Transfer tax
Colorado charges a small state documentary fee, generally a penny per $100 of consideration over $500. By statute the grantee pays it, so on a donation it is ours.
Donate a house, mountain lot or ranch parcel in Colorado, in any of the 64 counties
Colorado property specialists: (888) 228-7320
Donate Real Estate in Colorado
Colorado charges one of the lowest documentary fees in the country, so the friction here is rarely the tax. It is water, minerals and access. Water is a separate property right with its own court system, minerals are severed under a great deal of the state, and mountain parcels often turn out to be reachable only across somebody else’s land. All 64 counties.
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Colorado rules for a property donation
Federal tax rules are the same in every state. These three are set by Colorado and by the county where the property sits.
Water and minerals are separate property
In Colorado a water right is real property with its own decree and its own water court, and it does not automatically pass with the land. Mineral estates are severed across much of the state. What you own may be less, or more, than the surface suggests, so we check both before a deed is drafted.
Recording
Deeds are recorded with the county clerk and recorder for the county where the property sits. You sign before a notary wherever you live, and we handle the filing.
What Colorado owners call us about
Four situations the state produces more of than most.
Decreed water the family no longer uses
Shares, ditch rights and decreed appropriations attached to ground that stopped being irrigated. These are real property interests and they are transferable, with state engineer involvement.
A mountain lot with no legal access
Parcels sold in high country subdivisions decades ago, some reachable only seasonally and some only across a neighbor’s ground.
Severed minerals under the plains
Mineral interests inherited by families who have never seen the ground above them, producing small royalty checks and annual paperwork.
A house in a wildfire scar
Rebuild costs, insurance availability and defensible space requirements that change the arithmetic. The lot usually still has value.
Colorado property we accept
Each links to the full guide for that type, including how a donation compares with selling.
Houses in ColoradoBungalows in the older city cores, post-war ranches, mountain cabins and newer subdivision homes.
Colorado landHigh country lots, plains acreage, river parcels and infill land.
Farm and ranch groundIrrigated hay and row crop, dryland wheat and short-grass range.
Commercial propertyMain street blocks in the mountain and plains towns, storefronts and offices.
Industrial buildingsWarehouse and yard space along the Front Range corridor.
Land contractsProperty sold on terms years ago. We take over the payments and deliver the deed at payoff.
What a donation looks like by region
Six Colorados, and water tells most of the story.
Denver metro
Inherited bungalows with low basis, infill lots worth more than the house, and small commercial on corridors that changed around them.
The southern Front Range
Colorado Springs and Pueblo, with older housing, wildfire-affected parcels and subdivision lots on the prairie edge.
The mountain resort counties
Second homes and deed-restricted units, plus high country lots with access and snow-load questions.
The Western Slope
Orchard and vineyard ground, severed minerals in the gas basins, and ranch land held by families who moved away.
The eastern plains
Dryland wheat, irrigated circles over declining aquifers, and small-town buildings with no buyer at any price.
The San Luis Valley
Irrigated potato and barley ground, senior water rights, and large blocks of vacant subdivision land sold by mail in the 1970s.
Real estate donation by Colorado city
A local guide for the city Colorado donors ask about most, covering the documentary fee, the water question and the access question as they apply there. Every other Colorado city is covered by this page.
Colorado real estate donation questions, answered
Is a donated deed subject to Colorado transfer tax?+
Colorado charges a small state documentary fee, generally a penny per $100 of consideration over $500. By statute the grantee pays it, so on a donation it is ours.
I live outside Colorado. Do I have to travel there to sign?+
No. We prepare the deed in the form Colorado requires for the county where the property sits, you sign before a notary where you live, and we record it with the county clerk and recorder.
Does my water right go with the land automatically?+
Not necessarily, and in Colorado that is the question to settle first. Water is a separate property right with its own decree, and it can be owned, sold and donated apart from the ground it once served. Tell us what the decree says and we will take it from there.
Does Colorado give a state tax deduction for a property donation?+
Colorado has a state income tax, and how it treats a charitable contribution is set by Colorado law rather than by us. Your federal deduction follows the usual IRS rules. Take the state question to your own advisor.
My mountain lot can only be reached across a neighbor’s land. Does that stop a donation?+
No. Title transfers whether or not there is a legal road to it, and access is a separate question worth answering during the review. Sometimes a recorded easement exists that the owner never knew about.
We do not provide tax or legal advice. State and local transfer tax rules change; we confirm current requirements when we prepare each deed. Consult your own advisor.
Tell us about your Colorado property and we will review it
The county and a parcel number are enough to start.