Can You Sell a Broomfield Home With Tenants in It? (2026)
Can you sell a Broomfield home with tenants in it?
According to Broomfield listing agent Nick Ahrens, you can sell a Broomfield home with tenants in it at any time, because the lease follows the deed and the buyer steps in as the new landlord on closing day. What you cannot do is promise an empty house on short notice: Colorado's for-cause law requires at least 90 days of written notice to a tenant who has lived there 12 months or more, and a year-long tenancy carries a separate 91-day notice under C.R.S. 13-40-107. Broomfield detached homes are selling in a median of 36 days at 98.6% of list price, so in most of these sales the lease term, not the market, sets the listing date. Broomfield figures current as of July 2026; Colorado statutes current as of September 2026.
By Nick Ahrens | September 8, 2026
Nick Ahrens, a Broomfield listing agent with The Apollo Group at eXp Realty, tells owners that the most expensive mistake in a tenant-occupied sale is promising a buyer vacant possession before reading the lease. Almost every owner who calls about this has the same story. They moved, kept the house, put a tenant in it, and now they want the equity out. The good news is that nothing in Colorado law stops you from selling. The timing is the whole game.
Figures sourced from the CAR/REcolorado Local Market Update (July 2026), DMAR Market Trends (August 2026), Freddie Mac PMMS, and the Colorado Revised Statutes, current as of September 2026.
What happens to the lease when you sell a Broomfield home with tenants?
The lease survives the sale. Your buyer takes title subject to it and becomes the landlord for whatever term is left, at the rent the tenant is already paying. You are not selling a house plus a lease. You are selling a house with a contract attached to it.
The security deposit moves too. Under C.R.S. 38-12-103(4), once your interest in the property ends by sale, whoever holds the deposit must within a reasonable time either transfer it to the buyer and notify the tenant by mail, or return it to the tenant.
What transfers at closingWho handles it The written lease and any amendmentsAssigned to the buyer Remaining lease term and current rentBuyer honors both Security depositTransferred or credited to the buyer, tenant notified Prepaid last month's rentCredited to the buyer at closing Your obligations as landlordBuyer's, from the closing date forward
There is a paperwork wrinkle most owners have never heard of. A Broomfield home that is producing rental income is normally written on the Colorado Real Estate Commission's CBS2 Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate (Income-Residential), not the CBS1 used for a standard owner-occupied sale. Section 10.6.1.1 of that contract requires you to deliver every current lease and occupancy agreement by the Due Diligence Documents Delivery Deadline. Section 10.9 then locks you down: once you are under contract you cannot amend, extend, or cancel a lease, or sign a new one, without the buyer's written consent.
One more change landed this year. House Bill 25-1249 rewrote the security deposit statute effective January 1, 2026. Deposits now come back within 30 days of the end of the lease unless the lease sets a longer period, and that period cannot exceed 60 days. If you withhold anything, you have 14 days from a written request to hand over your photos, inspection reports, receipts, and estimates. You also cannot charge for carpet replacement if the carpet has not been replaced in the previous 10 years. If your tenant is leaving before or at closing, that clock is yours, not the buyer's.
How much notice does a Broomfield tenant get if you need the house empty?
At least 90 days, once the tenant has been in the property 12 months or more. Colorado's for-cause eviction law, HB24-1098 at C.R.S. 38-12-1303, requires cause to end a residential tenancy, and withdrawing the premises from the rental market in order to sell is one of the listed no-fault grounds. The written notice has to give the tenant at least 90 days to vacate. A landlord on active military duty may serve 45 days.
SituationNotice required Tenant of 12 months or more, no-fault sale ground90 days minimum Same, landlord on active military duty45 days Tenancy of one year or longer, outside the for-cause law91 days (C.R.S. 13-40-107) Tenancy of six months to one year28 days Tenancy of one month to six months21 days Week to week, or tenancy at will3 days
Here is the part that catches owners. If you use the sale ground and the tenant moves out, you may not list that home as a long-term or short-term rental for at least 90 days afterward, unless you can produce evidence that the property was listed for sale on a multiple listing service. The notice is a commitment to sell the house, not a lever to reset a lease.
The law also does not reach every rental. C.R.S. 38-12-1302 exempts short-term rental property, owner-occupied single-family homes, duplexes, and triplexes, mobile home spaces under a lease-to-own arrangement, employer-provided housing, tenants the landlord does not know about, and any tenant who has not been in the property for at least 12 months. Fall outside the for-cause law and you are back to the C.R.S. 13-40-107 clock in the table above, which for a year-long tenancy is still 91 days. Either way, you are counting in months.
Should you sell with the tenant in place or wait out the lease?
Sell with the tenant in place if you want investor buyers, and wait out the lease if you want the owner-occupant premium. The deciding factor is not the tenant's cooperation. It is the buyer's loan.
FHA requires at least one borrower to occupy the property as a principal residence within 60 days of signing the security instrument and to keep it that way for at least a year, per HUD Handbook 4000.1. The standard conventional deed of trust carries the same 60-day occupancy covenant. A lease that runs six months past your closing date does not slow those buyers down. It removes them from your pool entirely.
Your pathWho can buy itWhat it costs you List now, tenant stays through the leaseInvestors and second-home buyers paying cash or investor financingA narrower buyer pool and, usually, a lower price Serve the 90-day no-fault notice, then list vacantEvery buyer, including FHA and conventional owner-occupantsThree-plus months of carrying costs and lost rent Negotiate an early move-out with the tenantEvery buyerA cash-for-keys payment, agreed in writing, plus turnover costs
Run those against real Broomfield numbers before you pick. Detached homes here had a median sale price of $646,983 in July 2026, up 0.3% year over year, with 245 active listings, a median 36 days on market, and 98.6% of list price received, per the CAR/REcolorado Local Market Update. Attached product is a different story: the townhome and condo median was $385,000, down 8.9%, at 77 days. Across the metro, DMAR's August report counted 13,211 active listings, a median 29 days in the MLS, and 3,118 closings, down 13% from a year earlier. Freddie Mac put the 30-year fixed at 6.71% the week of September 3, 2026. That is a market where a narrower buyer pool shows up in the price, and where three months of waiting is a real number you can put next to the discount.
When an owner is on the fence, Nick Ahrens runs both versions side by side: the likely investor price today against the likely owner-occupant price in the spring, minus the carrying costs in between. Often the gap is smaller than the owner expects, and the answer turns on whether they need the cash now. That is the same fork covered in the sell-or-rent-out decision for Broomfield owners, just one step further down the road.
What do the buyer and the lender need from you before closing?
Estoppel statements, the leases themselves, and clean prorations. Section 11 of the CBS2 contract requires you to request a signed statement from each tenant confirming the lease terms, the rent, the deposits held, and that nobody is in default. If a tenant does not respond, you complete and sign the estoppel yourself by the Estoppel Statements Deadline. Your buyer can walk by the Estoppel Statements Termination Deadline if those statements are unsatisfactory or never show up.
Work the file in this order:
Pull the lease and read the term, the renewal language, and the entry clause before you set a list date.
Decide which of the three paths above you are taking, and put the date on a calendar.
If you are serving a no-fault notice, serve it in writing and count 90 days from receipt, not from the day you decided.
Gather the lease, amendments, rent ledger, deposit accounting, and any pet or parking agreements into one file.
Tell your listing agent the property is tenant-occupied so the sale is written on CBS2 and the estoppel deadlines are set with room in them.
Talk to your tenant before a lockbox appears. Showing access you negotiated beats showing access you demanded.
At closing, transfer or credit the deposit, prorate the rent, and send the tenant written notice of the new owner.
On access, read your own lease first. Colorado's statutes set a 72-hour entry notice for mobile home park spaces, but they do not write a general entry-notice period into a standard residential lease. Whatever your lease says about entry is what governs, and if it says nothing useful, you are negotiating. Owners who offer something concrete, a rent credit or a set weekly showing window, get far better cooperation than owners who cite a statute that does not exist. If you are weighing keeping the house as a rental instead, the rules on renting out a house in this part of the Front Range are a useful counterweight, and the Louisville net sheet shows how the sale side of the math comes out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a buyer make me get the tenant out before closing?
A buyer can ask for vacant possession as a contract term, and you can agree to it, but agreeing does not shorten the notice the law requires. If the tenant has been there 12 months or more, you still owe at least 90 days. Never sign a delivery-of-possession promise you cannot legally keep, because that is a default you own, not the tenant's.
Does my tenant have the right to buy the house first?
Not automatically. Colorado gives a residential tenant no statutory right of first refusal on a single-family home. Check the lease, though. Some leases and some Broomfield HOA declarations add one by contract, and that clause binds you even though the statute does not.
What happens to the security deposit at closing?
It transfers to the buyer or is credited to them, and the tenant gets written notice of who holds it now. C.R.S. 38-12-103(4) gives you the choice of transferring it to the buyer and notifying the tenant by mail or returning it to the tenant outright. Whoever ends up holding it inherits the 2026 deadlines: 30 days to return it after the lease ends, or up to 60 if the lease says so.
Will a tenant-occupied listing sell for less in Broomfield?
Usually yes, because you are marketing to investors rather than to the buyers who set the price. Detached homes in Broomfield received 98.6% of list price in July 2026 across all sales, and tenant-occupied listings tend to land under that, with longer showing windows and fewer offers. The size of the gap depends on the rent, the remaining term, and how the property shows.
Do I have to tell buyers the home is tenant-occupied?
Yes. Occupancy and the existence of a lease are material facts a buyer needs, and the CBS2 contract requires you to deliver the leases during due diligence. Hiding a tenancy is how a clean sale turns into a claim after closing.
Getting the lease and the listing to line up
Selling a tenant-occupied home in Broomfield is a scheduling problem before it is a pricing problem. Read the lease, pick your path, count the notice days, and set the list date from that, not from the calendar you had in your head.
If you want to run your version of it, what the house would bring with the tenant in place, what it would bring empty in the spring, and what the months in between cost you, call or text me at 949-230-3625, or email me at NickAhrensRealEstate@gmail.com. Bring the lease and we will put both numbers on one page. If the move is out of state, my Broomfield relocation page covers how to time a sale here against a purchase somewhere else.
About Nick Ahrens
Nick Ahrens is a Colorado real estate broker with The Apollo Group at eXp Realty, specializing in the Anthem and Baseline communities of Broomfield (80023). With 15+ years in the business and 350+ career closings, he helps North Denver sellers and relocating buyers navigate pricing, timing, and the path to closing. Connect with Nick at youranthemhome.com.
