Buyer-side work

Screen a new listing against your buyer

The ten-minute deep screen for the criteria no portal filter can express: orientation, power lines, street character, and everything else your buyer actually said.

The idea

What this does

Portal filters stop at beds, baths, and price. Your buyer's real list ("single-story for mom, south-facing yard, no overhead lines, quiet street, room for an ADU someday") lives in the photos, the map, and the records, which is exactly where you burn evenings scanning. This prompt turns each new candidate into a five-minute verdict: paste the listing details and photos, keep your buyer's criteria on file, and get back a matched-or-not read with reasons. Set it up once per buyer as a project in your AI tool and the screen gets faster every time.

Gather these first

Before you start

Your buyer's full criteria in plain words, including the unfilterable ones
The candidate listing: paste the public remarks and details, and attach the listing photos you have access to
Two minutes, honestly

Step by step

How to use it

One-time setup per buyer: create a project named for the buyer in your AI tool (Claude and ChatGPT call these Projects, Gemini calls them Gems: a folder that keeps context; paste the criteria into its instructions). No project feature? Just include the criteria block each time.
When a candidate appears, start a chat in that Project, paste the listing details, attach photos, and paste the prompt.
Read the verdict and the "cannot tell from here" list; the second one is your showing checklist.
Forward the strong ones to your client with the reasons attached; that "why it fits you" note is the part they remember.

Copy everything in the box

The prompt

Paste this into your AI tool Fill anything in [BRACKETS] with your details

You are a listing screener for me, a buyer's agent. Screen this candidate property against my buyer's criteria and tell me if it deserves a showing. MY BUYER'S CRITERIA, in priority order: [e.g. 1) single-story or main-floor primary, 2) yard with real sun, south or west exposure, 3) no overhead high-voltage lines visible, 4) quiet street, not a cut-through, 5) space for a future ADU, 6) under $1.5M, 7) avoids major flood/fire zones] THE CANDIDATE: [PASTE LISTING DETAILS AND PUBLIC REMARKS; ATTACH LISTING PHOTOS] Produce: 1. VERDICT LINE. Show it, skip it, or borderline, with a one-sentence reason. 2. CRITERION BY CRITERION. For each of my buyer's criteria: met, not met, or cannot tell from the materials, with the evidence (quote the remarks, describe what you see in a photo, or reason from the address and lot description). Never guess an orientation or lot fact you cannot support; put it in "cannot tell." 3. WHAT THE PHOTOS SAY. Anything in the photos worth noting beyond my criteria: condition tells, ages of systems where visible, staging hiding something, obvious red flags. 4. CANNOT-TELL CHECKLIST. The specific things to verify at a showing or from records (orientation, noise at rush hour, panel, lines behind the fence), phrased as a checklist I can take with me. 5. CLIENT NOTE. If the verdict is "show it": three warm, plain sentences to my buyer on why this one is worth their Saturday, tied to THEIR stated criteria. Rules: evidence for every judgment, honest "cannot tell" over confident guessing, and no commentary about neighborhood demographics, only the property and documented facts.

→Anything in [BRACKETS] is yours to fill in. Delete a bracket line if it does not apply; the prompt still works.

The result

What you'll get back

A show-or-skip verdict in the time the coffee takes
Criterion-level evidence, including honest "cannot tell" flags
A showing checklist generated from exactly what could not be verified
A client note that proves you screened it against their list, not a feed

Level it up

Make it yours

The project setup is the unlock: criteria saved once, every screen afterward is paste-and-go, and the AI keeps context across candidates.
Ask "compare this one against the two we screened yesterday" inside the project.
When the criteria change mid-search (they always do), update the project instructions and note the date.

Keep it honest

Photo reads are hints, not facts; the cannot-tell checklist is where the truth gets settled.
Respect your MLS and portal terms on where listing content gets pasted; public remarks and photos you are licensed to use are the safe zone.
The screen serves your judgment; if your gut disagrees with the verdict, the gut gets the showing.