“Under contract” is the stretch between an accepted offer and a closed sale. To a buyer it can feel like waiting. It isn’t — it’s the most active part of the transaction, and nearly everything that can still go wrong or be renegotiated happens here.
What it means, and what it doesn’t
Under contract means the seller accepted an offer and both parties signed. It does not mean the house is sold. Ownership transfers at closing, not at acceptance.
Between those two moments sits a set of contingencies — conditions written into the contract that let a party walk away, under defined circumstances, without breaching it. This is why you will see homes return to the market as “back on market” some weeks after going under contract. Something in that window didn’t clear.
The Dates and Deadlines table runs everything
In Colorado, the contract is a Commission-Approved Form containing a table of dates and deadlines. Once you are under contract, that table is the schedule of the deal — title review, the loan, the appraisal, inspection, and closing each have their own dates.
Two things to understand about it:
The dates are negotiated, not standard. They are filled in for your particular transaction. General advice quoting a specific number of days is describing somebody else’s contract. Read your own.
Most contingencies come as a pair of dates: one to raise an issue, a later one to resolve it. Let the first pass without acting and you generally lose the right to raise that issue at all.
What’s happening during those weeks
Several tracks run in parallel rather than in sequence, which is why the period feels busy in bursts.
- Earnest money is delivered by its deadline — the deposit showing you are serious, credited toward the purchase at closing.
- Inspection happens, and you decide what to raise. This is where you learn what you are actually buying.
- Title documents are reviewed for anything clouding ownership — easements, liens, covenants, restrictions.
- The appraisal is ordered by your lender. Coming in under contract price triggers defined options rather than automatic collapse.
- Your loan moves toward final approval, which is why lenders ask for documents at what feels like the worst possible time.
If the property has never been tested for radon, this is also the window to do it. Colorado requires a seller to disclose what they know about radon — not to test. Where no test exists, the disclosure is simply that none exists, and arranging one is the buyer’s move.
Don’t disturb your financing
A pre-approval is not final approval. Your lender will verify your position again before closing, and changes in the interim can undo the loan.
Until you have closed, avoid opening new credit accounts, financing a car, making large unexplained deposits, moving money between accounts without a paper trail, or changing jobs if it can wait. Furnishing the house on credit before you own it is a genuinely common way to lose it.
For sellers
Under contract is not the finish line for you either. Keep the property maintained and insured, complete anything you agreed to in writing, and expect the buyer to walk the property again shortly before closing to confirm agreed repairs were done and included items are still present.
Each contingency the buyer clears is a step toward certainty. Until the last one clears, the sale is conditional.
Keep an eye on the next date
Every date in that table has a right attached to it, and the right goes away when the date does. Know which one is next, and what happens if it passes unmet.