In brief
Colorado is a Commission-promulgated-forms state: licensees are required to write on the Colorado Real Estate Commission’s forms, and the residential contract is the CBS1, whose Section 3 “Dates, Deadlines and Applicability” table drives every clock in the deal. As of mid-2026 the in-force version is the CBS1 designated V2, mandatory since January 1, 2026. There is no attorney-review period and no statutory cooling-off window here, so the buyer’s outs are the negotiated dates in that table: the Inspection Objection, Inspection Resolution, and above all the Inspection Termination Deadline, plus loan, appraisal, and title. Colorado is not an attorney-close state; title companies customarily close under written closing instructions, and no attorney is required. The state’s point disclosures (special taxing district and source of potable water) ride inside the CBS1, and the broker owes a written brokerage-relationship disclosure. On top of all of it sit the two federal uniforms: the TRID three-business-day Closing Disclosure rule and the lead-based paint disclosure for pre-1978 homes. Confirm every date against the current CBS1 and the current statute, because both are revised.
Agents who cross into Colorado from an attorney-review state, or from one with a statutory right to cancel, come looking for the same lever they used at home, and it is not here. No lawyer reviews the contract for a window after signing, and no statute hands the buyer a few days to change their mind on a standard resale. The whole game is the CBS1 and the grid of dates in Section 3, and the clock that does the work of an attorney-review escape is the Inspection Termination Deadline.
So this page is organized around the form: the clocks the CBS1 sets first, since the inspection deadlines account for most of a Colorado file, then what Colorado law adds and what it does not, then how the form counts its days.
The CBS1 is where Colorado keeps its clocks
One state, one mandatory contract. Unlike states where two or three trade-association forms compete, Colorado licensees are required to use the Colorado Real Estate Commission’s promulgated forms. The core residential contract is the CBS1, “Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate (Residential),” a roughly twenty-page form whose Section 3 “Dates, Deadlines and Applicability” table is a single grid of fill-in dates that governs every deadline in the transaction. Companion Commission forms fill out the deal around it: Closing Instructions (CL8), the Extension or Termination of Contract (ET35), and the Seller’s Property Disclosure (Residential), the last being Commission-approved but not statutorily required.
The 2026 form is V2, and it is already in force. As of mid-2026 the mandatory CBS1 is the version designated V2, adopted August 5, 2025 and required for use on or after January 1, 2026. It has replaced the CBS1 (6-24) that Colorado ran on in 2024 and 2025, so a current deal should be written on V2. Confirm the operative version and its exact printed footer code with the Colorado Real Estate Commission before you count anything: the Commission re-promulgates its forms roughly annually, so the row labels and the footer code can shift, and a further revision for use January 1, 2027 is plausible.
No attorney review, no cooling-off, no statutory disclosure clock. The absences matter as much as the mechanics. Colorado gives the buyer no attorney-review period, no statutory rescission or cooling-off window on a standard resale, and no disclosure-triggered termination right of the kind Virginia, North Carolina, or Maine build in. It gives the buyer the CBS1 table instead, which makes those fill-in dates load-bearing in a way that surprises agents used to a statutory safety net under the contract.
| Clock | Where it comes from | What starts it | Hedged length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earnest money | CBS1 Dates and Deadlines table | Per the blank; commonly measured from acceptance | Per the contract; V2 revised earnest-money default-timing language |
| Inspection Objection | CBS1 Dates and Deadlines table | Per the blank; measured from acceptance | A negotiated date; the last day to object to inspection items |
| Inspection Resolution | CBS1 Dates and Deadlines table | Per the blank | A negotiated date; the last day for the parties to resolve objections |
| Inspection Termination | CBS1 Dates and Deadlines table | Per the blank | A negotiated date; the buyer's unilateral inspection-based out |
| Loan (financing) | CBS1 Dates and Deadlines table | Per the blank | A negotiated date set by the loan-contingency rows |
| Appraisal | CBS1 Dates and Deadlines table | Per the blank | A negotiated date; V2 added options for a low or late-delivered appraisal |
| Record title / title objection | CBS1 Dates and Deadlines table | Per the blank | A negotiated date to review and object to title |
| Association (HOA) documents | CBS1 Dates and Deadlines table | Buyer's actual receipt of the documents (V2) | A negotiated review window; V2 measures delivery by actual receipt |
| Closing Date | CBS1 Dates and Deadlines table (final row) | Per the blank | The negotiated close; whether it is a hard stop depends on the contract |
| Settlement disbursement | Written closing instructions / escrow | Closing | Escrow-driven per the contract and closing instructions, not a statutory clock |
| Closing Disclosure | Federal TRID rule | Issued before closing | Must reach the borrower at least 3 business days before closing |
Nearly every Colorado clock above is a CBS1 fill-in field, not a statutory day-count, so the actual date depends on what the parties wrote in the blank and on the current form revision. The two federal rules (TRID Closing Disclosure timing and the lead-based paint disclosure for pre-1978 homes) apply nationwide. Verify the CBS1 row labels and dates against the current V2 form published by the Colorado Real Estate Commission.
The clocks the CBS1 sets
Every deadline in this section is a contract term entered in the Section 3 table, so treat the descriptions below as the shape of each clock rather than a fixed number of days on your deal.
The inspection path is the state’s signature mechanism. Where other states lean on an attorney review or a statutory cooling-off period, Colorado resolves the buyer’s due-diligence leverage through three separate inspection deadlines on the CBS1, and they do three different jobs, so telling them apart matters to reading the contract correctly.
The termination date is the one that gets lost. An agent who treats the Inspection Objection Deadline as “the inspection deadline” can let the Inspection Termination Deadline pass while a negotiation drags on, and with it the clean, unilateral exit. Objecting is not the same as preserving the right to walk. The shape of this contingency, in state-neutral terms, is covered in the home inspection contingency guide.
In Colorado the buyer’s leverage isn’t an attorney’s sign-off or a cooling-off period. It’s a date in the CBS1 table, and it expires.
Earnest money. The deposit is due per the CBS1 blank, commonly measured from acceptance. The V2 revision reworked earnest-money default-timing language, so the date and the consequences of a late deposit depend on the version in use and the blanks that were filled. For the mechanics of the deposit itself, see the earnest money guide.
Loan and appraisal. These carry their own rows, generally separate: a loan-related deadline and an appraisal deadline. V2 added options for handling a low or late-delivered appraisal, and the day-counts remain contract-fill fields rather than statute. A buyer still working the lender past a loan deadline may hold a different contract than they assume, which is why the date in the table matters more than the lender’s informal timeline. The general version lives in financing and appraisal contingencies.
Title, association documents, and the Closing Date. The table sets dates to review and object to record title and a window to review the association (HOA) documents, where V2 measures the delivery obligation by the buyer’s actual receipt rather than transmission, so read that trigger off the current form. The final row is the target close; whether it is a hard stop depends on the contract’s language. What happens after closing, when the money moves, is not set by the CBS1 or a Colorado disbursement statute; it is escrow-driven, and that is the settlement section below.
What Colorado law adds, and what it doesn’t
The statute book does less scheduling in Colorado than in disclosure-act states, and the things it does are worth pinning down so you don’t import a clock that isn’t there.
The disclosure duty, without a disclosure clock
Colorado does not mandate a standalone seller condition form. As of mid-2026, Colorado imposes no statutory requirement for a separate seller condition-disclosure form, and it attaches no rescission window to any disclosure. The seller’s statutory duty is limited to disclosing adverse material facts within their current actual knowledge (see C.R.S. Title 38, Article 35.7 on disclosures in residential conveyances). The Commission’s Seller’s Property Disclosure (Residential) is the customary vehicle for that, and it is Commission-approved, but it is not statutorily required. Verify the current statute before relying on any provision, since Article 35.7 can be amended.
Don’t import a three-day disclosure right. There is no Colorado equivalent of the post-disclosure termination window some states give the buyer. Nothing starts a buyer’s cancellation clock when a disclosure is delivered; the buyer’s outs remain the CBS1 deadlines, which is why the inspection path above does the work a disclosure-termination right does elsewhere.
The point disclosures the CBS1 carries, and the broker’s duty
Two statutory “point” disclosures live inside the contract. Colorado folds a pair of statutory disclosures into the CBS1 itself rather than into a separate deadline: the Special Taxing District disclosure (C.R.S. § 38-35.7-101) and the Source of Potable Water disclosure (C.R.S. § 38-35.7-104). Because they ride inside the form, they are handled as part of the contract rather than as an independent clock, but they are statutory in origin, so spot-check the section numbers against the current statute, which is amended from time to time.
The broker owes a written relationship disclosure. Under the Brokerage Relationships part of Title 12, Article 10, the broker must give a written brokerage-relationship disclosure. Cite that duty to C.R.S. § 12-10-408 (broker disclosures); § 12-10-407 only defines the “transaction-broker” role rather than creating the disclosure obligation. Title 12 was recodified from the former Article 61 in 2019, so verify the numbering against the current code.
The close: a title company, not an attorney
Colorado is not an attorney-close state. No attorney is required at closing. Residential closings are customarily conducted by a title company acting as the settlement agent, under written closing instructions, though a broker, an independent closing agent, or an attorney may also close (see the Division of Insurance’s written closing instructions regime and the Commission’s Closing Instructions form CL8). Agents arriving from an attorney-close state should not assume a lawyer runs the table here. And Colorado has no well-documented statutory disbursement-timing rule of the wet-settlement kind some states impose: when the money moves, and when the deed records, is governed by the contract and the written closing instructions the parties sign, so treat the timing as escrow-driven and confirm it with the settlement agent rather than counting from a statute. The general mechanics are in title and escrow explained.
Two federal rules that sit on top of the Colorado form
Federal law layers two fixed requirements onto any Colorado transaction, and unlike everything else on this page they hold without a state-specific qualifier. On most residential mortgages, the borrower must have the Closing Disclosure in hand at least three business days before closing, under the federal TRID rule. And on any dwelling built before 1978, the seller must give the federal lead-based paint disclosure. Those are the only two statements here that need no hedge; each of the others does. The V2 form adds its own handling for a lead-based paint waiver and termination, but that is a Colorado form detail to read off the current CBS1, not part of the federal requirement. The mechanics of the three-business-day count get their own treatment in the Closing Disclosure 3-day rule guide.
Counting conventions: read them off the form
The CBS1 defines its own day, its own cutoff, and its own extensions. Because nearly every Colorado clock is a contract clock, how you count them is set by the form, not by a statute. V2 tightened the “Time of Day” language that fixes when a deadline expires and clarified how deadlines landing on a weekend or holiday extend. Those rules matter most around year-end and Monday-holiday closings, where a deadline can move a day and change which party is in default. Read the definitions and the applicable-day rules off the current V2.
The practical rule. Count the CBS1’s way, from the trigger the CBS1 names, using the version in front of you. When two dates govern the same event, such as an objection date and a termination date on the same inspection, they can land on different days, and the later one can control the outcome even when attention stays on the earlier date. A deadline calculator built for the form’s counting conventions is cheap insurance against being a day off.
What a clean Colorado file looks like
Put it together and a clean Colorado file is a well-read CBS1: it tracks the full Section 3 table, keeps the three inspection deadlines distinct, starts the association-document clock on actual receipt, and treats the close as escrow-driven. The file that misses in Colorado is usually the one that collapsed the inspection path into “the inspection deadline” and never watched the termination date, or counted a deadline off the wrong CBS1 version. For the state-neutral mechanics a Colorado file inherits, the deadlines that decide a deal covers the shape.
This is the part Ratifyly was built for. Colorado runs on a purpose-built rule pack that works from the document itself instead of a fixed template. Send the file over the way you’d hand it to a coordinator, and it works through every page, pulling out the parties, the price, and each date together with the convention that date counts by, then assembles the transaction and its timeline straight from what the paperwork says rather than from anything keyed in by hand. Let an amendment or an ET35 arrive and it reads the file again and re-flows the schedule, so the association-document window opens on actual receipt and the inspection termination date lands where the CBS1 sets it instead of where a memory put it.
Every call still goes past a person before it counts. No Colorado deadline, whether an Inspection Termination Deadline or a title objection date, ships on the software’s say-so alone; a compliance audit raises the finding and a human decides it. One shared live timeline is what every party looks at, and a deadline escalates ahead of the day it falls. For a brokerage carrying Colorado files, that turns a claim that the inspection clocks are being tracked into something you can put on the table. Ratifyly is in honest early access, and you can trace the whole route a forwarded email travels on the how-it-works page, then check where things stand in Colorado in particular.
This guide is meant as general background, not as legal advice for any particular deal. Colorado re-promulgates its Commission forms roughly annually: the CBS1 designated V2 is mandatory for use on or after January 1, 2026 and has replaced the CBS1 (6-24), and a further revision for use January 1, 2027 is plausible, so confirm the operative version and its printed footer code with the Colorado Real Estate Commission. Substantive V2 changes worth flagging include a buyer assignment now disabled unless enabled in Additional Provisions, clearer “Time of Day” cutoffs and weekend and holiday deadline-extension rules, revised earnest-money default-timing language, an HOA document-delivery obligation measured by the buyer’s actual receipt, an “As-Is” conveyance provision that preserves rather than waives the buyer’s inspection objection, resolution, and termination rights, revised lead-based paint waiver and termination handling, and appraisal options for a low or late-delivered appraisal. Colorado statutes such as C.R.S. Title 38, Article 35.7 and Title 12, Article 10 are amended over time, and inspection, loan, and appraisal day-counts are contract-fill fields rather than statute. Always verify a specific deadline against the governing CBS1 and the current controlling statute, and consult a licensed Colorado attorney or broker for advice on a particular transaction. Of everything here, only two requirements carry no state-specific hedge: the federal TRID Closing Disclosure timing rule and the federal lead-based paint disclosure for pre-1978 housing.
Questions Colorado agents ask
Does Colorado give the buyer a cooling-off period to cancel a home purchase?
No. On a standard residential resale, Colorado does not give the buyer a statutory rescission or “cooling-off” window to walk away after signing. The buyer's ability to renegotiate or terminate lives entirely in the contract itself: the negotiated dates in the CBS1 “Dates, Deadlines and Applicability” table, and above all the Inspection Termination Deadline, the loan and appraisal deadlines, and the title objection deadline. If a figure like a “five-day right to cancel” reaches you from a blog, treat it with suspicion for a standard resale; it likely describes a different context, such as a timeshare, and it conflicts with how the CBS1 is built. Confirm the operative CBS1 version and its deadline rows with the Colorado Real Estate Commission.
What's the difference between the Inspection Objection and Inspection Termination deadlines?
They are two different clocks with two different jobs, and the CBS1 sets both as fill-in dates. The Inspection Objection Deadline is the last day the buyer can deliver a written objection to items found in inspection, which opens a negotiation. The Inspection Resolution Deadline is the last day for the parties to agree on how those items get resolved. The Inspection Termination Deadline is the buyer's unilateral escape hatch: on or before that date, the buyer can terminate based on inspection without needing the seller to agree to anything. An out-of-state agent who treats the objection date as the real deadline can watch the termination date slide past and lose the clean exit. Read the row labels on the current CBS1 (V2) rather than relying on memory, since the Commission re-promulgates its forms roughly annually.
Does Colorado require an attorney to close?
No. Colorado is not an attorney-close state, and no attorney is required at closing. Residential closings are customarily conducted by a title company acting as the settlement agent, under written closing instructions, though a broker, an independent closing agent, or an attorney may also close. Escrow and disbursement timing is driven by the contract and those written closing instructions rather than by a well-documented statutory disbursement clock, so treat the timing as escrow-driven and confirm it with the settlement agent for your file. This is general information, not legal advice.
Is the Seller's Property Disclosure required in Colorado?
Not by statute. The Colorado Real Estate Commission publishes a Seller's Property Disclosure (Residential) form that is widely used and Commission-approved, but it is customary rather than a standalone statutory requirement, and Colorado imposes no disclosure-triggered rescission window. As of mid-2026 the seller's statutory duty is limited: a seller must disclose adverse material facts within their current actual knowledge. There is no VA, NC or Maine-style right for the buyer to terminate a set number of days after receiving a disclosure. Verify the current statute and the current form before relying on either.
Which CBS1 version applies to a mid-2026 Colorado deal?
As of mid-2026 the operative residential contract is the Commission-promulgated CBS1 designated V2, adopted August 5, 2025 and mandatory for use on or after January 1, 2026. It has replaced the prior CBS1 (6-24) form used in 2024 and 2025, so a licensee should be writing on V2. Because Colorado re-promulgates its Commission forms roughly annually, confirm the operative version and its exact printed footer code with the Colorado Real Estate Commission before you count anything from it, since a further revision for use January 1, 2027 is plausible.
Are the inspection, loan, and appraisal deadlines set by statute in Colorado?
No. Those are contract-fill fields, not statutory day-counts. The CBS1 “Dates, Deadlines and Applicability” table is a grid of blanks the parties negotiate and enter per deal: inspection objection, inspection resolution, inspection termination, loan, appraisal, title, association documents, and closing. So describe the mechanism, not a fixed number of days: the shape of each clock is set by the form, but the actual date on any given deal is whatever the parties wrote in the blank. A single blank left empty or a date mis-entered can move the whole transaction, which is why the table deserves a second read.