File Updated October 5, 2026 First documented August 26, 2026

Colorado Closing Cost Calculator

Colorado’s documentary fee is one cent per $100 of price, recording is $43 per document, and Aspen and Breckenridge add a buyer transfer tax. A small documentary fee can sit beside a much larger municipal transfer tax. Confirm the property’s city, taxable consideration and document count to estimate the charges assigned to your side.

Documentary fee: one cent per $100 or major fraction

C.R.S. 39-13-102 in Title 39 sets the documentary fee and exempts consideration of $500 or less. Above that threshold, the calculation rounds consideration to $100 units and charges one cent per unit. Thus $300,049 produces $30.00, while $300,051 produces $30.01.

Enter confirmed consideration from the deed or declaration. The statutory definition includes liens, encumbrances and required transaction charges; cash paid alone may not be the correct amount. Residential deeds with missing or insufficient stated consideration use the declaration rule. Multi-county property requires an allocation that this ordinary single-county worksheet does not perform.

The General Assembly’s statutes directory provides the source volumes. The documentary fee is collected by the recorder, and the seller percentage here is your confirmed contract allocation.

Aspen: two buyer-paid municipal components

Aspen’s finance guidance assigns its transfer taxes to the buyer. For an ordinary nonexempt transaction, this model applies 0.5% to the full municipal consideration and 1% to the amount above $100,000. At $500,000, that is $2,500 plus $4,000, or $6,500.

The municipal amount remains on the buyer’s side even when the seller pays all of the documentary fee. Aspen’s affordable-housing deed restrictions and other exemptions require confirmation; use quoted municipal amounts when an exemption applies. An Aspen mailing address alone does not confirm that the parcel is inside the taxing boundary.

Breckenridge: 1% buyer transfer tax

The Town of Breckenridge charges the buyer 1% of gross consideration on an ordinary nonexempt transfer. A $500,000 municipal value produces $5,000. Confirm town limits and consideration separately from the documentary-fee base.

Exempt transfers require the town’s exemption process. Choosing a zero amount in a budgeting worksheet does not obtain an exemption. For other municipalities, enter the locally confirmed amounts for buyer and seller; a statewide documentary-fee estimate cannot establish that a municipality charges nothing.

Standard recording is $43 per instrument

Grand County and Teller County publish the standard $43 charge effective July 1, 2025. It includes the surcharge and does not increase with the page count of a standard instrument. One instrument is $43; two are $86.

Count only the instruments allocated to your selected side. The deed and a separately recorded deed of trust are separate instruments. Copies, UCC filings, exempt documents and special services need a recording quote. An entered quote replaces the entire recording estimate, including when the quote is zero.

Example: what belongs in the buyer’s cash budget?

For a hypothetical ordinary $500,000 Aspen purchase with the seller paying the $50 documentary fee, the buyer’s municipal tax is $6,500. One standard instrument charged to that buyer adds $43, producing a $6,543 subtotal before title, financing, prepaids and other entered costs. A $100,000 down payment and $10,000 deposit would make the corresponding cash-to-close subtotal $96,543 before those additional charges.

The seller’s worksheet does not subtract the buyer’s $6,500 municipal amount. Add the seller’s own recording, title, commission, credits and payoff to determine proceeds. Contract arrangements that differ from the modeled municipal allocation should use a full transfer-charge quote for the selected side.

Last reviewed 2026-10-05. Worksheet methodology.

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