Colorado Uses a Public Trustee System. The Exam Tests It.

Colorado is one of the fastest growing real estate markets in the country. More people are entering the field, and competition to earn your license on the first attempt has never been stronger.

Colorado skips the Salesperson license tier entirely and enters everyone at the Broker level, which is the first signal that this state's licensing framework doesn't follow the national template. The Division of Real Estate oversees licensing; PSI administers the exam with 74 state specific questions and 80 national questions, requiring 75% to pass. The public trustee foreclosure system, Rule F's mandatory form requirements, and the transaction brokerage default are where most candidates lose points on the state portion. Let me break this down so none of those points go to waste.

Public Trustee System

Colorado's Public Trustee system is unlike anything national prep covers. Every other state routes foreclosures through the courts or through a private trustee. Colorado runs them through a county-appointed Public Trustee on a timeline the PSI exam will test precisely. Here's the thing most people miss: "Public Trustee" sounds like a general concept, but it's a specific Colorado institution with specific deadlines, and the exam tests the numbers.

Colorado uniquely uses a county Public Trustee to hold title under deeds of trust, with foreclosures going through the Public Trustee's office on a 110-to-125-day timeline, students fail because they apply generic deed-of-trust foreclosure rules from other states instead of Colorado's specific process.

Colorado's public trustee handles foreclosures in a way that no other state replicates. Pennsylvania uses judicial foreclosure through the court system, and North Dakota follows statutory foreclosure; neither state has an equivalent to the Colorado public trustee role that appears on the state portion of this exam.

Know the 110-to-125-day timeline, the Public Trustee's role in holding title, and what distinguishes this process from standard deed-of-trust foreclosure. The DORA exam will present a foreclosure scenario and test whether you apply Colorado's process or generic rules. Applying generic rules fails the question.

Rule F (Commission Forms)

Rule F is the single most failed section of Colorado's state exam portion. The Conway-Bogue decision is the legal foundation, and the PSI exam expects you to understand what that case established, not just to know that Commission-approved forms are required.

Rule F requires brokers to use Commission approved forms for all applicable transactions, stemming from the Conway-Bogue decision that drew the line between legal practice and form completion, the #1 failed section in the state portion.

Know which transactions require Commission-approved forms, what Conway-Bogue established about the boundary between legal practice and contract completion, and what a broker must do when no approved form covers a situation. The DORA exam tests the rule and its origin together. Knowing only one half won't get you to the right answer.

Transaction Brokerage

In most states, single agency is the starting assumption. In Colorado, transaction brokerage is the default, and every candidate who learned agency from national materials enters the exam with this backwards.

Colorado presumes transaction brokerage as the default unless the parties agree otherwise in writing, students get this wrong because they assume single agency is the default and confuse which duties transaction brokers do and don't owe.

The PSI exam will test which duties a transaction broker owes, which duties don't apply in transaction brokerage, and what written agreement is required to move to single agency. The DORA exam is designed to distinguish candidates who understand Colorado's default from those who imported the national model. I know, I know: another state where the default isn't what you expected. But this one actually matters on the exam.