In July 2026 the median El Paso County home closed at $460,000 after 52 average days on market, across 1,359 closed sales, per the Pikes Peak REALTOR Services Corp monthly snapshot for the elevateMLS market.
I'm Leah Behr, a REALTOR® with the Behr & Behr Team in Colorado Springs. The actual steps, in order: sign a written buyer agreement, get underwritten by a lender, tour, write on the state's mandatory contract, then work four deadline clusters, title, loan, appraisal and inspection, each with its own termination right. Then you close.
I am not a lender, an attorney, an inspector or an insurance agent, and none of this is advice in those fields. What follows is sourced to the agency or form that publishes it, and weighted toward what is specific to this county.
First, a written buyer agreement, because the rule changed in 2024
You used to be able to spend six Saturdays touring houses with an agent before anyone signed anything. That ended August 17, 2024, when the National Association of REALTORS settlement practice changes took effect. Per NAR's own settlement FAQs, an MLS participant working with a buyer must have a written agreement with that buyer before touring a home. Open houses are the carve-out: NAR's FAQ 77 covers a participant hosting an open house on behalf of the seller only, and an unrepresented buyer walking through does not trigger the requirement.
Two other pieces reach your wallet. Offers of compensation are no longer published on the MLS, and compensation is, in NAR's words, "fully negotiable" and "not set by law." If the seller is not covering it, you either negotiate it into the contract or bring it to closing.
In Colorado the paper is the Commission-approved Exclusive Right-to-Buy Listing Contract, the version now in force effective January 1, 2026 per the Colorado Division of Real Estate's contracts and forms page. Read the term length and holdover provision before signing a long one.
Then the lender, and specifically an underwritten approval
Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the 30-year fixed average at 6.66% and the 15-year at 6.04% for the week ending July 30, 2026. The survey's record low was 2.65% for the week ending January 7, 2021, which is most of the reason the resale market feels stuck.
A prequalification is a conversation. An underwritten preapproval means a human underwriter read your income documents and pulled your credit. That letter is what lets you shorten loan deadlines credibly instead of promising to be fast.
On assistance, the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority is the program I can source directly. Per CHFA's down payment assistance page, its grant runs up to the lesser of $25,000 or 3% of the first mortgage with "no repayment required," and its second mortgage loan up to the lesser of $25,000 or 4%, repayment "deferred until certain events, such as payoff of your first mortgage, or the sale or refinance of the home." CHFA notes that "higher interest rates apply" when you take the second, and does not publish that rate. FirstGeneration borrowers and borrowers living with a permanent disability can reach $25,000 regardless of loan size.
CHFA's borrower requirements page states a mid-credit score of 620 or higher, a minimum borrower contribution of $1,000, and a CHFA-approved homebuyer education class completed "prior to their mortgage loan closing date." CHFA "does not lend money directly to consumers," so you go through a participating lender. Income and purchase price limits are not published on those pages; ask the lender for current El Paso County limits in writing. The consumer line is 888.320.3688.
Touring, and the four local questions that move the number
Price per square foot is not the variable that gets people here. These four are.
- The tax line. El Paso County metro district levies certified for tax year 2025 range from 0.000 to 77.056 mills. Two houses at the same price in two subdivisions carry very different monthly payments. I broke down how the bill is built in what your Colorado Springs property tax bill really says.
- Well and septic. Roughly 30,000 onsite wastewater systems sit in this county, and they change both the inspection list and the closing timeline.
- The insurance quote. Get one during your inspection window, not after.
- Which part of the county. The Powers corridor, the Westside, Fountain, Falcon and Monument are different markets under one county line. How I sort them is in how to pick a Colorado Springs neighborhood.
The offer, on a form neither side wrote
Colorado brokers write residential offers on the Colorado Real Estate Commission's Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate (Residential), form CBS1, which carries a printed mandatory use date of January 1, 2026. Nobody's brokerage drafted it, which is the point: your position is set by the deadlines you fill in, not by clever language.
Earnest money is one of those blanks. No Colorado statute and no line in CBS1 sets an amount. Section 4.3 says only that the money "will be payable to and held by" the earnest money holder "in its trust account, on behalf of both Seller and Buyer." I found no published El Paso County median earnest money figure, so here is what I see rather than data dressed up: around 1% of purchase price is the common local ask, and stronger offers go up from there. One broker's observation, not a statistic.
The deadline table I actually work from
Section 3.1 of CBS1 is a table of dates, each with a consequence, and section 24.1 sets how they are exercised: "If a party has a right to terminate as provided in this Contract (Right to Terminate), the termination is effective upon the other party's receipt of a written notice to terminate." Verbal does not count. A missed date does not extend itself.
Deadline | What it does for you | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
Alternative Earnest Money Deadline | When the money is due if not paid at signing | Wire fraud. Call title at a number you looked up. |
Record Title Deadline | Seller delivers the title commitment | Read the exceptions, not the first page. |
Record Title Objection Deadline | You object in writing to recorded matters | Section 8.2: "any unsatisfactory form or content." |
Off-Record Title Deadline and Objection Deadline | Unrecorded matters, leases, use agreements | Easements in use but not recorded. |
Title Resolution Deadline | The date the title question ends | Unresolved, section 8.7.2 points back to 24.1. |
Due Diligence Documents Delivery Deadline | Seller delivers the section 10.6.1 documents | Where the septic paperwork lands. |
New Loan Application, Terms and Availability Deadlines | Three separate loan checkpoints | Bad terms or availability trigger 24.1. |
Appraisal Deadline, Objection and Resolution | Protects you from paying above appraised value | Section 6.2 runs off the Objection Deadline. |
Inspection Termination Deadline | You walk, no explanation required | The cleanest exit in the contract. |
Inspection Objection and Resolution Deadlines | You ask for repairs and the parties resolve it | Objecting negotiates. Terminating ends it. |
Property Insurance Termination Deadline | You exit if the property is uninsurable at a workable price | Roof age drives the answer here. |
Closing Date | Funding and recording | Confirm figures the day before. |
The two inspection rights are separate and people mix them up. Section 10.3.1 is termination: "On or before the Inspection Termination Deadline, notify Seller in writing... that this Contract is terminated due to any unsatisfactory condition." Section 10.3.2 is objection: "On or before the Inspection Objection Deadline, deliver to Seller a written description of any unsatisfactory condition that Buyer requires Seller to correct." One ends the contract. The other opens a negotiation the seller can decline. If contingency language is new to you, start with what contingent actually means.
The inspections that are specific to this county
Section 10.4 puts the cost on you: the buyer "is responsible for payment for all inspections, tests, surveys" and for any damage caused. So order the right ones.
Radon. EPA's Map of Radon Zones defines Zone 1 as a "predicted average indoor radon screening level greater than 4 pCi/L," which is also EPA's action level: "Fix your home if your radon level is 4 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) or higher." EPA is equally clear that the map "should not be used to determine if individual homes need to be tested." Test the house. Costs and fixes are in radon in Colorado Springs homes.
Soils. Colorado Geological Survey map series MS-32 maps a differential-heave belt through western Colorado Springs, crossed by Gold Camp Road, Garden of the Gods Road, Uintah Street and Centennial Boulevard. The statute requiring a soils report, C.R.S. 6-6.5-101, applies to new construction only: the builder delivers a summary soils report and site recommendations at least 14 days before closing, with a $500 penalty payable to the purchaser. A resale buyer gets nothing automatically, and CBS1 has no soils delivery provision, while the Commission's land contract does. If a house sits in that belt or shows movement, pay a structural engineer.
Septic. Not optional. El Paso County Public Health requires a transfer-of-title inspection before closing, obtained and paid for by the seller, by a NAWT-certified inspector. CBS1 matches it at section 10.6.1.5: "If required by the local health department... Seller must pay for and furnish to Buyer a Septic Use Permit." The resulting Property Sale Acceptance Document is good for 12 months or until closing.
Well. The opposite situation: neither the state nor the county requires a water test on transfer, and El Paso County Public Health's own framing is that the lender decides what testing is required. Their real estate package, covering bacteriological, nitrate and nitrite, is $80. Order it anyway.
Two disclosures worth reading rather than initialing
The Seller's Property Disclosure (Residential), form SPD19, took effect January 1, 2026 per the Division of Real Estate. It runs on the seller's actual knowledge, so a seller who inherited a condition may honestly not know. Treat blanks as questions.
The Square Footage Disclosure, form SF94, effective January 1, 2019, names where a square footage figure came from and says the quiet part out loud: "measurement may not be exact and is for the purpose of marketing ONLY. Measurement is not for loan, valuation or other purposes." Appraisers work to ANSI Z765-2021, under which any level with any portion below grade is reported separately from gross living area. That is how a 3,400 square foot listing appraises off a smaller number.
Insurance, on its own clock
The Colorado Division of Insurance reported on February 11, 2026, from twenty carriers covering roughly 80% of the market, that hail accounts for 26% to 54% of premium by county, while wildfire accounts for 0.9% to 24.6%. Commissioner Michael Conway: "The data is clear: it is hail that is the biggest cost driver of homeowner insurance for families." The estimated 2026 Colorado average premium is $4,164, sixth highest nationally.
Which is why the Property Insurance Termination Deadline is real and not a formality. Get a bindable quote in week one, with the roof's age and material in front of the carrier. I am not an insurance agent, and the underlying pattern is in why hail drives Colorado Springs homeowners insurance.
The address-level homework, and the free tools that do it
Before you write, spend twenty minutes on these. All free.
- Pikes Peak Regional Building Department permit and inspection search, free by address. It shows whether that finished basement was permitted and whether the foundation passed inspection.
- El Paso County Assessor property record search, for the assessed value, the tax districts the parcel sits in, and recorded characteristics.
- El Paso County Treasurer certified mill levy tables, for the levy that applies to those districts.
- Colorado Division of Water Resources well permit search, for the permit type and its use restrictions.
- Colorado Division of Real Estate contracts and forms page, to read CBS1 in full before an agent slides it across a kitchen table.
The order I would actually do this in
Talk to a lender before you talk to me. Get underwritten, not prequalified. Sign a buyer agreement whose term and compensation you have read. Tour with the tax line and the insurance quote in mind from the first house, because those two are where this county surprises people.
When you write, set the inspection deadlines with room for a radon test and, if needed, a structural engineer. Keep the loan and appraisal deadlines honest rather than aggressive. Put every objection and every termination in writing, because section 24.1 recognizes nothing else.
If you are still deciding whether to move here at all, the wider picture is in the honest guide to moving to Colorado Springs. On supply, Pikes Peak REALTOR Services Corp reported 3.3 months of inventory for single family and patio homes in June 2026 and 5.1 months for condos and townhomes. I could not find a published July 2026 months-of-supply figure, so I am not going to invent one.
Leah Behr is a licensed REALTOR® with the Behr & Behr Team in Colorado Springs. She has been selling in El Paso County since 2009, from Fountain and Security-Widefield through Falcon, Black Forest and Monument, and would rather walk a buyer through the deadline table before the offer than explain it after a missed date.
General information only, and not legal, lending, tax, insurance or engineering advice. I am not a lender, an attorney, a home inspector or an insurance agent, and nothing here is a commitment, an approval or a determination about any property. Contract forms, mandatory dates, rates, program terms and county requirements change, so verify with the Colorado Division of Real Estate, a CHFA participating lender, El Paso County Public Health and the professionals named above before relying on any figure. Behr & Behr Team is committed to Equal Housing Opportunity. All information is deemed reliable but should be independently verified.
