Colorado real estate transaction checklist, contract to close

A Colorado residential transaction is not complicated so much as it is dense: forty-odd dated obligations, a dozen documents, five or six parties, and a handful of windows that close permanently. This is the working checklist — the stages, what has to be true at the end of each one, and where deals actually slip.

Stage 1 — Contract execution

The transaction starts when the contract is mutually executed. Everything downstream is measured from that point, so the first job is to pin it down and write it where everyone can see it.

• Confirm the final accepted version — including every counterproposal, in order
• Record the date of mutual execution; every other date is reasoned from it
• Transcribe the whole Dates and Deadlines table into whatever actually reminds you
• Confirm which party holds earnest money, and for what amount
• Get the closing company opened and the file number circulated
• Check the Time of Day Deadline row — it governs when a day ends for this contract

Stage 2 — Earnest money

Earnest money goes to the holder named in the contract, by the deadline the contract sets. The Dates and Deadlines table carries an Alternative Earnest Money Deadline for the case where it is not delivered with the offer itself.

• Deliver to the named holder — usually the title company, sometimes the brokerage
• Get the receipt, and put it in the file
• If the amount or the holder changed in a counterproposal, use the accepted version

The mechanics, including what happens to it on a termination, are in earnest money in Colorado.

Stage 3 — Disclosures

Seller-side paperwork has its own deadlines and they come early. The table has a row for the Seller’s Property Disclosure Deadline, and a separate one for Lead-Based Paint Disclosure that applies to a residence built before 1978.

• Seller’s Property Disclosure delivered by its deadline
• Lead-based paint disclosure and pamphlet where the year built calls for it
• Square footage disclosure and source of water addendum where they apply
• Association documents ordered early if the property is in an association — that deadline has a termination right attached to it

Stage 4 — Inspection

The inspection sequence is where the most transaction-fatal deadlines live, because there are three of them and they do different jobs: an Inspection Objection Deadline, an Inspection Resolution Deadline, and an Inspection Termination Deadline.

How the three interact, and which one is the buyer’s real backstop, is covered in Colorado inspection deadlines.

Stage 5 — Title

Title runs on its own parallel track with its own objection-and-resolution pattern, and the contract splits it in two: what is on the public record, and what is not.

• Title commitment and the documents it references, read rather than filed
• Tax certificate reviewed alongside the record title deadline
• Anything objectionable raised on a Title-Related Objection Notice (TON45) within the objection window
• Survey or improvement location certificate ordered if the deal calls for one — it has its own three deadlines

Stage 6 — Appraisal and loan

The financing track is the one most often outside your control and most often the reason a closing moves. It is also the track where a deadline passing quietly costs the buyer a right.

• Loan application in by the New Loan Application Deadline
• Loan terms and availability tracked to their own deadlines
• Appraisal ordered early enough to leave room for an objection
• If value comes in low, the Appraised Value Objection Notice (AVN44) is the route, and it has a deadline
• Property insurance confirmed — there is a termination deadline tied to it

Stage 7 — Closing preparation

• Closing Instructions (CL8) signed by both sides and the closing company
• Settlement statement reviewed before closing day, not at the table
• Seller’s net and buyer’s funds confirmed, and wire instructions verified by voice
• Payoffs, association transfer figures and prorations requested in time to be accurate
• Utilities, keys, garage remotes, association fobs — the unglamorous list that delays possession

Stage 8 — Final walkthrough and closing

The walkthrough confirms the property is in the condition the contract requires and that agreed repairs happened. Then the signing, the funding, the recording — and note that Closing Date and Possession Date are separate rows in the contract. They are often the same day and they are not the same thing.

• Walkthrough done with the inspection resolution in hand
• Signing complete and funds disbursed
• Deed recorded
• Possession delivered at the agreed date and time
• File closed out: every document in one place, for the years you have to keep it

What moves a deadline after acceptance

Once the contract is executed, a deadline does not change because everyone is being reasonable about it. It changes on an Agreement to Amend/Extend Contract (AE41), signed by both parties. A verbal understanding that the inspection objection will be a couple of days late is not a deadline change — and the agent who treats it as one is the agent explaining it afterwards.

How Nexus runs this checklist for you

This list is what Colorado transaction management in Nexus automates. The dates come off the executed contract into one timeline; the documents file themselves from your inbox to the right stage; the objection notices generate from the deal; and the client sees the same sequence you do, in their own portal. Orbit watches the mail and tells you which stage just moved.