THE NUMBER GOES ON PAPER BEFORE THE PITCH. COLORADO LAW SAYS SO NOW.

The pitch used to come first. On August 12, 2026, Colorado flipped the order.

Most pages on this question were written for a world that ended this summer: sit through the listing presentation, ask about marketing and experience, read the agreement at the end. Since August 12, 2026, that order is backwards in Colorado. HB26-1426 amended C.R.S. 12-10-403(2) so a broker must establish either a transaction-broker or a single-agency relationship through a written agreement that specifies and conspicuously discloses the amount or rate of any compensation, completed before the broker performs any activity that requires a licence (VERIFIED, enrolled act, section 87). Until that date a transaction broker needed no written agreement at all; the Division of Real Estate's advisory of the same date says that foundation is gone (VERIFIED, dre.colorado.gov, August 12, 2026).

So the first thing to ask is not what an agent will do. It is: show me the agreement, and show me the number on it. LC50 section 7.1.1 leaves compensation as a blank, a percentage or a dollar amount; 7.1.1.1 is a second blank for what your side contributes to a buyer's brokerage firm (VERIFIED, mandatory since January 1, 2026). Whatever fills those blanks is negotiated, and the law now says it is written down before the work starts, not papered later.

The other three things, and why the pricing evidence has to be closed sales.

The Division's advisory draws a line worth using: showings, open houses and comparative market analyses are not licensed acts (VERIFIED, DRE advisory), so an agent can hand you the pricing evidence before anything is signed. Ask for the closed sales they priced against, with closing dates and distance from your house. Active listings are asking prices; they tell you what neighbours hope, not what buyers paid. If the evidence is an automated estimate and three actives, you have learned what you needed to.

Then ask for the agent's own record. Every REcolorado listing carries a Days in MLS count and a price-change history; ask for their last five listings, including any that expired or were withdrawn. Withdrawn pauses that count, and re-entry by the same broker or office within 30 days of expiring draws an immediate $100 fine (VERIFIED, recolorado.com, 2022-04-28), so ask about status changes, not just sales. This one question predicts the result better than any marketing plan.

Third, the paper around the number. LC50 section 3.7 sets the Listing Period with a start and an end date; section 7.2.3 sets a Holdover Period in calendar days during which a sale to a submitted prospect can still owe compensation, with a box that decides whether that survives a later listing with a different firm (VERIFIED from the 2026 form). Section 18.2.1 is the Seller's Property Disclosure election, and the agent should walk that form with you before launch, not after the first offer. The contract is with the brokerage firm, not the person across the table.

What changes: the plan you sign for is a ten-day plan, and the metro clock says why.

The launch audience is the pool of buyers searching the week your listing goes live. They compare your house against what is active that week, not against what sold in spring. The Denver metro median days on market was 51 days in July 2026 (VERIFIED, FRED MEDDAYONMAR19740, on /data/days-on-market). A slow launch usually notices it is slow at about the halfway mark of that clock, which is too late to be cheap. So the plan you ask for should say what gets measured by day three, day seven and day ten: views and saves, showings and second showings, feedback verbatim, and the decision rule if those numbers stall. A plan with no dates is a brochure.

That is the sequencing this law improves by accident: once the number is on paper first, the plan attached to it is judged on dates and evidence, not the presentation. Robert's version arrives as a written pricing file, closed sales only, before anyone asks you to sign anything.