What Central Park Landlords Need to Know about Zillow’s New “Total Price” Feature
Joe Phillips • January 7, 2026
What Central Park Landlords Need to Know about Zillow’s New “Total Price” Feature
Colorado’s new “total price” law and Zillow’s Total Price feature are about to change how rent is advertised in Central Park and across the state. For renters, this means fewer surprise fees; for landlords, it means rethinking how you structure and present your rental pricing online.
Hopefully this blog post helps explain it so people that are self-managing their rentals can get into compliance. If you’re self-managing and need assistance we’d love to help! In addition to helping people buy and sell homes, we manage rentals in and around Denver’s Central Park neighborhood. Learn more on the property management section of our website or set up a chat with me here at your convenience.
The New Colorado Total Price Law
Colorado’s HB25‑1090, the “Protections Against Deceptive Pricing Practices Act,” took effect January 1, 2026 and applies to rental housing. The law requires any advertised rent to clearly show a single “total price” that includes all mandatory, non‑government charges tied to occupancy.
- Landlords and property managers may no longer advertise a low base rent and then tack on unavoidable fees like trash, amenities, or required parking fees later in the process.
- The Division of Real Estate and the Attorney General both stress that the total price must be clear, conspicuous, and more prominent than any lower teaser price.
How Zillow’s Total Price Feature Fits In
Since Zillow is the primary platform where most tenants find rentals, it’s important that we understand how rental properties show up on Zillow to make sure they’re in compliance with the new law.
Zillow has rolled out a new “Total price” display that lines up with these transparency rules, in the spirit of helping landlords comply with the new law. When a housing provider turns this feature on and supplies full fee data, Zillow shows an all‑in monthly amount marked with a “Total Price” badge and checkmark across search results, listing pages, emails, and alerts.
- Zillow defines Total Price as base monthly rent plus all fixed, required monthly fees—for a standard 12‑month lease—excluding variable usage‑based utilities and optional services.
- Listings that do not send complete fee data are labeled “Fees may apply,” signaling to renters that the advertised price may not reflect everything they will have to pay.
For Central Park renters, that badge is a shortcut to “what will this really cost me each month?” and for compliant landlords it becomes a visible trust signal.
Here is an example of the “Total Price” display we’re talking about this post:
What Must Be Included in the “Total Price”
Under Colorado law and Zillow’s Total Price design, any charge that every tenant MUST pay, every month, to live in the home belongs in the total price. In practice, that usually means:
- Base monthly rent (the core lease amount).
- Flat, mandatory monthly utility bundles charged by the landlord (for example, a set water/sewer/trash/recycling fee that is not billed directly by the utility company).
- Required monthly recycling fees, pest‑control fees, “resident benefit package” fees, technology or billing fees, and similar recurring charges that every household must pay.
- Required monthly parking or amenity fees when they are not truly optional—such as a building where each unit must lease a parking space or pay for amenities.
Legally, these amounts need to be rolled into the advertised total or clearly represented such that the total price is the primary number renters see. Zillow’s Total Price accomplishes this by calculating one combined monthly figure and then itemizing the components in the Costs & Fees breakdown.
What Can Be Broken Out Separately
Not every possible cost has to sit inside the Total Price, and both Colorado and Zillow recognize important exceptions. These can be listed separately, as long as they’re clearly disclosed:
- Variable usage‑based utilities that are billed by third‑party providers (for example, electricity or gas where the tenant pays the bill directly and the amount depends on their usage).
- Optional recurring services, where the tenant makes a meaningful choice, such as:
- Optional parking (if not required for every tenant).
- Optional storage units.
- Optional internet or cable packages.
- Pet‑related costs when they only apply to some households, such as:
- Pet rent
- Pet deposits
- One‑time fees, like application fees (where allowed), move‑in fees, or key fob fees, which can be highlighted separately but must still be disclosed clearly.
Zillow’s interface separates these as “optional” or “may vary with usage,” so renters can see what is required versus what depends on their choices or consumption. That breakdown is where landlords can explain, for example, that electricity is separately metered or that pet fees applies only if the household has a pet.
What This Means For Landlords In 2026
The combination of HB25‑1090 and Zillow’s Total Price display will materially change how Colorado landlords market their homes.
- Landlords, regardless of size of rental portfolio, should audit their fee structures now—identifying which monthly charges are truly mandatory and moving those into the total price, while cleaning up or eliminating “junk” fees that cannot be justified.
- Marketing materials, websites, and syndication feeds should be updated so that the primary advertised price is “rent plus all required monthly fees,” with optional and variable items clearly itemized but not hidden.
- On Zillow specifically, enabling the Total Price feature and providing complete fee data will both support legal compliance and signal to renters that the listing is transparent and aligned with Colorado’s new consumer‑protection standards.
For renters, this shift should mean far fewer frustrating surprises at the lease‑signing stage and a clearer sense of which homes truly fit within a monthly budget. For landlords and property managers who embrace the change early, it is an opportunity to stand out as candid, compliant, and consumer‑friendly in a market that is rapidly moving away from hidden fees.
If you’d like help managing a property in or around Central Park we’d love to help. You can set up your exploratory call here. We’re always low pressure, with a focus on adding value and establishing long term, successful relationships.
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Is Focus Real Estate the Right Fit for Your Property Management Needs? Is Focus Real Estate the right fit for your property management needs? We spend a lot of time talking to prospective property management clients early in the process as we help them answer that very question in their minds. To save time for you and for us, we wrote this blog post that explains who we’re a good fit for…and who we aren’t a good fit for! Providing great service is largely dependent on knowing our ideal client and pouring all your efforts into serving them, rather than trying to be the right fit for everyone. Before we jump into this post, I want to mention that we provide both brokerage (buying/selling) and property management services to the Central Park community. If you need either of those services we’d love to help, and you can find more info on our website . Ok…back to helping you decide if we’re the right property manager for you. Property management is a long-term relationship and it’s critical that both you as the property owner and us as the manager feel good about the relationship. If we’re not a good fit based on investment philosophy, communication style, personality type, etc we’d rather figure that out upfront as that’s best for you and us. Let’s review who we’re a good fit for and see if that’s you! If you prefer to watch a video on this topic you can find that here . We’re a good fit to be your property manager if: You have a relatively newer home (built in 1990 or later) and it’s located within Central Park or 15 minutes of there. Why are we only serving this area? Because this is where we live, where we’ve been buying/selling homes for 13+ years and where we are confident we can provide a high level of service. We don’t believe in the “we go anywhere and do anything” approach to business, which we think often results in a diluted, generic level of service. ( Here is a sample of the homes we manage )
Considering renting out a home you own in the Central Park neighborhood of Denver but not sure what it would rent for? We’ve got you covered! Check out our latest version of the Central Park Rental Rate Cheat Sheet below. At Focus Real Estate we help busy people in Central Park with their real estate needs, whether they want to buy, sell, rent or need help with property management. We focus exclusively on Central Park so we can provide our clients with a very high level of service. In this post we’ll focus on the property management side of our business, and specifically on helping you understand the rent you could expect to receive on your Central Park home. When we talk to homeowners who potentially want us to manage their home one of their first questions is naturally “What would my home rent for?”. Of course, the exact answer is dependent on a lot of factors; the time of year, the availability of other similar rental homes, the finish level of the home, the location of the home, the bedroom/bath count, the layout and more! That said, because we just focus exclusively on this area, we can provide a general rental range for homeowner’s based on their home type, and that’s exactly what we’ve done with our Central Park Rental Rate Cheat Sheet! Before we give you the cheat sheet, we want to explain a few key points: The cheat sheet is broken out by property type and includes a likely rental range for carriage homes (also called a “mother-in-law” apartment), small/large condos, small/mid/large/luxury townhomes, small/large paired homes, and small/mid/large/luxury single family homes. The rental rates in this cheat sheet assume the home is in good condition, is unfurnished, would be available for lease in ~ 12 month increments and the tenant pays all utilities. In short, these are typical long term rental rates, they are not short term rates (night by night Airbnb) or mid-term rates (30/60/90 days). Why would we give away this information? Couldn’t a homeowner take it and go rent out their own home without us as their property manager? Our goal is always to be a source of useful, good information. Sure, someone could take these rental rates and go rent out their home, but the true value of property management is really offloading all the work, headaches and details that come with it! Here is a list of all the services we provide and the pricing . If the ballpark rental rate range for you home in the Central Park Rental Rate Cheat Sheet below appeals to you, the next step would be to schedule a call with us ! In this easy, low pressure call we’ll get to know you, your goals and see if we’re a good fit to manage your property. Here is the cheat sheet, hope it’s helpful!
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Keeping a rental property in top condition requires the right professionals, and Emerald Window Cleaning is one of our trusted local vendors. With over eight years of experience, owner Luis Estrella and his team specialize in window cleaning, screen repair, and seasonal maintenance—helping homeowners and property managers maintain their properties year-round.
Worn-out window screens can make a home look neglected, invite pests inside, and reduce energy efficiency. To help, Emerald Window Cleaning is offering a limited-time special—most window screens can be repaired for just $25 each. Now is the perfect time to schedule repairs before peak rental season!
Beyond window services, Emerald Window Cleaning also provides gutter cleaning and Christmas light installation, making them a great resource for year-round property maintenance.
Learn more about their services and how to schedule an appointment in our latest blog post!
Building a new home in Stapleton, or any neighborhood, from the ground up can be a great experience. My family and I did it, we love our new home and I’ve been lucky enough to help other families navigate the building process as well. That said, buying new is very different from buying a resale, especially when it comes to the contract that is used. Builders have their own in-house contracts they use rather than using the Colorado approved forms, which were designed to handle resale transactions. My goal is to help buyers understand some of these differences between a builder contract and a standard resale contract. I’m a big supporter of the builders so I don’t want this to come off as negative, but these are the recurring issues that buyers ask me if they can change when they read the builder contracts. 7 Things to Know about New Home Builder Contracts: 1. Earnest money on a new build is typically much more than a resale. A builder is building a home for you and allowing you to pick all the structural upgrades and finishes. There is risk involved with that (if you fall through that next buyer may not love the green carpet you picked!) so they usually require earnest money upon signing the contract and then additional earnest money as a percentage of the finishes that are selected along the way. (amount varies by builder) 2. The buyer’s loan “out” may not be as favorable as it is on a resale. On a resale transaction in Colorado buyers can back out all the way up to their Loan Objection Deadline if they have a loan problem, typically with no loss of their earnest money. With new builds, a buyer typically has 30 -45 days to back out based on loan reasons but there are often penalties that the builder will hold back from the buyer’s earnest money. Even if they tell you there is a loan “out” be cautious and read the fine print in their contract. If the buyer’s loan falls through late in the building process the builder typically keeps the earnest money. 3. Builder contracts are not contingent upon an appraisal. Meaning if the appraisal of the home comes in low once it’s built the builder is not obligated to drop their price to match the appraisal. The lender can still lend on it but because it appraised low the buyer will have to bring more cash to the table to keep the lender happy. The buyer can’t back out if the appraisal is low, unlike a resale, without losing earnest money. 4. Builders typically give themselves 1 – 2 years to build the home per the contract. This always makes buyers nervous. They are expecting to have the home built in 8 months based on conversations with the sales staff but when it comes time to sign the contract the builders give themselves a ton of leeway and most builders say they have 2 years to build it. (I’ve never seen one last even close to 2 years) 5. Inspections on a new build are different. When you inspect your home on a resale you can back out of the deal if you find issues. If you find issues on a new build you can’t back out but they will fix them for you if you are still in the building process. (or under warranty after closing) 6. Builders do not offer a lot of flexibility for changes. Buyers should know that most builders are “production builders”, meaning they build off a preset plan they offer their clients. Builders aren’t typically set up to make a lot of custom changes, so what you see in the floor plan is what you get. “Custom” builders are the ones who serve clients who want to build something completely unique where changes are encouraged. 7. Lastly, new build contracts involve time frames that are much longer than resale ones, so buyers can’t lock their interest rates right away because lenders don’t usually lock rates that long. New home buyers will need to wait to lock their rate later in the building process. In a rising rate environment this can be nerve racking. So those are the 7 most common issues that buyers have once they review their builder contracts. Am I saying new homes are bad compared to resale? Absolutely not! They are a great fit for many of my buyers because they offer flexibility, customization and often the longer building time allows the client to sell their existing home. I just want buyers to go into the contract process knowing it will be a little different than the resale transactions they’ve done in the past. Can anything be done by buyers to negotiate on some of these items from the builder contract? I’ll give you the attorney answer….it depends! Your leverage as a buyer depends on the state of the market and currently it’s a seller’s market…so builders don’t need to be flexible on making changes for their buyers. If you don’t like their terms there are other buyers that do right now. As the market balances, and eventually shifts back to a buyer’s market (real estate is always a cycle) buyer’s will gain more power and builders will be more eager to adjust some of these contract items. I’m not saying you shouldn’t try to improve the contract but I want to be upfront with clients that if they want a ton of changes made to the contract it’s not happening in the current market. Hope this has helped set the right expectations regarding some of the differences between builder contracts and resale ones. If you have questions or if I can be of service as you make your next move I’d love to help! As a Realtor I’m not affiliated with any one builder so I can show clients the new and resale market to help them find the home that fits their needs!