What Clients Say About Their Real Estate Deals
Spiro Hristopoulos founded Hristopoulos Law after starting his legal career at a Denver-area firm focused on business and real estate transactions. Here is what Hristopoulos Law clients say about their real estate work with the firm:
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Spiro did a wonderful job advising me on a commercial lease negotiation. I highly recommend!
Pamela M. Commercial lease -
I've had the opportunity to work with Spiro and it was a great experience. He's very knowledgeable with Real Estate law and helped me and my partners set up an entity for one of our commercial property investments.
Eric F. Entity for an investment property -
Spiro is extremely responsive and knowledgeable when it comes to commercial real estate transactions!
Austin H. Commercial transactions -
If you're looking for a real estate attorney who is knowledgeable, reliable, and willing to go the extra mile for his clients, I highly recommend Spiro and his team. Outstanding experience all around.
Eric G. Real estate
What a Commercial Real Estate Attorney Actually Does
A commercial real estate deal in Colorado can close with only a broker and a title company at the table, and nothing requires you to bring a lawyer. Each of them has a real job. None of those jobs is reviewing every provision of the purchase agreement or lease and clearly explaining your rights and obligations.
Here is who is at the table on a Denver commercial deal, and what each one is there to do:
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The Broker
Brings the buyer and seller, or the landlord and tenant, together, fills in the state form and keeps the deal moving.
Paid when the deal closes
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The Title Company
Searches and insures title to the property and runs the closing, so the money and the deed change hands correctly.
Neutral on the contract terms
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Your Attorney
Reviews and explains the purchase agreement or lease, negotiates key terms, prepares provisions that standard broker forms may not adequately address, assists with due diligence and title issues, and guides the transaction through closing.
Represents you, and only you
Neither the broker nor the title company represents you on the contract terms. That is the gap your attorney fills.
The State Form Is a Starting Point
Colorado brokers generally must use forms approved by the Colorado Real Estate Commission. For a commercial purchase, that is the Commission’s Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate (Commercial) (opens in a new tab). It is a sound starting point, not a finished deal. The information entered in the blanks, the deadlines selected, and any additional provisions can determine which party bears the risk when a problem arises.
To be fair, a smaller, straightforward transaction may only need a careful review rather than extensive negotiation. A free consultation can help you determine how much legal assistance your deal requires.
See every type of deal the firm handles on the real estate transaction services page.
Whichever Side of the Deal You Are On
Here is what an attorney reviewing your documents means for you, whether the building is an office, a retail space, a warehouse or an industrial property:
- Buying a building Understand what the purchase agreement requires, identify the risks before signing, and meet every inspection, title, due diligence, and financing deadline before your rights expire.
- Selling a building Have the buyer’s proposed contract, your disclosure obligations, and the closing documents reviewed so you make only the promises you intend to make and close on the terms you negotiated.
- Leasing space for your business Understand the total rent, operating expenses, additional charges, and the scope of any personal guaranty before you sign.
- Leasing out space you own Use a lease that protects your property, clearly defines the rent and other amounts due, and provides meaningful remedies if the tenant defaults or leaves early.
How a Commercial Real Estate Deal Moves in Colorado, and Where It Can Go Wrong
A commercial real estate purchase in Colorado generally moves through five stages. At each stage, the parties make decisions that may become difficult or expensive to change later. A missed deadline, an incomplete investigation, or unclear contract language can cost you money, legal rights, or negotiating leverage. For sellers, the same stages apply from the other side. Your attorney can help negotiate the letter of intent and purchase contract, respond to due diligence requests, address title and closing issues, and ensure the final documents contain only the obligations you agreed to undertake. Here is how the transaction typically moves from initial negotiations through closing, and where legal counsel can add value.
Before the contract
The Letter of Intent
Typically it outlines the purchase price, earnest money, due diligence period, and anticipated closing date. Even when it is mostly nonbinding, it establishes the business terms from which the purchase contract will be drafted.
Your attorney reviews the letter before you sign, identifies any provisions that are binding (such as confidentiality or exclusivity, which may prevent negotiations with other parties for a specified period) and negotiates enough time to investigate the property.
What can go wrong here
If you accept a short due diligence period here, obtaining more time later may require renegotiating a term the parties have already accepted.
The day it is signed
The Purchase Contract and Its Deadlines
Your broker usually completes the Colorado Real Estate Commission’s commercial purchase contract form. Its deadlines determine when you must review and object to title matters, complete inspections and other due diligence, secure financing, and close.
Your attorney helps negotiate realistic deadlines and, before the contract is signed, drafts any additional provisions needed to address matters the standard form does not adequately cover.
What can go wrong here
The clock starts when the contract is signed. If you miss an objection or termination deadline, you may lose the right to raise the issue or cancel the transaction, and your earnest money may be at risk.
Under contract
The Due Diligence Period
Now you check the title commitment and its exceptions (what the title company will and will not insure), the survey, zoning for your use, the physical condition of the property, environmental reports and the leases, with signed tenant estoppel certificates confirming key lease terms.
Your attorney reviews the title documents, survey, leases, and other legal due diligence materials, identifies issues affecting your intended ownership or use of the property, and submits objections or termination notices before the applicable deadlines.
What can go wrong here
Due diligence may uncover title, zoning, environmental, property condition, or lease issues. If you do not identify and address them before the deadlines, you may lose the right to object or terminate.
Before closing
Financing and the Buying Entity
Your loan commitment, the lender’s requirements, and the entity that will take title must align. Decide early who owns that company and who, if anyone, signs any personal guaranty.
Your attorney reviews the material loan terms that matter to you and makes sure the buying entity is formed, in good standing and named correctly in the contract and closing documents.
What can go wrong here
If you take title in your individual name, transferring it into an LLC later requires a new deed and may involve additional costs, title issues or lender consent.
Closing day and after
Closing and What Comes Next
The title company moves the money once you approve the settlement statement (the sheet listing every charge and credit), the deed, any lease assignments and the seller’s closing documents.
Your attorney confirms that the settlement statement and closing documents match the purchase contract, and verifies that the deed is recorded and the title policy is issued.
What can go wrong here
The settlement statement is your last chance to catch incorrect charges or credits for rent, security deposit, repairs, or other adjustments before the funds are disbursed.
Wherever your deal sits on this line today, a free consultation can help determine whatever needs to happen next. The earlier you obtain legal advice, the more opportunity you may have to negotiate and protect your position.
Commercial Lease Terms That Cost Tenants and Landlords Later
The legal protections that apply when renting a home generally do not carry over to business premises. In a commercial lease, the written terms largely control, and the landlord’s first draft is a starting position, not necessarily the final agreement. Base rent is the number everyone notices first. But the provisions below often determine what the space actually costs, how it may be used, and what happens if the business or property changes years after the lease is signed.
Here are the provisions to read first in any commercial lease, whether you are signing it or offering it. Tap or click a clause name at the edge of the page to see what it means and what it can cost you:
Clause 01
Personal Guaranty
What it means
A personal guaranty makes an individual responsible for some or all of the tenant’s obligations if the tenant does not perform. Landlords often require one when the tenant is a new business or has limited assets or operating history.
What it can cost you
A guaranty can expose your personal assets even after the business closes or leaves the space. Depending on its terms, you may remain responsible for unpaid rent, property damage, and other lease obligations. Forming an LLC does not protect you from obligations you personally guarantee.
What to settle before you sign
Determine whether a guaranty is necessary and, if so, how far it extends. Consider negotiating a fixed cap, a limited duration, a reduction over time, or a release after the tenant satisfies specified financial or performance conditions.
Clause 02
Triple Net and Common Area Charges
What it means
In a triple net lease, you pay base rent plus some or all of its share of the property's taxes, insurance, and maintenance expenses. In a multi-tenant property, common area maintenance charges may include costs associated with shared areas such as parking lots, landscaping, hallways, and lobbies. The label “triple net” does not determine which expenses are included, the lease’s definitions do.
What it can cost you
The rent you compared between buildings is only part of what you pay. Without a cap or clear exclusions, your share can rise with whatever the building costs to run, and the year-end reconciliation can arrive as a bill you did not plan for. A landlord with loose definitions can inherit the argument over what is a repair and what is a capital improvement.
What to settle before you sign
Clearly define which operating expenses may be passed through to the tenant and which must be excluded. Address how the tenant’s share is calculated, caps on controllable expenses, treatment of capital improvements, annual estimates and reconciliations, supporting documentation, and the tenant’s right to audit the charges.
Clause 03
Use Clause
What it means
It states what the space may be used for. Landlords often write it narrowly, around the business you run on the day you sign.
What it can cost you
Add a product line or a new service and you can be in default of a lease you have paid on time. The same narrow wording binds anyone you later hand the lease to, which can shrink the list of people able to buy your business. For a landlord, the use clause is how you protect the tenant mix and the promises made to other tenants.
What to settle before you sign
Your stated use plus related lawful uses that fit the building. If a competitor next door would hurt you, an exclusive that keeps the landlord from leasing to one.
Clause 04
Assignment and Subletting
What it means
It decides whether you can hand the lease to someone else or rent part of the space to another business, and what the landlord’s consent depends on. Many leases also treat a sale of your company as an assignment, even though the lease itself never changes hands.
What it can cost you
It matters the day you sell your business. Your buyer is buying the location too, and a landlord who can refuse for any reason has a say in your sale, with room to ask for more rent in exchange for a yes.
What to settle before you sign
A deadline for the landlord’s answer, room to transfer the lease to a related company or to your buyer, and consent that cannot be unreasonably withheld, conditioned or delayed, meaning the landlord needs a real reason to say no or to stall.
Clause 05
Renewal and Expansion Options
What it means
Rights to extend the lease, or to take more space in the building, on terms agreed now. Most have to be exercised by written notice inside a set window before the term ends.
What it can cost you
An option to renew at market rent with no way to set that rent is a promise to negotiate later, when moving the business is your only alternative. Miss the notice window and the option is usually gone. Without an expansion right, a growing business may have to move to grow.
What to settle before you sign
A stated renewal rent or a defined way to set it, the notice date on your calendar the day you sign and, if you expect to grow, a right of first offer, meaning the landlord must offer you nearby space before marketing it to others.
Clause 06
Tenant Improvements
What it means
The build-out that turns the space into your space: who designs it, who builds it, who pays for it and what happens to it when you leave. The landlord may contribute an allowance or deliver the space finished to an agreed plan.
What it can cost you
Overruns past the allowance usually land on you. Rent can start on a calendar date while the space is still under construction. And a restoration clause can make you pay to tear the improvements out at the end of the term.
What to settle before you sign
Rent that starts when the space is delivered in a defined condition, a clear allowance with a payment deadline and a written list of anything you must remove when you leave.
Clause 07
Default and Exit
What it means
What counts as a breach, how much notice and time each side gets to fix it, what the landlord can do next and whether you have any right to leave early.
What it can cost you
A short cure period can turn a late payment or a lapsed insurance certificate into a default. Depending on the lease, the landlord may then be able to pursue rent for the rest of the term, plus its legal fees. For a landlord, a vague default clause makes getting the space back slower and more expensive.
What to settle before you sign
Written notice and a fair cure period for both sides. If your plans could change, an early termination right or a clear path to sublet.
Reviewing a Lease or Drafting One
If you are the tenant
A commercial real estate attorney reads the landlord’s proposed lease, explains your obligation in plain language, identifies financial and operational risks, and negotiates the provisions that matter most to your business. The best time to address issues such as a personal guaranty, operating expense limits, permitted use, and the assignment terms is often during the letter of intent, before the business terms feel settled.
If you are the landlord
Your attorney drafts a lease that protects the property, clearly defines the costs passed through to the tenant, and provides practical remedies if the tenant stops paying, damages the premises, or leaves early. A well-prepared form also gives you a reliable starting point for future tenants while allowing each lease to be tailored to the particular space and deal.
For the longer version of what may be open to negotiation, read the guide to commercial lease negotiation in Colorado.
Schedule a free consultation before you sign to discuss the lease, your concerns, and how our firm may be able to help.
Schedule a Free ConsultationWhat Working With Hristopoulos Law Looks Like
Hristopoulos Law is a Denver firm founded to give business owners and real estate investors sophisticated legal counsel without the feel or cost structure of a large firm. Here is what that means for your deal:
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You Talk to Your Attorney
You work directly with your attorney, every step of the way. The attorneys who review your contract are the same people who answer your call.
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Lawyers Who Do Deals
The firm focuses on transactional work, including purchase agreements, commercial leases, buying entities, and the closing. Your attorney's role is to help you understand the terms, protect your interests, and move the transaction toward closing, not to prepare for litigation.
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The Initial Consultation Is Free
Bring the letter of intent, the purchase contract or the lease, and we will discuss your transaction, the legal services it may require, and the anticipated cost before you decide whether to hire the firm.
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Bring It In Before You Sign
The best time to contact an attorney is before you sign the letter of intent, purchase contract, or lease. If the contract is already signed and the deadlines are running, contact us promptly. The sooner an attorney reviews the documents, the more time you may have to protect your rights and address potential issues.
Your attorneys
- Spiro Hristopoulos Founder & Managing Attorney
- Chris Tzortzis Attorney
- Nicholas Kehr Of Counsel
Questions About Hiring a Colorado Real Estate Attorney
Short, plain answers to what business owners and investors ask before they bring a lawyer into a commercial deal.
Does Colorado Require an Attorney for a Commercial Real Estate Deal
No. Colorado generally does not require an attorney to represent a party in a commercial purchase, sale, or lease. A broker can assist with the transaction, but a broker does not replace legal counsel. Without an attorney, you may not have anyone focused specifically on interpreting the contract, identifying legal risks, drafting customized provisions, and advising you about the legal consequences of the terms before you sign. Whether to obtain that protection is generally your decision.
When Should You Bring In a Commercial Real Estate Attorney
When you receive the first document that sets the deal terms, often the letter of intent or the landlord’s proposal on a lease. You should also consider calling an attorney when: a seller hands you a contract their own attorney drafted, you are purchasing a building with existing tenant leases, you are asked to sign a personal guaranty, or you are forming a new entity to purchase and hold the property. These issues are generally easier to negotiate and structure before you sign than to correct afterward.
What Does a Real Estate Attorney Cost in Denver
There is no single price, because the scope of the legal work depends on the transaction. Reviewing a lease for one suite is typically a smaller engagement than negotiating the purchase of a tenant-occupied building involving financing and a new entity to form. During the free consultation, you can discuss the transaction, the legal services it may require, and the anticipated cost before deciding whether to hire the firm. Consider that cost against the potential consequences of a missed objection deadline, an unexpected lease expense, or an open-ended personal guaranty.
Will an Attorney Slow Down Your Deal
Not when the attorney becomes involved early. Transactions are more likely to stall when problems are found late, such as an overlooked title exception, a tenant estoppel that does not match the rent roll, or a lender requiring a purchasing entity that has not yet been formed. Your attorney works within the contract deadlines and raises issues while there is still time to address them. The goal is not to contest every provision, but to protect the terms that matter, identify points that do not justify delaying the transaction, and help move the deal you want toward closing.
Will an Attorney Work With Your Broker
Yes, and you do not have to choose between them. Your broker finds the property or the tenant, keeps the other side talking and fills in the state form. Your attorney explains the legal effect of those forms, drafts additional provisions when needed, and reviews the title, lease, financing, and closing documents. Both work from the same contract's deadlines to keep the transaction moving. You keep the broker you trust while adding legal counsel focused on protecting your rights and interests under the agreement.
How Do You Find a Real Estate Attorney Near You in Denver
Hristopoulos Law primarily meets with clients virtually, making it convenient to obtain legal assistance wherever you are in Colorado. In-person meetings are also available by appointment only at our office at 3900 E. Mexico Avenue, Suite 300, Denver, Colorado. Please schedule an appointment rather than stopping by to ensure we are available to meet. You do not need to be in Denver to work with the firm. Hristopoulos Law assists clients with commercial real estate transactions throughout Colorado, including the review and negotiation of purchase contracts and leases. To speak directly with a Denver commercial real estate attorney, start by completing our free consultation form.
Every deal raises its own questions. Bring yours, with the contract or lease, to a free consultation.
Ready to Talk Through Your Deal
The deadlines in your contract start counting the day it is signed. A call before then generally costs less than a problem found after.
At Hristopoulos Law, we work with Colorado buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants who want to know what they are agreeing to before they sign. Whether you need a commercial real estate attorney to read a purchase contract, or negotiate a lease, we are here to help.