Question 1

How does Colorado assess commercial property over a long hold?

Accepted Answer

At the non-residential rate, which was 27% for tax year 2025, with most non-residential categories moving to 25% to 26% for 2026. That covers commercial buildings, vacant land, and business personal property, and it is several times the residential rates of 7.05% against school mills and 6.25% against local government mills in 2025. The bill is actual value times assessment rate times mill levy. Real property is revalued every odd-numbered year, so on a ten-year hold you will see five resets, each one a live variable in the NOI a permanent lender sized the loan against. Underwrite the tax line at reassessed value rather than at the seller's current bill, and treat the protest calendar as part of asset management.

Question 2

When do I protest a Colorado commercial valuation?

Accepted Answer

By June 8. CRS 39-5-122(2) requires a real property protest to be postmarked, delivered, or given in person by that date, and the assessor answers by the last regular working day in June, or by August 15 in counties that have elected the alternate procedure under CRS 39-5-122.7. Notices of valuation go out by May 1 in a revaluation year, which gives you about five weeks to build the case. On a permanent loan the tax line is fixed, non-discretionary, and locally set for the whole term, so this deadline is one of the few levers you actually control. The steps past the assessor, at the county board of equalization and beyond, have their own deadlines that are worth confirming with property tax counsel rather than assuming.

Question 3

Does Colorado charge a transfer tax on a commercial purchase?

Accepted Answer

No. CRS 39-13-102 charges a documentary fee of one cent for each $100 of consideration when a deed records, which on a $10,000,000 acquisition is $1,000 (10,000,000 divided by 100 = 100,000, times $0.01 = $1,000). There is no state real estate transfer tax beyond that fee, and TABOR bars new state or local transfer taxes, though a handful of home-rule mountain towns keep pre-1992 grandfathered ones and none of those sit in the Denver or Colorado Springs metros. Recording is flat at $43 per document since July 1, 2025 under HB24-1269, page count irrelevant, which on an agency document set is a genuine saving. Against a state charging even a fraction of a point on a large transfer, that is tens of thousands of dollars Colorado does not take.

Question 4

Can I shop title and closing costs on a Colorado permanent loan?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and here you actually can. Colorado title insurance rates are filed with the Division of Insurance by each underwriter rather than promulgated by the state, so premiums vary by company and the filed rate manuals are public. That is the opposite of a promulgated-rate state, where the premium is identical everywhere and only service is negotiable. Closing runs through a title company escrow desk, not an attorney. On a large placement it is worth collecting more than one quote and weighing it against whether the company can handle your entity structure and an agency lender's document set. Who customarily pays the owner's policy is a matter of local custom rather than statute, so negotiate it rather than assuming it.

Question 5

How does Colorado insurance affect a stabilized asset's NOI?

Accepted Answer

It is the expense line moving fastest in the state. Colorado premium growth since 2020 runs about 100.8%, the largest increase of any state, and the driver on the Front Range is hail rather than wildfire. A Division of Insurance analysis published in February 2026 attributes 26% to 54% of homeowners premium to hail depending on county, against 0.9% to 24.6% for wildfire and about 1% in Denver, and hail concentration is a regional fact rather than a residential-only one. The state FAIR Plan created by HB23-1288 exists as a last resort, but it writes actual cash value only and caps commercial coverage at $2,000,000, which is not a plan for a real commercial asset. Underwrite renewals upward rather than flat, and get the roof and hail deductible terms in writing.

Question 6

Which Colorado commercial market am I actually placing debt in?

Accepted Answer

A different one in each metro, and the state page will not tell you which. Statute is uniform statewide: public trustee foreclosure, the documentary fee, the non-residential assessment rate, the June 8 protest date. Market depth is not. Denver holds the institutional commercial market and the deepest lender appetite, Colorado Springs is smaller and more locally financed, and Fort Collins is smaller again. For those conditions go to Denver or Colorado Springs. If the asset is not stabilized yet, Colorado commercial bridge is the step before this one.

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