The Colorado public trustee sale, from notice to deed
How a Colorado public trustee sells a foreclosed home: the court order, the lender's bid posted two business days ahead, the weekly auction and the days after it.
Blog · Investing
2 days ahead
A Colorado lender's opening bid must reach the public trustee by noon on the second business day before the sale, and the public trustee makes it public.
Key takeaways
- Colorado foreclosures under a deed of trust are run by the county's public trustee, a county officer, not by a trustee firm the lender appoints, and a court order under Rule 120 must authorize every sale.
- The sale is first set 110 to 125 days after the notice of election and demand is recorded. The combined notice is mailed 45 to 60 days before it and published once a week for five weeks.
- The lender's opening bid is due by noon two business days before the sale, and the public trustee must make it public, so the opening price is known in advance. The lender can still amend it, and on an online sale it can set a higher maximum.
- Each public trustee sells weekly on its own day, most on Wednesdays or Thursdays at 10 a.m. A winning bid is due the same day, in cash, by wire or by certified, cashier's or teller's check.
- The buyer gets a certificate of purchase, not a deed. Junior lienors have eight business days to file an intent to redeem; if none does, title vests at the close of the eighth and the confirmation deed follows 10 to 15 business days later.
In most deed-of-trust states the trustee who sells a foreclosed home is a firm the lender appoints. Colorado gives the job to a public officer: the public trustee of the county where the property is. On October 12, 2026, the next sale day, our records hold 1 Colorado sales set for that one day, and 1,392 upcoming in all, across 41 counties. The rules for those sales are in article 38 of title 38 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. This article sets them out in the order a sale meets them, with each rule quoted from the statute.
Who runs the sale: the county public trustee
A Colorado foreclosure under a deed of trust is run by the public trustee of the county where the property is, a county officer, rather than by a trustee firm the lender appoints.
A foreclosure starts when the lender, or the lawyer acting for it, files a notice of election and demand with that officer: "the holder or the attorney for the holder shall file the following with the public trustee of the county where the property is located" [1], together with the original promissory note. The public trustee reviews the filing and records the notice within ten business days [2], and the recording date starts the clock for everything that follows.
The office is part of county government. Since July 1, 2020, the county treasurer has been the public trustee in every county the statute classes as second or third class [3]. In other states a lender can appoint a substitute trustee of its choosing, and what a trustee actually does explains that role. In Colorado the lender's attorney still prepares the filings and is named on the notice, but the sale belongs to the county. That is why a Colorado notice names a county office as its trustee where other states name a firm.
The court order and the notices
Before a Colorado public trustee can sell, a court must authorize the sale under Rule 120, and the public trustee must mail the combined notice twice and publish it for five weeks.
The court order. A public trustee's sale is not a court sale, but it needs a court's permission. The lender "shall obtain an order authorizing sale from a court of competent jurisdiction to issue the same pursuant to rule 120 or other rule of the Colorado rules of civil procedure" [4], and "a sale held without an order authorizing sale issued in compliance with this paragraph (a) shall be invalid" [5]. For a home, notice of the court hearing has to be posted on the property at least fourteen days before it [6]. If a copy of the order has not reached the public trustee by noon two business days before the sale, the sale is postponed [7].
The combined notice. The public trustee mails a combined notice to the people on the lender's mailing list within twenty days of recording [8], and mails it again no more than 60 and no fewer than 45 days before the first sale date [9]. The same notice is published "for four weeks, which means publication once each week for five consecutive weeks" [10]. Those printings are where most people first see a Colorado sale, and they are one of the two places our records come from.
The sale date. The first sale date falls "no less than one hundred ten calendar days nor more than one hundred twenty-five calendar days after the date of recording of the notice of election and demand" [11]. Agricultural property waits longer, 215 to 230 days [12].
The 110 days are only the state's part. For most home loans a federal rule bars the first foreclosure notice or filing until the loan is more than 120 days delinquent [13], so on a typical home loan the earliest Colorado sale falls around eight months after the first missed payment. Colorado trustee sale laws keeps these rules beside the notice lead our records observe, and trustee sale laws by state compares them with every other state's.
Cures, continuances and cancellations
A Colorado sale can be cured until noon the day before it, and continued a week at a time for up to twelve months from its first date, so the week's list changes up to the last day.
Cure. The borrower, and others the statute names, can stop the sale by catching up on the default. They must file "no later than fifteen calendar days prior to the date of sale, a written notice of intent to cure" [14], and then pay: "No later than 12 noon on the day before the sale, the person desiring to cure the default shall pay to the officer all sums that are due and owing" [15]. A sale on Wednesday's list can disappear on Tuesday afternoon.
Continuances. The public trustee continues a sale at the lender's request or for good cause, and a sale that is neither held nor formally moved "shall be deemed to have been continued for a period of one week, and from week to week thereafter in like manner" [16]. The limit is twelve months: "No sale shall be continued to a date later than twelve months from the originally designated date in the combined notice" [17]. Missed deadlines move sales too. A lender's bid that arrives late puts the sale back a week [18], and a court order that has not arrived postpones it. Trustee sale postponements sets Colorado's limit beside every other state's.
The lender's bid, public before the sale
The lender must deliver its opening bid to the public trustee by noon on the second business day before the sale, and the public trustee must make it available to the public, so a Colorado bidder can know the opening price before the auction.
Few rules matter more to a bidder. The lender, or its attorney, "shall submit a bid setting forth the holder's initial bid for the property that is received by the officer no later than 12 noon on the second business day prior to the date of sale" [19], and once it arrives, "the officer shall make such information available to the general public" [20]. For a Wednesday sale, that is noon on Monday. The bid is the price a third party has to beat, and most are credit bids, made with the debt rather than cash.
Two things can change it. The lender may amend the bid in writing until noon the day before the sale, or at the sale itself: "no later than 12 noon the day prior to the sale, or orally at the time of sale if the person amending the bid is physically present at the sale" [21]. And on an online sale the posted figure may not be the lender's ceiling, because "if the sale will be conducted electronically, the holder may also include a maximum bid for the property" [22], which the auction system bids up to as third parties bid against it.
How low the lender may bid. The lender does not have to bid the whole debt. It "shall bid at least the holder's good faith estimate of the fair market value of the property being sold" [23], less unpaid property taxes, liens senior to its own and the costs of holding and selling the property, and it never has to bid more than it is owed. So a bid below the total owed is, by the statute's own terms, the lender's estimate of what the property is worth net of those costs, and the shortfall is a deficiency it can pursue.
Public trustees release the bids in different ways, several on a page of their websites. Ask the office how and when it posts them, and check again the day before the sale.
How the sale runs
Each public trustee holds its sales weekly, on a day and at a time it sets, at the courthouse, at its office or online, under written bidding rules of its own.
The combined notice names the place: a courthouse, or the building where the clerk and recorder or the public trustee has its office, "except that a sale may be conducted by means of the internet or other electronic medium" [24]. For an online sale, the notice must say that "the bidding rules for the sale will be posted on the internet or other electronic medium used to conduct the sale at least two weeks before the date of sale" [25]. Read them before you register. Each public trustee "may establish written policies relating to all aspects of the foreclosure sale" [26], so registration, deposits, bid increments and payment deadlines differ by county.
No statute fixes the weekday, so the calendar is each county's. Of the upcoming Colorado sales in our records, 77% fall on a Wednesday and 22% on a Thursday, and 87% of those with a stated time open at 10 a.m. El Paso, Adams, Boulder, Douglas and Mesa counties sell on Wednesdays; Denver and Jefferson sell on Thursdays, Jefferson at 2 p.m. A county can change its day, so take the day and time from the notice for the sale you want. Texas works the other way, holding a whole month of sales on one Tuesday: How Texas foreclosure auctions work.
Paying for what you win
A winning third-party bid is due by the time of the sale, or later that day if the public trustee sets a time in writing, in cash, by electronic transfer to the public trustee's account, or by certified, cashier's or teller's check.
The statute leaves little room: "the payment of any bid amount at sale must be received by the officer no later than the date and time of the sale, or at an alternative time after the sale and on the day of the sale, as specified in writing by the officer" [27]. The money must be "in the form of cash, electronic transfer to an account of the public trustee", or a certified, cashier's or teller's check from a qualifying bank, savings and loan or credit union [28]. There is no financing contingency, and no second day.
Miss the deadline and the property goes to the bidder behind you: "the next highest bidder who has timely tendered the full amount of the bid under this subsection (7) is deemed the successful bidder at the sale" [29]. The cashier's check calculator works out which checks to bring so you can pay any winning bid up to your maximum.
What you buy is the foreclosed lien's place in line, not a clean title. Title vests "free and clear of all liens and encumbrances junior to the lien foreclosed" [30], which leaves liens senior to it, and unpaid property taxes, with the property. That is why the lender's bid nets them out, and why yours should. How to buy at a trustee sale covers the title checks to run before you bid.
After the sale: a certificate, eight business days, then a deed
A Colorado buyer gets a certificate of purchase, not a deed. If no junior lienor files to redeem within eight business days, title vests at the close of the eighth, and the confirmation deed follows 10 to 15 business days later.
The certificate. "No later than five business days after the sale, the officer shall execute and record in each county where the property or a portion thereof is located a certificate of purchase" [31]. It names the buyer and the price, and it can be sold on before title vests: every certificate of purchase "shall be assignable by indorsement thereon or by separate assignment" [32].
Redemption, by lienors only. The statute gives the right to redeem after the sale to lienors: "A lienor or assignee of a lien is entitled to redeem if the following requirements are met to the satisfaction of the officer" [33]. The former owner is not among them; the owner's chance to keep the property is the cure, before the sale. A junior lienor, such as the lender on a second mortgage, has to file its intent "within eight business days after the sale" [34]. The most senior of them then redeems "no sooner than fifteen business days nor later than nineteen business days after a sale" [35], and "each subsequent lienor entitled to redeem shall, in succession, have an additional period of five business days to redeem" [36]. A redeeming lienor pays the sale price with interest from the sale, so a buyer who is redeemed out gets money back, not the property.
Title and the deed. With no lienor in line, title vests "upon the close of the officer's business day eight business days after the sale" [37], and "no earlier than ten business days nor later than fifteen business days after both the title vests and the officer has received all statutory fees and costs, the officer shall execute and record a confirmation deed" [38].
| After a Colorado sale | When | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate of purchase recorded | Within 5 business days | § 38-38-401(1) [31] |
| Junior lienors file any intent to redeem | Within 8 business days | § 38-38-302(1)(d) [34] |
| Title vests, if no lienor filed | Close of business day 8 | § 38-38-501(1) [37] |
| The most senior lienor redeems | Business days 15 to 19 | § 38-38-302(4)(a)(I) [35] |
| Each later lienor redeems | 5 more business days each, in turn | § 38-38-302(4)(b)(I) [36] |
| Confirmation deed recorded | 10 to 15 business days after title vests and the fees are paid | § 38-38-501(1) [38] |
A sale the lender won can still be undone. When the holder of the debt is the successful bidder, it may rescind the sale without a court order by filing "no later than eight business days after the date of the sale" [39], which is one reason a property the lender bought back can return to the list.
The overbid
Whatever a third party bids above the lender's bid is the overbid: it first covers any deficiency in the lender's bid, waits out the redemption periods, then pays junior lienors who filed to redeem, and the borrower gets what is left.
"An overbid shall be first applied to any deficiency as indicated in the holder's bid, and then paid to the officer to be held in escrow until the end of all redemption periods" [40]. It then goes to junior lienors who filed an intent to redeem, in order of priority, and "any remaining overbid shall be paid to the borrower" [41]. Where the lender bid its whole debt, the first step takes nothing, and the overbid passes to the lienors and the borrower.
Colorado protects the borrower's share from finders: "An agreement to pay compensation to recover or assist in recovering an amount due to the borrower from the public trustee under subsection (2) of this section is not enforceable" [42]. Overbids of $25 or more that nobody claims go to the state treasurer two years after the sale [43]. What happens after a trustee sale sets out how surplus proceeds are handled in other states.
Finding the week's sales
Each Colorado public trustee posts its own sales, so a statewide list means checking every county that has them.
Colorado has 64 counties, each with its own public trustee, foreclosure search and sale day. We hold 1,392 upcoming Colorado trustee sales in 41 counties, read from the published combined notices and the public trustees' own foreclosure records; how this data is collected lists the sources. The busiest counties carry most of them: El Paso County trustee sales, Denver County trustee sales, Adams County trustee sales, Boulder County trustee sales and Jefferson County trustee sales. Colorado trustee sales lists every Colorado county we cover.
A routine that fits the weekly calendar:
- Pull the list six to eight weeks out. The combined notice is mailed and starts running 45 to 60 days before the first sale date, so a sale is public well before its week.
- Research while the notice runs. Check title for liens senior to the deed of trust and for unpaid property taxes. How to read a notice of trustee's sale shows what to take from each notice, and the notice decoder does it for a pasted one.
- Read the lender's bid two business days out, and check it again the day before. The lender can still amend it at the sale.
- Read the county's bidding rules, posted two weeks ahead for an online sale, and register.
- Pay on the day, then wait out the eight business days before you treat the property as yours, and longer if a lienor files to redeem.
This article explains how Colorado public trustee sales work under article 38 of title 38 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. It is not legal advice. A Colorado real-estate attorney can tell you what applies to a particular sale.
Sources
43 primary- [1]C.R.S. § 38-38-101(1) — Colorado General Assembly“the holder or the attorney for the holder shall file the following with the public trustee of the county where the property is located”
- [2]C.R.S. § 38-38-102(1) — Colorado General Assembly“No later than ten business days following the receipt of the notice of election and demand, the public trustee shall review the documents”
- [3]C.R.S. § 38-37-102(2)(a) — Colorado General Assembly“On and after July 1, 2020, the county treasurer shall be the public trustee in each of the counties of the second and third class.”
- [4]C.R.S. § 38-38-105(2)(a) — Colorado General Assembly“shall obtain an order authorizing sale from a court of competent jurisdiction to issue the same pursuant to rule 120 or other rule of the Colorado rules of civil procedure”
- [5]C.R.S. § 38-38-105(2)(a) — Colorado General Assembly“A sale held without an order authorizing sale issued in compliance with this paragraph (a) shall be invalid.”
- [6]C.R.S. § 38-38-105(3)(a) — Colorado General Assembly“Not less than fourteen days before the date set for the hearing pursuant to rule 120 or other rule of the Colorado rules of civil procedure, the holder or the attorney for the holder seeking an order authorizing sale under this section for a residential property shall cause a notice of hearing”
- [7]C.R.S. § 38-38-105(2)(b) — Colorado General Assembly“The public trustee shall postpone the sale, unless the holder or the attorney for the holder causes a copy of the order to be provided to the public trustee no later than 12 noon on the second business day prior to the date of sale.”
- [8]C.R.S. § 38-38-103(1)(a) — Colorado General Assembly“No more than twenty calendar days after the recording of the notice of election and demand, the public trustee shall mail a combined notice”
- [9]C.R.S. § 38-38-103(1)(b) — Colorado General Assembly“No more than sixty calendar days nor less than forty-five calendar days prior to the first scheduled date of sale, the public trustee shall mail a combined notice”
- [10]C.R.S. § 38-38-103(5)(a) — Colorado General Assembly“for four weeks, which means publication once each week for five consecutive weeks”
- [11]C.R.S. § 38-38-108(1)(a) — Colorado General Assembly“no less than one hundred ten calendar days nor more than one hundred twenty-five calendar days after the date of recording of the notice of election and demand”
- [12]C.R.S. § 38-38-108(1)(c) — Colorado General Assembly“no less than two hundred fifteen calendar days nor more than two hundred thirty calendar days after the date of recording of the notice of election and demand”
- [13]12 CFR § 1024.41(f)(1) — Consumer Financial Protection Bureau“A servicer shall not make the first notice or filing required by applicable law for any judicial or non-judicial foreclosure process unless: (i) A borrower's mortgage loan obligation is more than 120 days delinquent”
- [14]C.R.S. § 38-38-104(1) — Colorado General Assembly“no later than fifteen calendar days prior to the date of sale, a written notice of intent to cure”
- [15]C.R.S. § 38-38-104(2)(b) — Colorado General Assembly“No later than 12 noon on the day before the sale, the person desiring to cure the default shall pay to the officer all sums that are due and owing”
- [16]C.R.S. § 38-38-109(1)(a) — Colorado General Assembly“shall be deemed to have been continued for a period of one week, and from week to week thereafter in like manner”
- [17]C.R.S. § 38-38-109(1)(a) — Colorado General Assembly“No sale shall be continued to a date later than twelve months from the originally designated date in the combined notice”
- [18]C.R.S. § 38-38-106(1)(b) — Colorado General Assembly“If the bid is not received by the officer by the deadline, the officer shall continue the sale for one week”
- [19]C.R.S. § 38-38-106(1)(a) — Colorado General Assembly“a bid setting forth the holder's initial bid for the property that is received by the officer no later than 12 noon on the second business day prior to the date of sale”
- [20]C.R.S. § 38-38-106(3) — Colorado General Assembly“the officer shall make such information available to the general public”
- [21]C.R.S. § 38-38-106(5) — Colorado General Assembly“no later than 12 noon the day prior to the sale, or orally at the time of sale if the person amending the bid is physically present at the sale”
- [22]C.R.S. § 38-38-106(1)(a) — Colorado General Assembly“if the sale will be conducted electronically, the holder may also include a maximum bid for the property”
- [23]C.R.S. § 38-38-106(6) — Colorado General Assembly“shall bid at least the holder's good faith estimate of the fair market value of the property being sold”
- [24]C.R.S. § 38-38-110(1)(a)(I) — Colorado General Assembly“except that a sale may be conducted by means of the internet or other electronic medium”
- [25]C.R.S. § 38-38-103(4)(a)(VII)(C) — Colorado General Assembly“the bidding rules for the sale will be posted on the internet or other electronic medium used to conduct the sale at least two weeks before the date of sale”
- [26]C.R.S. § 38-38-106(7)(b) — Colorado General Assembly“The officer may establish written policies relating to all aspects of the foreclosure sale that are consistent with the provisions of this article.”
- [27]C.R.S. § 38-38-106(7)(a)(I) — Colorado General Assembly“the payment of any bid amount at sale must be received by the officer no later than the date and time of the sale, or at an alternative time after the sale and on the day of the sale, as specified in writing by the officer”
- [28]C.R.S. § 38-37-108(1) — Colorado General Assembly“shall be in the form of cash, electronic transfer to an account of the public trustee available for such purpose and in compliance with the conditions placed on the account by the public trustee for such electronic transfer, or certified check, cashier's check, teller's check”
- [29]C.R.S. § 38-38-106(7)(a)(I) — Colorado General Assembly“the next highest bidder who has timely tendered the full amount of the bid under this subsection (7) is deemed the successful bidder at the sale”
- [30]C.R.S. § 38-38-501(1) — Colorado General Assembly“such title shall be free and clear of all liens and encumbrances junior to the lien foreclosed”
- [31]C.R.S. § 38-38-401(1) — Colorado General Assembly“No later than five business days after the sale, the officer shall execute and record in each county where the property or a portion thereof is located a certificate of purchase”
- [32]C.R.S. § 38-38-403(1) — Colorado General Assembly“shall be assignable by indorsement thereon or by separate assignment”
- [33]C.R.S. § 38-38-302(1) — Colorado General Assembly“A lienor or assignee of a lien is entitled to redeem if the following requirements are met to the satisfaction of the officer”
- [34]C.R.S. § 38-38-302(1)(d) — Colorado General Assembly“The lienor has, within eight business days after the sale, filed a notice with the officer of the lienor's intent to redeem”
- [35]C.R.S. § 38-38-302(4)(a)(I) — Colorado General Assembly“no sooner than fifteen business days nor later than nineteen business days after a sale under this article 38, the junior lienor having the most senior recorded lien”
- [36]C.R.S. § 38-38-302(4)(b)(I) — Colorado General Assembly“Each subsequent lienor entitled to redeem shall, in succession, have an additional period of five business days to redeem.”
- [37]C.R.S. § 38-38-501(1) — Colorado General Assembly“if there are no redemption periods, upon the close of the officer's business day eight business days after the sale, title to the property sold shall vest in the holder of the certificate of purchase”
- [38]C.R.S. § 38-38-501(1) — Colorado General Assembly“No earlier than ten business days nor later than fifteen business days after both the title vests and the officer has received all statutory fees and costs, the officer shall execute and record a confirmation deed”
- [39]C.R.S. § 38-38-113(1) — Colorado General Assembly“may rescind the sale without obtaining a court order by filing with the public trustee no later than eight business days after the date of the sale a notice of rescission of sale”
- [40]C.R.S. § 38-38-111(1) — Colorado General Assembly“An overbid shall be first applied to any deficiency as indicated in the holder's bid, and then paid to the officer to be held in escrow until the end of all redemption periods”
- [41]C.R.S. § 38-38-111(2) — Colorado General Assembly“any remaining overbid shall be paid to the borrower”
- [42]C.R.S. § 38-38-111(2.5)(c) — Colorado General Assembly“An agreement to pay compensation to recover or assist in recovering an amount due to the borrower from the public trustee under subsection (2) of this section is not enforceable.”
- [43]C.R.S. § 38-38-111(3)(a)(II) — Colorado General Assembly“Unclaimed remaining overbids that are equal to or greater than twenty-five dollars and that are not claimed within two years from the date of the sale shall be transferred to the state treasurer”
Questions
When are foreclosure auctions held in Colorado?
Weekly, on a day and at a time each county's public trustee sets. A sale is first set 110 to 125 days after the notice of election and demand is recorded, or 215 to 230 days for agricultural property, and can then be continued week to week for up to twelve months. In our records most Colorado sales are held on a Wednesday or a Thursday, most at 10 a.m. The combined notice for each sale gives its day, time and place.
How do I find the lender's opening bid for a Colorado foreclosure sale?
From the public trustee. The lender must deliver its initial bid by noon on the second business day before the sale, and the public trustee must make it available to the public; several post the week's bids on their websites. The lender can amend the bid until noon the day before the sale or at the sale itself, and on an online sale it may also set a maximum bid that the auction system bids up to when others bid against it.
Do you need cash to buy at a Colorado public trustee sale?
You need guaranteed funds on the day. A winning bid must be paid by the time of the sale, or later that day if the public trustee sets a time in writing, in cash, by electronic transfer to the public trustee's account, or by a certified, cashier's or teller's check from a qualifying bank, savings and loan or credit union. If the winner does not pay, the next-highest bidder who tendered payment in time wins.
Is there a right of redemption after a Colorado foreclosure sale?
Not for the former owner, whose chance to keep the property is to cure the default before the sale. Junior lienors can redeem: each must file a notice of intent to redeem within eight business days after the sale, the most senior redeems between the 15th and 19th business days, and each later lienor gets five more business days in turn. A redeeming lienor pays the sale price with interest.
When does the buyer at a Colorado public trustee sale get the deed?
The public trustee records a certificate of purchase within five business days of the sale. If no junior lienor files an intent to redeem, title vests at the close of the eighth business day after the sale, and the confirmation deed is recorded 10 to 15 business days after title vests and the fees are paid. A redemption moves both later.
Who gets the overbid from a Colorado foreclosure sale?
An overbid first covers any deficiency in the lender's bid, then is held until the redemption periods end, then pays junior lienors who filed an intent to redeem, and the borrower gets what is left. An agreement to pay someone for recovering the borrower's share from the public trustee is unenforceable, and overbids of $25 or more that nobody claims go to the state treasurer two years after the sale.
Who is the public trustee in Colorado?
A county officer who acts as the trustee under deeds of trust on property in the county and conducts their foreclosure sales. Since July 1, 2020, the county treasurer has served as public trustee in every county the statute classes as second or third class.
How to cite this article
Quote freely with a link. Where a claim rests on a statute, the source above is the authority; cite it alongside this page.
TrusteeSaleData. "The Colorado public trustee sale, from notice to deed." Published October 4, 2026. https://www.trusteesaledata.com/blog/colorado-public-trustee-foreclosure-sales
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