Appraisal prep in 2 minutes: how real estate agents can use Claude to build a one-page appraisal brief

I used to spend an hour getting ready for an appraisal.

Most of that hour wasn't thinking. It was gathering. Opening the notes from the first phone call, pulling up the comparable sales, finding the council details, flicking between tabs and trying to hold it all in my head on the drive over.

The thinking part, working out what this home is worth and why, only works once everything is in one place. That's the part worth your time. The gathering is a job, and it's one you can hand over.

The idea: one folder in, one page out

This builds on everything from earlier in the series. Instead of asking Claude about appraisals in general, you give it the job with your actual files.

Drop three things into one folder:

• Your notes. Whatever you've got from the first call or email with the owner. Typed notes, a copied email, a quick text file.
• The comparable sales. The recent sales you'd normally look at, exported or saved from wherever you usually get them.
• The council info. Zoning, land size, anything you've saved about the property from the council or other records.

Then ask Claude for a one-page brief. It reads every file, pulls out what matters, and hands you a single page you can read in the car before you knock on the door.

You walk in knowing the numbers.

Why this matters for an agent's week

An appraisal is often your first proper meeting with a potential seller. They're deciding whether to trust you with what is likely their biggest asset. Walking in prepared, with the recent sales at your fingertips and a sense of what makes their home different, shows them you've done the work.

The problem is that appraisals don't arrive one at a time on a quiet afternoon. They land in between open homes, follow-up calls, contracts and everything else. When preparation takes a big chunk of time, it's the first thing to get squeezed.

A one-page brief doesn't replace your judgement. It just gets the facts lined up so your judgement has something to work with.

The Day 6 prompt

Read everything in this folder about [address]. Make me a one-page appraisal brief: the property, the 3 most comparable recent sales with prices and dates, what makes this home different, and 3 questions I should ask the owner. Only use what's in the files.

Here's what each part is doing.

"Read everything in this folder about [address]." This tells Claude what to look at and which property it's about. Swap in the real address. If your folder has a sales export that covers a whole suburb, the address keeps it focused on the right home.

"Make me a one-page appraisal brief." This sets the shape of what you get back. One page is the point. You want something you can scan in a couple of minutes, not a report.

"The property." A short summary of the home itself, drawn from your notes and the council info: land, bedrooms, features, anything the owner told you.

"The 3 most comparable recent sales with prices and dates." This asks Claude to pick the closest matches from your sales file, not list everything. Asking for prices and dates means you can see straight away how recent each sale is and check it against your source.

"What makes this home different." This is where the brief becomes useful in the room. It pulls out what sets this property apart from the comparable sales, good or bad, so you're ready to talk about it.

"3 questions I should ask the owner." Based on gaps or details in your files, Claude suggests questions worth asking. Often these are things the notes hint at but don't answer.

"Only use what's in the files." This is the most important line. Without it, Claude may fill gaps with general knowledge or guesses. With it, if something isn't in your files, it should say so rather than make it up. In an appraisal, a wrong number is worse than a missing one.

Try it yourself

1. Make a new folder for one property. Name it after the address so it's easy to find.
2. Add the files. Your notes, the comparable sales and any council info you have. Copies, not originals.
3. Open the Claude desktop app and add that folder. Under the message box, choose the option to work in a project or folder, and pick the one you just made. Just that folder.
4. Paste the prompt and replace [address] with the real address.
5. Ask for the plan first if you want it saved as a file. Add "show me your plan first" to the end. Once you're happy, let Claude save the brief into that folder.
6. Check the numbers. Open your sales file and confirm the three sales, prices and dates match. This takes a moment and it's worth doing every time.
7. Read the questions. Keep the ones that fit, cross out the ones that don't, and add your own.

If the brief says something is missing, that's useful too. It tells you what to find or ask before the appointment.

Keep the safety habits

Appraisal files often hold an owner's name, phone number and personal circumstances. That makes the habits from earlier in the series matter even more here.

• One narrow folder per property. Don't add your whole client database or your whole computer. If it isn't in the folder, Claude isn't reading it. If you missed why this matters, Day 5 covers it.
• Keep approvals on for anything that sends, spends or deletes. This job only needs Claude to read files and save one new one. Nothing should be emailed or removed.
• Ask for the plan first. Especially the first few times, so you can see what it intends to do before it does it.
• Check what your office expects. The rules about how client information is handled depend on where you work, so it's worth knowing yours before you start.

Where to go from here

The brief isn't the appraisal. You still walk through the home, listen to the owner and form your own view on price. What changes is that you arrive with the facts already in order, so your attention goes on the people and the property instead of on remembering numbers.

Try it on your next appraisal. One folder, one prompt, one page. Then look at what you'd change, and adjust the prompt to suit the way you work.

Missed yesterday? Day 5: Don't give AI your whole computer

Every prompt from the series is on my free prompts page, with a new one each day as the episodes go up, ready to copy.