THE EVIDENCE DESK · CONDOS
Your condo is cute. The building has issues.Denver condo HOA due diligence: the unit passed inspection. The HOA didn’t.
At a condo, the association is part of the property.ONE CONDO · TWO FILES
The unit and the association move together.
TURN ONE DIAL. THE OTHER ONE MOVES.
Reserve study current. Assessments predictable.
Appraises, finances and resells on its own merits.
The unit file is the whole story.- condition
- floor
- parking
- view
- reserves
- assessments
- minutes
- master policy
READ TOGETHERVALUE + RISKEither file alone prices the wrong thing.
SEND ME THE ADDRESS · I’ll pull both filescondition + comparable sales
reserves + assessments + minutes
master insurance + deductible
THE RECEIPT
A number needs its operating instructions.
Source, date, geography, method, and limit stay beside the result.- SOURCE
- Property-specific comparable sales, county records, association financials and minutes, and the current master insurance policy.
OPEN THE SOURCE ↗ - AS OF
- Current documents for the subject building and decision date.
- GEOGRAPHY
- The subject association, competing attached product, and relevant local market.
- METHOD
- Build the comparable set for the unit, then read reserves, assessments, minutes, maintenance obligations, and insurance as part of the same value file.
- DOES NOT PROVE
- A metro or attached-market trend cannot establish one unit’s value or the financial health of its association.
THE FOUR DOCUMENTS · ASK FOR THESE BEFORE THE OBJECTION DEADLINE
Reserves, minutes, assessments, the deductible.
This tracks whether you have the association’s own disclosed numbers in hand, not a market average. There is no typical HOA fee or typical reserve balance here: only what this specific association says about itself, and whether it has said it yet.0 OF 4 IN HAND
WHY IT IS DIFFERENT
The buyer acquires a unit and a share of the association’s obligations. Both affect monthly cost, financing, insurance, and resale.
FOR AN OWNER
Read the reserve study, assessment history and two years of minutes before reaching for a comparable sale.
FOR A BUYER
Ask for reserves, minutes, assessments and the master-policy deductible. A slow answer is information too.
WHAT THE CONDO MARKET DID
On the REcolorado MLS the median closed price for a Denver condominium went from $367,000 in January 2023 to $340,000 in July 2026, down 7.4 percent, and the decline got steeper each year: 1.1 percent in 2024, 3.1 percent in 2025, 2.6 percent in the first seven months of 2026 (VERIFIED, REcolorado data through July 2026, the condo-versus-house report on this site). Single-family prices held over the same window, so the dollar gap between the median condo and the median house widened from $242,000 to $270,000, and the median condo fell from 60.3 percent of the median house to 55.7 percent (VERIFIED, same report). A citywide headline that says prices are flat is describing houses. Price a unit against units.
WHY THE FILE MOVES THE PRICE
A unit's comparable set is narrow: the same building, the same floor plan, the same association, then the competing attached product a buyer would tour the same week. What separates two identical units is the association behind them: the reserve balance against the reserve study, the assessment history and any special assessment on the table, two years of minutes, and the master policy's deductible, which decides how much of a roof or water claim lands on the owners. Read those before the comparable sale, because a lender, an insurer and the next buyer will, and each of them prices the association into the unit whether or not the listing did.
WHAT TO DO WITH IT
If you own a unit, do not price against the citywide headline; price against closed units in your building and its nearest competitors, then adjust for what your association's file says about the next assessment. If you are buying, ask for reserves, minutes, assessments and the master-policy deductible before the inspection objection deadline, not after, because the Colorado contract's objection and termination rights expire on the dates set in the offer (the offers and closing page on this site). A slow answer from the association is information too. Send the address and the unit file comes back with the association read beside it.
WHAT THIS CHANGES
Makes the association file part of pricing and offer diligence, not paperwork left until after attachment.
TAKE THE METHOD WITH YOU
The claim is not finished until its boundary is visible.
OPEN THE EVIDENCE RECEIPT →READ THE CONDO VERSUS HOUSE REPORT →CHECK THE CONDO COMMUNITY’S FHA PROJECT STATUS →YOUR HOUSE, NOT THE METRO