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Quarterly Newsletter
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Spring Edition, April 2025
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Real Estate - Public Calendar
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Stay Up To Date With Us!
Division Meetings and Events
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Sign Up For A Webcast
The Division of Real Estate makes an effort to have all public meetings and educational opportunities live and accessible to the public by signing up for a webcast.
Find the meeting or event you want to attend on the Division Calendar, click on the “more details” and follow the directions to sign up for the webcast.
Attend An HOA Forum
 The HOA Information & Resource Center offers free webinars on a variety of topics throughout the year. Learn about helpful resources and join in the conversation about your rights and obligations while living in an HOA community. Topics and locations change monthly. Visit the Division calendar to sign up!
Unable to attend? The HOA Information & Resource Center posts webinar recordings at the following link:
https://dre.colorado.gov/recent-hoa-forums
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Upcoming Department Meetings:
HOA Info & Resource Center Forum: Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)
Board of Real Estate Appraisers (BOREA) meeting:
Board of Mortgage Loan Originators (MLO) Meeting:
Colorado Real Estate Commission (CREC) Meeting:
Board of Real Estate Appraisers (BOREA) Meeting:
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Legislation – How to Track Bills at the State Level
The Colorado General Assembly is scheduled to wrap up their legislative activities within the next month, or at least as far as the passage of bills is concerned. This session, like many preceding it, has had numerous bills that impact the real estate industry and property rights. The Division tracks several bills that affect the real estate industry, mainly for purposes of the Annual Commission Update Course and the HOA Information and Resource Center. We also track bills that directly impact the operations of the Division and our licensing programs. The legislative process may seem daunting to those who have limited or minimal interactions with the Legislature. I thought it might be helpful to provide some basic information about how a member of the public can search and find the bills being considered, including those that eventually become laws. While trade associations and the Division may provide summaries of the different bills and laws, it is often beneficial to review these documents on your own.
The Colorado General Assembly’s website can be found at https://leg.colorado.gov/ and it contains an extensive amount of information about the legislature. (Read More)
About the Director: Marcia Waters
Marcia Waters has been with the Colorado Division of Real Estate since August 2005.
Ms. Waters started with the Division as a Criminal
Investigator for the Real Estate Commission and was promoted to Chief Investigator in 2006. In 2007, she was promoted to the position of Investigations and Compliance Director. In that capacity, she managed the investigatory and settlement programs for the Division. On October 15, 2010, she was promoted to the position of Division Director. The Division of Real Estate licenses and regulates approximately 50,000 real estate professionals. Ms. Waters serves as the administrator for the Real Estate Commission, the Board of Real Estate Appraisers, the Board of Mortgage Loan Originators, and the HOA Information and Resource Center.
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Division Updates & Notes
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Sunset Review of Colorado Real Estate Commission (CREC)
The Colorado Office of Policy, Research & Regulatory Reform ("COPRRR") periodically reviews proposed regulatory programs to determine if they are needed, and it also reviews existing programs and functions of government to ensure they are necessary, fair, effective and efficient. Beginning January 1, 2025, the Colorado Real Estate Commission ("CREC") is being reviewed by COPRRR, including Brokers, Brokerage Firms, and Subdivision Developers. To provide input on this review, please visit COPRRR's website:
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Continuing Education Requirements for Licensees In Colorado
In the last quarterly Real Estate News release, the Division provided information on the number of licensees in the mortgage loan originator, appraisal, and broker programs. Now that Colorado licensees are well into the calendar year, it is a good time to discuss the continuing education requirements for each of the licensed programs.
As a reminder, mortgage loan originators need to renew their licenses each year, appraisers need to renew their licenses every two years, and real estate brokers renew their licenses every three years.
Each of these programs have specific continuing education requirements. To learn more about the requirements for each license cycle, visit the following links:
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Colorado General Assembly In Session
The 75th Colorado General Assembly is in session and this session has introduced a large amount of real estate related legislation.
The General Assembly is composed of two divisions: the State Senate and the State House of Representatives. Either Senate or House members can introduce new legislation to run its course through the legislative bodies, and, in some cases, find its way to the Governor’s desk for signature. When a bill is signed into law, it becomes an act.
The legislative session began January 8, 2025, and is scheduled for adjournment on May 7, 2025. As a Division of Real Estate licensee or a consumer who is interested in real estate, the laws passed and signed by the Governor may have a direct effect on your professional practice and your real estate transactions.
As a member of the public, you can contact your State lawmakers. The Colorado General Assembly has a tool where you can find information about your elected representatives. For more information, please visit: leg.colorado.gov/find-my-legislator.
To track bills, whether those bills are related to real estate or other
topics of interest, you can visit the Colorado General Assembly’s website at
leg.colorado.gov/ and use the “Find A Bill” tool to research any bills. You can review past, present, and pending bills and acts.
Keep an eye out for the Division's legislative summaries after the legislative session adjourns.
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Broker Notice:
Updated List of Trust Account Financial Institutions
All real estate brokers that hold or receive money belonging to others are required to establish accounting control policies and procedures in writing and must hold those funds in one or more accounts separate from other money that belongs to the broker or the brokerage firm.
The licensee must identify the fiduciary nature of each separate Trust or Escrow Account in deposit agreements with the financial institution by the use of the word “trust” or “escrow” and a label identifying the purpose of such account, such as “sales escrow”, “rental escrow”, “security deposit escrow”, or other abbreviated form defined in the deposit agreement.
Division staff regularly receives questions from both new and seasoned brokers about which financial institutions in Colorado offer compliant accounts. The Division maintains a list of financial institutions that have confirmed that they offer trust and escrow accounts, and the list can be found here:
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This list may not be exhaustive and is reviewed by Division staff from time to time. If you represent a financial institution and would like the institution to be added to this list, please contact DORA_Division_RealEstate@state.co.us for more information. It is important to understand that this list is not an endorsement of any of these institutions and is provided for informational purposes only.
For additional information, please visit the Division’s Separate Accounts and Accounting webpage.
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HOA Information & Resources Center
The HOA Information & Resource Center offers HOA Forums monthly and are open to both licensees and the public. Stay tuned to the Division of Real Estate's Calendar for future HOA Forums and join us for our future webinars. You can also check out our recently published HOA Forums or our YouTube Channel.
Recent HOA Forums YouTube Channel
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HOA Advisory: 2024 Annual Report from the HOA Information & Resource Center is Released
The HOA Information & Resource Center released its 2024 Annual Report on April 11, 2025. This report is released every year to provide homeowners, board members, Community Association Managers, the public, and most importantly, the Colorado General Assembly with (1) important trends in Common Interest Communities, (2) helpful summaries of the data and information compiled by the HOA Information and Resource Center, and (3) legislative summaries from the 2023 session which affect HOA-life.
You can review the report (and prior years’ reports) on the HOA Information and Resource Center’s website, by scrolling down to "Annual Reports" The HOA Center will discuss the report during a webinar on April 22, 2025. You can register for the webinar below.
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Share your HOA Success Story
Do you have an HOA success story you would like to share or a fellow HOA community member you admire? For example, perhaps your board was faced with making a difficult decision to increase dues to address a highly needed repair and was able to work together to obtain approval at the last minute. Perhaps you respect a long-standing board member who always exhibits high moral standards in the way they conduct business and interact with others. If so, the HOA Information & Resource Center would like to hear from you!
Please send an email to dora_dre_hoainquiries@state.co.us using the Subject Line: “HOA Success Story” and let us know what inspires you about your community for a chance to be featured in one of our monthly newsletters. Note all information will be treated confidentially unless notified otherwise.
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Recent HOA Information & Resource Center Presentations
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The HOA Information and Resource Center attempts to reach out to different groups and populations throughout the State of Colorado to educate the public about what the HOA Center does and the rights and responsibilities created by the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act ("CCIOA").
A recent public presentation in the City of Thornton took place on March 25, 2025 where HOA Center staff met with first-time homeowners, prospective homeowners, and others
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On January 16, 2025, the HOA Information Officer, Nick Altmann, was honored to present to an excellent group of Colorado housing counselors at its annual retreat. The HOA Officer spoke to a group of dedicated housing counselors about the issue of foreclosure in Colorado’s Common Interest Communities. Common Interest Communities is an umbrella term that encompasses homeowners’ associations, condominium associations, property owners’ associations, cooperatives, and timeshares.
Mr. Altmann spoke about recent legislative changes to collections, payment plans, notification requirements, and foreclosure in Common Interest Communities. Although the event was not open to the public, the HOA Center has shared the slides from this important presentation. Anyone can view and download the slides from the presentation from the HOA Center’s website at:
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HOA Forum: Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)
In 2024, the Governor of Colorado signed House Bill 24-1152, which aims to reduce barriers to the construction of Accessory Dwelling Units (“ADUs”) for a significant portion of communities in Colorado. It’s been found by the Colorado legislature that ADUs can offer compact and relatively affordable housing solutions for many Coloradans living in common-interest communities, or “HOAs”. Importantly, this new law also amended the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (“CCIOA”) and has important policy considerations for HOAs and their boards.
The HOA Information & Resource Center is pleased to announce guest speakers from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (“DOLA”) will be joining the office for a live presentation and Q&A session on ADUs in Colorado. Please submit your questions in advance to dora_dre_hoainquiries@state.co.us.
Presentation Details:
- Date: Friday April 25, 2025
- Time: 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. (MT)
- Location: Online Webinar Only
You may register for the event here:
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On behalf of the HOA Information & Resource Center, we look forward to you joining us.
-HOA Information & Resource Center-
Note: If you are unable to attend, the HOA Information & Resource Center posts a recording of the webinar within a few days following the presentation at the following link: https://dre.colorado.gov/recent-hoa-forums
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DRE YouTube Channel
Have you checked out our YouTube channel yet?
You can find webinar recordings, educational videos, bite-sized advisory videos and watch various LIVE hearings and board & commission meetings.
Watch & Subscribe at @DORADivisionRealEstate and never miss our most current content!
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The Division of Real Estate Staff
In February, the Division of Real Estate was pleased to welcome back Garred Lyle as the new Deputy Director for the department.
To view the full list of Division staff, visit: Division Staff & Resources page
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Quarterly Discipline
This serves to inform the public of the current and/or most recent disciplinary action taken against the individuals listed. It does not, nor should it be intended to, serve as a complete listing of any and all discipline taken against the individual licensees.
Find the program you want to view by toggling through the tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet.
To obtain a complete public disciplinary history for a specific licensee visit the Division's Records Management System and search a licensees personal record by name or license number.
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