Revolutionizing · Modernizing · SimplifyingRevolutionizing · Modernizing · SimplifyingIn Colorado a seller’s closing costs are the documentary fee, title and settlement charges, recording, prorated property taxes, any HOA transfer charge, the payoff on your mortgage, and your agent’s fee.
Two of those are knowable before you list. The state documentary fee is one cent per $100 of the sale price - $57.00 on a home at the Colorado median of $570,000 - and our own fee is published. The others are quoted by the title company and your lender, and anyone giving you a percentage for them is guessing.
| The charge | Who sets it | Can it be known in advance? |
|---|---|---|
| State documentary fee | Colorado statute - one cent per $100 of the price, paid to the county clerk and recorder | Yes, exactly. $57.00 at the state median sale price. |
| Local real estate transfer tax | Twelve Colorado towns only; the rate is set by the town | Yes, if your home is in one of them. Everywhere else it is zero. |
| Title insurance and the settlement fee | The title company you use | Quoted. It is the biggest of the third-party items, so get the quote early. |
| Recording fees | The county clerk and recorder | Quoted, and small. |
| Property taxes | Your county. Colorado bills in arrears, so a seller credits the buyer for the part of the year they owned the home | Calculated at closing from your own tax bill. |
| HOA transfer and status charges | Your HOA or its management company, if you have one | Quoted by the HOA. This one surprises people. |
| Loan payoff | Your lender | Quoted, and it is usually the largest number on the page. |
| Our fee | Us, and it is published | Yes. $595 flat plus the option you pick. |
Colorado has no state real estate transfer tax and no county one. What it has is a documentary fee of one cent per $100 of the price - 0.01%, or $57.00 on a $570,000 sale - which is charged whenever the price is over $500 and is paid to the county clerk and recorder.
Twelve municipalities are the exception, and they are all mountain towns: Aspen, Avon, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Frisco, Gypsum, Minturn, Ophir, Snowmass Village, Telluride, Vail, Winter Park. Each sets its own rate and its own rules, and the revenue generally goes to local housing and open space. They are allowed to charge it because they already did before TABOR passed, which is also why no new town can start. If your home is not in one of those twelve, this line is zero for you.
Every other page you will read on this subject gives you a range - two to five per cent of the sale price, something like that. We are not going to, because the two items that actually decide a Colorado seller’s bottom line are the title premium and the loan payoff, and both are quoted rather than averaged. A range that spans $11,400 to $28,500 on a median home is not an answer, it is a shrug with a number in it.
What we will do instead is get you a net sheet: your title quote, your payoff, your taxes and our fee, on one page, before you commit to anything.
For a seller they are the state documentary fee, title and settlement charges, recording, your prorated share of the year’s property taxes, any HOA transfer charge, your loan payoff, and your agent’s fee. Only two of those can be stated exactly in advance: the documentary fee, which is one cent per $100 of the price, and whatever your agent charges. The rest are quoted, not averaged.
The state does not. Twelve municipalities do - Aspen, Avon, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Frisco, Gypsum, Minturn, Ophir, Snowmass Village, Telluride, Vail, Winter Park - at rates that differ by town. They were in place before TABOR, which is why they exist and why the list does not grow. Everywhere else in Colorado there is no transfer tax at all.
A state fee of one cent for every $100 of the sale price - 0.01% - payable to the county clerk and recorder, and charged only when the price is over $500. On a home at the current Colorado median of $570,000 that is $57.00. It is the smallest line on the page and the only one that is exactly the same everywhere in the state.
Because the honest answer is that it depends on numbers we do not set. Title premiums, lender charges and your loan payoff are the items that actually move a seller’s bottom line, and they are quoted by the title company and your lender. A "2% to 5% of the sale price" range would be easy to write and would tell you nothing about your sale. Ask us and we will get you the real figures on a net sheet.
Tell us the address and roughly what you owe, and we will come back with what you would actually walk away with - the real quotes, not a range.
Get your numbersEvery figure on this page is recalculated from the live MLS feed at the moment the page loads - it is not a monthly snapshot. Sales figures cover residential sales only, over the last twelve complete calendar months; rentals, land and commercial are excluded, as are fractional co-ownership shares, which are priced per share and would distort every median. Market data is deemed reliable but not guaranteed - talk to us before making a decision on it.
The documentary fee rate and the list of towns with a local transfer tax were checked against Colorado statute on 6 September 2026. Third-party charges are described rather than priced because we do not set them and will not guess at them. The median sale price used in the examples is live.