Contracts – These usually involve the purchase and sale of land, a lot or an unsubdivided parcel, or land with a home already constructed. The Colorado Real Estate Commission provides an incredibly detailed form contract that all licensed brokers use and is also available to the public. In most cases I would advise using this as it includes all of the numerous warnings, cautions and other such legislative overkill required by the State. It works but is verbose and confusing to one who has not dealt with it previously. The good news is that it is inexpensive to use compared to a custom contract as it is available immediately for one to fill in the blanks.
Subdivisions – Legally a “subdivision” is simply a piece of land that has been divided into more than one legal lot. A parcel of unsubdivided land is described by its surveyed perimeter. That is, a surveyor starts at one point and works around the perimeter using something like a compass to determine the bearings (direction) and measures the distance between the points the surveyor establishes. For the simplest four sided lot there will be four points (the corners), and four lines connecting them described by their bearings and length. A long time ago a subdivision was created by a surveyor recording a map in the county records. No longer. As of 1971 any subdivision in Colorado that created lots smaller than 35 acres was required to go through a formal planning and approval process with the county or municipality where it was located. I have long been involved in the planning process on behalf of clients wishing to create subdivisions. The process requires a surveyor and, in just about all cases, an engineer and maybe a water lawyer as well; it is not inexpensive and, in a best case, will take about six months but most take longer.
Foreclosures – Colorado has two different types: Public Trustee (PT) and Judicial. For a typical loan secured by a Deed of Trust, a variation of the mortgages used in most states, the Public Trustee foreclosure process has two tracks: the Public Trustee, who is always the county treasurer, actually conducts the foreclosure, while the District Court must approve the process before the foreclosure sale and then approve the sale after it was conducted. The borrower may cure the deficiency prior to the sale and if there any persons who have liens that are subordinate to the Deed of Trust being foreclosed, they may redeem after the sale during a specified time. In either case the foreclosing party will receive 100% of what is owed including any expenses and fees that resulted from the foreclosure process. Cures and redemptions are unlikely but far from impossible. A judicial foreclosure is completely different. A case is filed in District Court and, if all goes well, the judge will eventually enter a Judgment and Decree authorizing the property to be sold. The process then goes to the county sheriff who conducts a sale of the property much as the Public Trustee does in a PT foreclosure.
Ron Stern Law 