the Front Range:

The broker's job here is the negotiation, not the wrench. The Kenna Real Estate Group prices every objection item with a licensed contractor's number before the seller responds, so a $900 flue repair does not get credited at the buyer's $3,000 guess. The buyer's side of the same negotiation is in making an offer on a Colorado home.

Licensed contractors and permits: the Colorado rules

When a Colorado seller agrees to a repair in the Inspection Resolution, the buyer's agent writes "by a licensed contractor, with receipts delivered to buyer before closing." Here is what licensed means in Colorado:

• Electricians and plumbers are licensed statewide by DORA's State Electrical Board and State Plumbing Board. Ask for the license number on the invoice.
• General, roofing and mechanical contractors are licensed by each city or county: Denver Community Planning and Development, Aurora, Lakewood, Jefferson County, Arapahoe County, Douglas County and the rest each keep their own list. A contractor licensed in Denver is not automatically licensed in Aurora.
• Permits are required in Denver and nearly every Front Range jurisdiction for a furnace or AC replacement, water heater, electrical panel, roof, deck, egress window, basement finish, and any structural work. Permit history is public online, and buyers' agents pull it. Work done without a permit is a "known unpermitted work" answer on the SPD for every future sale.
• Handyman work (paint, caulk, hardware, doors, trim, screens) needs no license and no permit anywhere in Colorado.

Buyers say no to owner-performed electrical, plumbing and gas work and yes to owner-performed paint and carpentry. The Denver zoning, ADU and historic district guide covers the permits that surprise sellers most: additions, ADUs and anything in a historic district.

Lawn, curb appeal, pests and staging: whose job

The lawn and the exterior are the seller's. The broker's job is to say, in writing at the listing appointment, which exterior items return their cost on the Front Range: a mowed and edged lawn, mulched beds, a power-washed driveway and walk, a painted front door, working exterior lights and a garage door that opens without a shudder. Garage door companies publish the same list; one Omaha company's guide to improving curb appeal reads the same as a Denver one, with the Colorado addition of xeriscape beds that survive August without a sprinkler and a roof with no lifted shingles after spring hail. The Denver curb appeal tips post has the Front Range version.

Pests are the seller's to resolve before listing, and the broker's to flag. Colorado has almost no termites; the Front Range list is mice (every fall, every house near open space), ants, wasps in eaves, bed bugs in vacant and rental homes, birds and squirrels in attic vents, and pack rats in the foothills. A vacant or foreclosed home in Aurora or Commerce City gets a pest inspection before photos. The common types of pests that invade homes guide covers what a buyer's inspector looks for beyond termites. Evidence of rodents in the furnace closet or the attic goes on the SPD if the seller knows it, and a treated, sealed, documented problem sells; a live one does not.

Staging is arranged by the brokerage and paid by the seller: $1,500 to $4,000 for a vacant Denver metro home for 60 days. Marketing your Colorado home to sell lists what the group provides on every listing.

Foreclosures, HUD homes and as-is sales

An as-is sale in Colorado changes who repairs, not who discloses. The seller still completes the SPD (or, for a bank or HUD, delivers the "no knowledge" version), the broker still discloses known adverse facts, and the buyer still gets the inspection period and the right to terminate. What changes is the Inspection Resolution: the answer to every repair request is no, and the buyer's tools are a price reduction or termination.

Colorado foreclosures run through each county's Public Trustee, and the bank that takes the home back sells it through a listing broker with no disclosure knowledge and no repairs. HUD homes are sold as-is with a HUD-assigned inspection report the buyer reads before bidding; the buyer's broker cannot get HUD to fix anything, and the FHA 203(k) loan is how buyers finance the repairs. Foreclosures in Colorado covers the timeline and the bidding.

Can a seller be sued after closing in Colorado?

Yes. A Colorado seller who knew about a defect, did not disclose it on the SPD, and sold the home is exposed to a nondisclosure claim after closing, and the listing broker who knew the same fact and stayed silent is exposed under the license law's adverse-material-fact duty. The defense to both is the same document: a complete SPD with the defect listed, the repair invoice attached, and the buyer's signature acknowledging receipt.

Does the agent make more when the seller does more work?

No. A Colorado listing broker is paid the commission negotiated in the listing contract, a percentage of the price or a flat fee, and commissions are not set by any board or law. A seller who spends $15,000 on pre-listing work and sells for $10,000 more has spent $5,000 badly, and the broker's job is to say so. The preparing and adding value before selling page ranks the improvements that return their cost, with Denver metro prices.

What the Kenna Real Estate Group does for a seller

1. Walks the house before the listing appointment and hands the seller a written list: fix, disclose, leave alone, with a Denver metro cost next to each fix.
2. Prices it with the Smart Pricing Report from sold comparables, as the house stands, then again with the fixes done, so the seller sees what each dollar returns. See pricing your Colorado home to sell.
3. Hands over the vendor list: licensed electricians, plumbers, roofers, HVAC, sewer scope, radon, pest, stagers and cleaners who work on the Front Range and answer the phone. The seller hires and pays them directly.
4. Delivers the SPD, the radon statement and the CO alarm requirement in week one, with the sections explained.
5. Runs the Inspection Resolution with a contractor's number on every line and holds the closing date.

The full sequence from the listing appointment to the closing table is in how to sell a house in Colorado.

Where to go next

• How the Kenna Real Estate Group works with you: the brokerage relationship, in plain terms.
• Preparing and adding value before selling: the pre-list fixes ranked by return.
• The Colorado home seller's guide: every form and deadline in order.
• Top questions to ask about selling your Colorado home: the listing-appointment checklist.
• Client reviews of the Kenna Real Estate Group: what sellers say happened.
• Kenna Real Estate Group agents: the people who walk the house with you.

Talk to the Kenna Real Estate Group

The Kenna Real Estate Group at Keller Williams DTC tells sellers which repairs to make, which to disclose and which to leave, prices the home both ways, and negotiates the inspection so the seller pays for what is real and nothing else. Call or text 303-955-4220. A live person answers. Not a robot, not a phone tree. Buyers and sellers alike can search every home for sale in Colorado and see what the competition has fixed.