Matt Manser: SI for real estate agents

The Friday vendor update: how real estate agents can use Claude to draft it every week

Matt Manser — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Vendors don't leave because the house didn't sell. They leave because nobody told them anything.

That's the uncomfortable truth about vendor relationships. A slow campaign can be explained. A quiet agent can't. When a vendor hasn't heard from you in a week, they fill the gap themselves, and what they fill it with is rarely kind to you.

Today is about closing that gap with one scheduled job. Every Friday, Claude reads the week's notes for a listing and drafts the vendor update. You check it and send it.

A quick reminder on words. I call it SI, super intelligence. Most people say AI. When I say SI I mean tools like Claude, made by Anthropic.

Why Friday, and why every week

The vendor update is one of those jobs everyone agrees matters and nobody enjoys. It isn't hard. It just arrives at the end of the week, when you're tired, and it means digging back through inspection notes, buyer comments and call logs to piece together what actually happened.

So it slips. Or it gets written in a rush and says very little.

The fix isn't trying harder. It's making the first draft turn up on its own. If the draft is already sitting there on Friday afternoon, the job shrinks from "write the update" to "read the update and press send". That's a much easier thing to keep doing every week.

Friday works because the week is done, the weekend open homes are coming, and a vendor who hears from you before the weekend goes into it knowing where things stand.

What the job actually is

This builds on the idea from Day 1: don't ask Claude about the job, give it the job.

Here the job is:

Read this week's notes for one property.
Pull out the inspection numbers, what buyers said and how strong the interest is.
Add your recommendation for next week.
Write it as a short, honest, warm update.
Save it as a draft, not send it.

The only new part is the timing. Instead of you remembering to ask on Friday, the task is set to run at the same time each week.

Where the notes come from

Claude can only report on what's in your notes. If the week's buyer feedback lives in your head, the draft will be thin.

That's not a reason to skip this. It's a good reason to keep a simple notes file per listing. After each open or private inspection, add a few lines: how many groups came through, any comments worth passing on, anyone who asked for a contract or a second look. Rough is fine. Claude does the tidying.

Keep those notes in one folder for that property. That folder is what you'll give Claude.

The Day 11 prompt

Prompt

Every Friday at 2pm: read this week's notes for [address] and draft my vendor update: inspections, what buyers said, interest level, and my recommendation for next week. Honest, warm, under 200 words. Save as a draft.

Here's what each part is doing.

"Every Friday at 2pm" sets the rhythm. It's early enough that you can read and send before the end of the day.
"read this week's notes for [address]" tells it exactly what to look at. One property, this week only. Swap in the real address.
"inspections, what buyers said, interest level, and my recommendation for next week" is the structure. Vendors want the same four things every time: how many came, what they thought, how keen they are, and what happens next.
"Honest, warm" sets the tone. Honest matters most. A vendor update that only reports good news isn't an update, and vendors can tell.
"under 200 words" keeps it readable on a phone. Vendors read these between other things.
"Save as a draft" is the safety line. Claude prepares it. You send it.

That last part is the one not to change. The update goes out in your name, to a client who is trusting you with their biggest asset. You read every one before it leaves.

Try it yourself

Make a folder for one listing. Put that property's notes file in it, plus anything else from the week you'd normally refer to. Copies are fine.
Open the Claude desktop app and add that folder. Just that one folder, the same way you did on Day 1.
Run it once by hand first. Paste the prompt without the "Every Friday at 2pm" part, with the real address filled in, and add "show me your plan first" at the end.
Read the draft closely. Check the inspection numbers match your notes. Check the buyer comments are accurate and fairly put. Check the recommendation is actually what you'd say.
Adjust the prompt if needed. If it's too formal, say so. If you always sign off a certain way, add that. Get the one-off version right before you schedule it.
Set it to run weekly. Use Claude's scheduling feature to run the full prompt every Friday at 2pm. Menu names vary between versions, so look for scheduled or recurring tasks in the app. Check how it works on your setup, as scheduled tasks generally need your computer on and the app running at that time.
On Friday, read and send. Open the draft, make any changes, and send it yourself.

Start with one listing. Once you're happy with the drafts it produces, set up the same task for your other listings, each with its own folder.

Keep it tight

The same habits from earlier in the series apply here, and they matter more when a task runs on its own.

One narrow folder per listing. Vendor notes contain personal information about your clients and about buyers. Only the notes for that property should be in that folder. If it isn't in the folder, Claude isn't reading it.
Approvals on for anything that sends, spends or deletes. If you've connected Claude to your email, keep it set so nothing goes out without you saying yes. This task saves a draft. It shouldn't be sending anything.
"Show me your plan first" while you're setting it up. Once the drafts are consistently right, you can drop it from the scheduled version.
Check the numbers every time. A wrong inspection count in a vendor update does more damage than a late one.

The point of it

Vendors don't need a long report. They need to hear from you, regularly, with the truth and a plan. That's what keeps them with you through a slow week.

A scheduled draft doesn't replace the phone call when the news is hard. It makes sure the weekly update never quietly drops off your list in the first place.

Missed yesterday? Day 10: Every enquiry gets a reply draft

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.

Hi, I'm Matt Manser. I specialise in super intelligence (SI) and artificial intelligence (AI), and what they can do for real estate agents. I'm figuring it all out so you don't have to. I can help with anything from automating parts of your business to setting up your own AI CEO and a team of AI agents working behind the scenes to support you. You can do as little or as much as you like. Whether you're just getting started or ready to see what's possible, I'm here to guide you.

Every enquiry gets a reply draft: how real estate agents can use Claude to answer buyers and sellers faster

Matt Manser — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000

A buyer who waits a day for a reply has already called someone else.

Every agent knows this. And every agent has had the week where enquiries pile up anyway. You're at an appraisal, then an open, then a contract signing, and the inbox keeps filling. By the time you sit down at night, some of those messages are two or three days old.

Today's step is about closing that gap. Instead of writing every reply from scratch, you have Claude find the enquiries you haven't answered and draft a reply to each one. It drafts. You read it and press send.

Why this one matters

Most enquiries aren't hard to answer. Someone wants to know if the property is still available, when the next open is, whether there's a price guide, or what you'd think their place is worth. The answer usually takes a minute to work out. Writing it well, in a tone that sounds like you, takes longer. Multiply that by a full inbox and it's the job that keeps getting pushed to tomorrow.

That's what makes it a good job to hand over. The thinking is light, the writing is repetitive, and the cost of leaving it is real.

The goal isn't to take you out of it. It's to change your part from writing every reply to checking every reply. Thirty seconds each instead of thirty minutes.

Drafts, not sends

This is the most important line in today's post. Claude writes the drafts. It doesn't send them.

Email is outward-facing. Once something goes to a buyer or a seller, you can't take it back. So for this job, Claude's role ends at the draft. You're still the one who reads each reply, fixes anything that's off, and decides when it goes.

That's also why the prompt ends the way it does. More on that below.

What you need set up first

For Claude to read your inbox, it needs a connection to your email. In the Claude apps this is done through connectors, which you'll find in Settings. The episode shows Gmail, and the setup is similar for other email services where a connector is available. You sign in to your email account, give Claude permission, and from then on it can search and read your mail when you ask it to.

A couple of things to check when you connect:

What it can do. Look at what the connector is allowed to do. Reading and searching is what this job needs. If your setup can also save drafts, Claude can put them straight into your drafts folder. If it can't, it will show you the drafts in the conversation and you copy them across.
Approvals. Keep approvals on for anything that sends, spends or deletes. If Claude ever tries to do one of those things, you'll be asked first. For this job, the answer is no.

The Day 10 prompt

Prompt

Find every buyer or seller enquiry in my inbox from the last 3 days that I haven't replied to. Draft a reply to each one in my voice, answering what they actually asked. Save them as drafts. Do not send anything.

Here's what each part is doing.

"Find every buyer or seller enquiry" tells Claude what kind of email to look for. Not newsletters, not supplier invoices, not the office group chat. Just people asking you about a property or about selling.

"From the last 3 days" keeps the job narrow. It's the inbox version of adding one folder instead of your whole computer. A short window means fewer emails to work through and fewer chances of digging up old conversations you've already dealt with another way.

"That I haven't replied to" is the filter that makes this useful. Claude checks whether you've already answered, so you're not doubling up on replies.

"In my voice" asks it to write the way you write. It does this best when it has something to go on, like your sent emails or a sample of how you normally reply. More on that in the steps below.

"Answering what they actually asked" stops it writing a generic "thanks for your enquiry" email. If someone asked about parking, the reply should mention parking. If they asked about price, the reply should deal with price the way you normally would.

"Save them as drafts. Do not send anything." draws the line. Claude prepares, you decide.

Try it yourself

Connect your email. In the Claude app, go to Settings and find connectors. Add your email account and sign in. Check what it's allowed to do while you're there.
Give it a sample of your voice (optional, but worth it). Make a new folder and put in a short document with three or four replies you've sent before that you're happy with. Remove client names and details first. Add just that one folder to the conversation. This gives Claude a clear model to copy.
Start with a plan. Paste the Day 10 prompt, and add "show me your plan first" on the end. Claude will tell you how it's going to find the enquiries and what it's going to do with them before it does anything.
Check the list. Ask it to list the enquiries it found before drafting. Make sure they're the right ones, and that it hasn't missed any or included something that isn't an enquiry.
Let it draft. Once the list looks right, tell it to go ahead. If it asks for permission to save drafts, approve that. If it ever asks for permission to send, say no.
Read every draft. Open your drafts folder (or read them in the conversation). Check names, addresses, times and anything factual. Claude only knows what's in the email thread and whatever you've given it, so if a reply needs a price guide or an open time it can't see, fill that in yourself.
Send the ones you're happy with. Edit anything that doesn't sound like you. Then send.

The first time through, expect to change a few things. Tell Claude what you changed and why, so it can do better next time. "Shorter." "Less formal." "Always offer a call back." Small notes like that add up quickly.

A few habits to keep

Keep the window short. Three days is plenty. If you've let it go longer, run it on the most recent days first.
Never let it send. Even once you trust the drafts, the send button stays yours. It's the last check before something reaches a client.
Watch for personal information. Enquiries come with names, phone numbers and sometimes details about someone's circumstances. Only connect what you're comfortable with, and follow whatever rules apply where you work.
Check your connections now and then. Look in Settings to make sure the only accounts and folders connected are the ones you meant to share.

Where to go from here

The enquiries were always going to need a reply. The only question was how long people waited for it. Having the drafts ready means the slow part is done before you sit down, and all that's left is reading, tweaking and sending.

Run the prompt once today. Read what comes back. Send the ones that are right.

Missed yesterday? Day 9: The 6am morning debrief

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.

The 6am morning debrief: how to set up a daily Claude summary of your emails, leads and appointments

Matt Manser — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Every morning at 6am I get one message that tells me what matters today.

It isn't a newsletter or a dashboard I have to log in to. It's a short summary that Claude writes for me before the day starts: what's urgent, who needs a reply, which leads are waiting, and what's in the calendar.

I set it up once. It runs every weekday on its own.

A quick reminder on words. I call it SI, super intelligence. Most people say AI. When I say SI in this series I mean tools like Claude, made by Anthropic.

What the morning debrief actually is

Yesterday was about connecting your email and calendar to Claude. Once that's done, Claude can read them when you ask. Today is about not having to ask.

A scheduled task is a job you give Claude once, with a time attached. You write the instructions, pick when it should run, and Claude does the job at that time without you opening a chat and typing anything.

The morning debrief is the simplest useful scheduled task there is. Claude looks through the last 24 hours of email and today's calendar, sorts what it finds into a few groups, and gives you a short summary.

Why it matters for an agent

Most agents start the day by opening their inbox and scrolling. Somewhere in there is a buyer asking about a contract, a vendor wanting an update, a portal enquiry from overnight, and a dozen newsletters and notifications burying all of them.

The real cost isn't the reading. It's the sorting. Working out what's urgent, what can wait, and what's a lead that will go cold if nobody answers it this morning.

That sorting is a job, not a question, which is exactly the shift from Day 1. And it's a job that needs doing every single weekday, which makes it a good fit for a schedule.

A debrief also helps with the calendar side. An appraisal at 10am is easier to walk into when you've been reminded the night before's emails included a question from that same vendor.

The Day 9 prompt

This is the instruction you give the scheduled task. Paste it in as it is to start, then adjust it once you've seen a few mornings of results.

Prompt

Every weekday at 6am: review my emails from the last 24 hours and my calendar for today. Give me 1) urgent, 2) needs a reply, 3) leads, 4) today's appointments with what to prep. Keep it under 200 words.

Here's what each part does.

"Every weekday at 6am" sets the timing. Weekdays only, so it isn't writing you summaries on a Sunday unless you want it to. When you create the scheduled task you'll also set the time in the schedule settings, so make sure the two match.
"Review my emails from the last 24 hours and my calendar for today" tells it what to look at, and just as importantly, what not to. It isn't trawling your whole mailbox history, just the window that matters this morning.
"1) urgent" goes first, because it's the thing you most need to see before your coffee.
"2) needs a reply" catches the emails that aren't urgent but will become a problem if they sit for three days.
"3) leads" pulls enquiries out into their own list, so a new buyer or a possible appraisal doesn't get lost among the admin.
"4) today's appointments with what to prep" turns your calendar into a to-do list. Not just "11am, appraisal", but what you might need for it.
"Keep it under 200 words" is the part people skip and shouldn't. A debrief you can read in a minute gets read. A two-page report doesn't.

Notice what the prompt doesn't ask for. It doesn't ask Claude to reply to anything, file anything, or delete anything. It reads and reports. That's deliberate.

Try it yourself

Do this when you've got ten quiet minutes, not first thing on a busy morning.

Check your connections. Your email and calendar need to be connected to Claude first. If you haven't done that yet, start with Day 8.
Run it once by hand. Open a normal chat in the Claude desktop app and paste the prompt, but start it with "Show me your plan first, then do this once now:". Read the plan, let it run, and check the summary against your actual inbox. Did it miss anything urgent? Did it call a newsletter a lead?
Adjust the wording. If it got something wrong, tell it. For example, "anything from a portal enquiry address counts as a lead" or "ignore emails from these senders". Add those lines to the prompt.
Create the scheduled task. In the Claude desktop app, find the option for scheduled tasks and create a new one. Paste in your adjusted prompt, then set it to run on weekdays at 6am. The exact menu wording can change between app updates, so if you can't spot it, ask Claude in the app where scheduled tasks are.
Check how it runs. Look at whether your computer and the Claude app need to be on and awake at 6am for the task to run. If your laptop is closed in a bag at that hour, pick a time when it won't be, or leave it on.
Read the first week closely. For the first few mornings, compare the debrief with your inbox. Once it's consistently catching what matters, you can start trusting it as your first read of the day.

Keep it read-only

The morning debrief runs while you're asleep. That's the point, but it also means nobody is watching it run. So the safety habits from Day 1 matter more here, not less.

Read, don't act. Keep the scheduled version to reading and summarising. If you want Claude to draft replies, have it draft them for you to check and send yourself, rather than sending anything on its own.
Approvals on for anything that sends, spends or deletes. Leave those approvals switched on. A summary that runs at 6am shouldn't be able to send an email at 6am without you saying yes.
Only connect what the job needs. For this task, that's your email and your calendar. It doesn't need access to every folder on your computer. If you want it to save each debrief as a file, give it one narrow folder for that and nothing else.
Mind the client details. Your inbox is full of personal information. Make sure the way you're using Claude fits the privacy rules where you work, and keep the summary somewhere only you can see it.
Show me your plan first. Any time you change the instructions, run it once by hand with "show me your plan first" before you let the schedule take over again.

You can give it more to do later, once you've seen it behave. Start with read-only.

Where to go from here

The morning debrief is a small thing. One short message, five days a week. But it's the first job in this series that happens without you starting it, and that's a different way of working with Claude.

Once you're comfortable with one scheduled task, you'll start noticing other jobs that happen on a rhythm: a weekly check of listings, a Friday wrap-up, a reminder list before open homes. Each one works the same way. Write clear instructions, test it by hand, then put it on a schedule.

Missed yesterday? Day 8: Connect your email and calendar

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.

Connect your email and calendar: the day Claude stops being a chatbot for real estate agents

Matt Manser — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000

This is the day Claude stopped being a chatbot for me.

Up to now in this series, Claude has only known what you've shown it. A folder of files, a pasted document, a photo of a receipt. That's useful, but it means you're always the one carrying information to it.

Connecting your email and calendar changes that. Claude can look at what's actually happening in your business, your appointments and the messages coming in, and tell you what needs your attention.

A quick reminder on words. I call it SI, super intelligence. Most people say AI. When I say SI I mean tools like Claude, made by Anthropic.

What connecting actually means

Claude has a feature called connectors. A connector links Claude to another service you already use, so it can read from it when you ask.

Today we're adding two: Gmail and Google Calendar.

Once they're connected, you don't need to copy emails into the chat or type out your week. You ask, and Claude looks for itself. It can search your inbox, read threads, check what's in your calendar, and pull it together into something you can act on.

Here's the part that matters most. It reads, and it drafts, but it never sends anything without you. You stay the one who decides what goes out.

Why this matters for an agent's week

Our week runs on two things: appointments and messages.

Appraisals, open inspections, buyer follow-ups, vendor updates, conveyancer emails, settlement dates. Most of it lives in the inbox and the calendar, and the hard part usually isn't doing any single task. It's keeping track of everything at once.

That's what this step helps with. Instead of scrolling back through two days of email wondering what you've missed, you can ask Claude to look and tell you. Instead of opening tomorrow's appointment and trying to remember what it's about, Claude can find the related emails and remind you.

It's the difference between an assistant who waits for you to hand them things and one who can check the diary and the inbox themselves.

How to connect Gmail and Google Calendar

Menu names shift a little between versions, but the steps look roughly like this.

Open Claude and go to Settings. You'll find it from your name or profile icon.
Find Connectors. This is where Claude lists the services it can link to.
Choose Gmail and connect it. You'll be sent to a Google sign-in page. Sign in with the account you use for work and read what Claude is asking permission to do before you allow it.
Do the same for Google Calendar.
Check they're switched on in your chat. In a new conversation, look in the tools or connectors menu near the message box and make sure both are enabled.

If your work email isn't Gmail, have a look through the Connectors list for your provider. What's available can depend on your plan and setup.

The Day 8 prompt

This is the prompt for today. Like Day 1, it doesn't change anything. It only reads and reports back.

Prompt

Look at my calendar for this week and my emails from the last 2 days. What do I need to prepare for, and which emails still need a reply?

Here's what each part is doing.

"Look at my calendar for this week" tells Claude where to start and keeps it to a sensible window. Not your whole year, just the days you're actually about to work.

"and my emails from the last 2 days" puts a limit on the inbox too. Two days is recent enough to be relevant and small enough to read properly. You can widen it later.

"What do I need to prepare for" asks Claude to connect the two. It looks at what's coming up and tells you what each appointment needs from you, often using details it found in your emails.

"and which emails still need a reply?" turns a scroll through your inbox into a short list. Claude checks which threads are still waiting on you, so you can see what's outstanding at a glance.

Notice the prompt is a job, not a question about how to manage email. It says what to look at and what to give back, which is the habit we've been building since Day 1.

Try it yourself

Connect Gmail and Google Calendar using the steps above.
Start a new conversation and check both connectors are switched on.
Paste the Day 8 prompt and send it.
Read what comes back. Check it against what you know. Did it catch the appointments you expected? Are the emails it flagged really the ones waiting on you?
Pick one email from its list and ask Claude to draft a reply. Read the draft, change what you'd say differently, and send it yourself if you're happy with it.
Pick one appointment and ask Claude to pull together everything it can find about it from your recent emails, so you walk in prepared.

Do this at the start of a working day and you'll get a feel for how useful it is quickly.

Keep the reins tight

Your inbox holds a lot of personal information about clients, so the same safety habits from earlier in the series apply, and they matter more here.

Connect only what you need. The same idea as giving Claude one narrow folder instead of your whole computer. Connect the work accounts this job needs, and nothing else. You can disconnect anything from Connectors at any time.
Keep approvals on for anything that sends, spends or deletes. Reading and drafting is fine. Anything that leaves your account or removes something should wait for your yes.
Ask for the plan first. For anything bigger than a summary, end your request with "show me your plan first" so you see what Claude intends to do before it does it.
Know your office's rules. How client information can be handled depends on where you work. Check before you connect a work account.

It's worth going back into Connectors now and then to check the list is only what you meant to share.

Where to go from here

Once your email and calendar are connected, Claude isn't working blind any more. It can see your week and your inbox, and it can help you stay on top of both without you carrying everything to it.

Start small. Run today's prompt once a day for a week, check its answers against what you know, and get used to reviewing its drafts. Trust builds from there.

Missed yesterday? Day 7: Receipts to a spreadsheet

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.

Receipts to a spreadsheet: how real estate agents can use Claude to sort tax time

Matt Manser — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Tax time used to cost me a weekend.

Not because any one receipt is hard. A receipt is a date, a supplier, an amount and some GST. The problem is there are a lot of them, they come in every shape, and someone has to read each one and type it into a spreadsheet. That someone was me.

It doesn't have to be you. Put your receipts in a folder, ask Claude for a spreadsheet, and it reads every one. The ones it isn't sure about go on a separate tab, so you only check those.

As always in this series, when I say SI (super intelligence) I mean tools like Claude, made by Anthropic. Most people say AI. Same thing.

Why this one matters for agents

Agents spend money all week in small amounts. Fuel, parking, signboards, printing, coffee with a client, a subscription that renewed without you noticing. Each one is small, but they pile up. Some are in your email, some are photos on your phone, some are crumpled in the car door.

None of it is difficult. It's just slow, and it always lands at the worst time, when you'd rather be prospecting or having a weekend.

This is exactly the kind of work from Day 1: a job, not a question. You don't need Claude to explain how to do a receipts spreadsheet. You need it to do the reading and the typing, and hand you back something you can check.

What Claude actually does with your receipts

Claude can read photos and PDFs, not just typed documents. So a photo of a paper receipt, a screenshot of an online order and a PDF invoice can all go in the same folder.

When you give it the job, it works through each file, pulls out the details you asked for and lays them out in rows and columns. You end up with one spreadsheet instead of a folder full of images.

The part that makes this trustworthy is the second tab. Some receipts will be faded, cut off, blurry or just odd. A good assistant wouldn't guess quietly on those. They'd put them aside and tell you why. That's what the prompt asks Claude to do.

So instead of checking every line, you check the short list it flagged, plus a quick look over the rest.

The Day 7 prompt

Prompt

Read every receipt in this folder. Make a spreadsheet with date, supplier, amount, GST and category. Put anything you're not sure about on a second tab called Check these, and tell me why.

Here's what each part is doing.

"Read every receipt in this folder." Tells it what to look at, and that you want all of them, not a sample. The folder is the boundary, so it isn't reading anything else.
"Make a spreadsheet with date, supplier, amount, GST and category." Tells it what you want back and exactly which columns. Naming the columns means you get the same layout every time, which makes it easier to hand to your bookkeeper or accountant.
"Put anything you're not sure about on a second tab called Check these." This is the safety net. Uncertain receipts don't get mixed in with the confident ones. They're kept separate so nothing slips through.
"And tell me why." A reason next to each flagged receipt saves you working out what's wrong. "Total is cut off" or "can't tell if GST was charged" points you straight at the problem.

If you already use set categories, add them to the prompt, for example "use these categories: fuel, marketing, phone, office, other". Otherwise Claude will choose sensible ones, and you can adjust from there.

Try it yourself

Make a new folder. Copy in a batch of receipts. Photos, screenshots and PDFs are all fine. Use copies, not your originals, and start with a small batch while you're learning.
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 folder you just made. Just that one folder.
Paste the prompt above, then add "show me your plan first" on the end, and send it.
Read the plan. Check it understood what's in the folder and what you want back. When you're happy, let it go ahead and allow it to save the spreadsheet in that folder.
Open the spreadsheet. Go to the Check these tab first and work through each flagged receipt using the reason it gave.
Spot-check the main tab. Pick a few rows and compare them against the original receipts. If the amounts and suppliers match, you can trust the rest more. If they don't, tell Claude what it got wrong and ask it to fix the spreadsheet.

Once you're comfortable, you can add new receipts to the folder each week and ask Claude to add them to the same spreadsheet, rather than saving the whole lot for tax time.

Keep it tight

Receipts carry more personal information than people think: card details, addresses, names, sometimes client names on a meal or a gift. So the same habits from Day 1 apply, and they matter a little more here.

One narrow folder. Only the receipts for this job. Not your downloads, not your desktop, not your whole computer. If it isn't in the folder, Claude isn't reading it.
Approvals on for anything that sends, spends or deletes. This job only needs Claude to read and save one new file. It shouldn't be emailing anything, paying anything or removing anything, and with approvals on, it can't without you saying yes.
"Show me your plan first." Add it to the end of the prompt so you see what it intends to do before it does it.

It's also worth being clear about what this is. Claude is doing the reading and the typing. It isn't your accountant. Whether something is deductible, and how GST should be treated for your situation, is still a question for your accountant or bookkeeper. What you're handing them is a tidy spreadsheet instead of a shoebox.

Where to go from here

The Check these tab is the habit worth taking away from today. Any time you give Claude a job with a lot of items, ask it to separate the ones it's sure about from the ones it isn't, and tell you why. It turns "check everything" into "check the short list", and that idea works well beyond receipts.

Start with one small batch. Check the flagged ones, spot-check the rest, and see how it went. Then do the next batch.

Missed yesterday? Day 6: Appraisal prep in 2 minutes

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.

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

Matt Manser — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000

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

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

Make a new folder for one property. Name it after the address so it's easy to find.
Add the files. Your notes, the comparable sales and any council info you have. Copies, not originals.
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.
Paste the prompt and replace [address] with the real address.
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.
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.
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.

Don't give AI your whole computer: the one-folder rule every real estate agent should follow with Claude

Matt Manser — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Never give AI access to all your files.

Once you've seen Claude read a folder, plan a job and hand back a finished file, it's tempting to point it at everything. Your whole documents folder, your desktop, the lot. Then it could find anything, right?

It could. That's the problem.

The safer setup is also the simpler one. Make one folder called Claude Work, connect only that folder, and copy in what each job needs. If Claude can't see a file, it can't touch it.

A quick reminder on words. I call it SI, super intelligence. Most people say AI. When I say SI in this post I mean tools like Claude, made by Anthropic.

Why one folder beats your whole computer

When you connect a folder to Claude, you're giving it permission to read what's in there and, if you allow it, to make changes. That's what makes it useful. It's also why you want to be deliberate about which folder you give it.

What's sitting on an agent's computer

Think about what's on your laptop right now. Contracts. Vendor details. Buyer contact lists. Appraisal notes. Identification documents. Bank and commission paperwork. Probably some personal files mixed in as well.

Most of that has nothing to do with the job you want done today. If you're asking Claude to tidy up open home notes, it doesn't need to see a signed contract from last year. And as agents we hold a lot of personal information about clients, and the rules about how that's handled depend on where you work. The easiest way to stay on the right side of those rules is to only ever share what the job needs.

Less to look at means better work

There's a practical side too. A folder with the files for one job gives Claude one clear thing to work on. Point it at thousands of files and it has to work out which ones matter, which slows things down and makes mistakes more likely. Point it at five files and it gets straight to work.

Easy to check afterwards

With one folder, you always know where to look. When a job's done, you open Claude Work and see exactly what's there and what changed. Nothing is hidden in a corner of your computer you forgot about.

The Claude Work folder

Here's the habit in plain terms.

One folder, always the same name. Call it Claude Work so you always know which one is shared.
Copy files in, don't move them. Your originals stay where they are. Claude works on copies.
Only what the job needs. If you're writing a property description, copy in the property notes and photos list. Not the whole listing file.
Clear it out when you're done. Once you've saved the finished result somewhere else, empty the folder so it's ready for the next job.

That last point matters more than it sounds. If old files pile up in Claude Work, you slowly end up back where you started, with a folder full of things Claude doesn't need to see.

Keep it asking before it changes anything

The folder controls what Claude can see. The second safety habit controls what it can do.

The Claude desktop app has settings for how much it does on its own. Keep it on the setting where it asks before it changes anything. That way, before a file gets edited, created or removed, you get a chance to say yes or no.

It can feel slower at first. That's the point. You're still learning how Claude works, and every time it asks, you see what it's about to do. Over time you'll get a feel for which jobs you trust it with.

Two related habits are worth keeping from Day 1. Keep approvals on for anything that sends, spends or deletes, so nothing goes out or disappears without you saying yes. And end your jobs with "show me your plan first", so you see what it intends to do before it starts.

The Day 5 prompt

This prompt sets the ground rules at the start of a conversation. Paste it in first, then give Claude the actual job.

Prompt

I've connected one folder called Claude Work. Only ever work inside this folder. Before any job, tell me which files you plan to read or change, and never delete anything.

Here's what each part does.

"I've connected one folder called Claude Work." This tells Claude what it's working with. It knows the folder is deliberate and that this is the space you've set aside for it.

"Only ever work inside this folder." This is the boundary in words. The folder connection is the real limit, but saying it out loud makes your intent clear for the whole conversation, including where it saves new files.

"Before any job, tell me which files you plan to read or change." This gives you a checkpoint. Before it starts, you see a list. If something's on there that shouldn't be, or something's missing, you can fix it before any work happens.

"And never delete anything." Deleting is the one action that's hard to undo. Ruling it out from the start means the worst case is a file you don't like, not a file you've lost. If you ever need something removed, you can do it yourself.

Try it yourself

This takes a few minutes, and you only need to set it up once.

Make the folder. Create a new folder somewhere easy to find, like your desktop or documents, and name it Claude Work.
Copy in a few files for one small job. Pick something low-stakes, like notes from an open home or a draft property description. Copies, not originals.
Open the Claude desktop app and connect only that folder. Use the + in the message box to add a folder, and choose Claude Work. Just that one.
Check your permission setting. Make sure Claude is set to ask before it changes anything. If you're not sure where that is, look through the app's settings or the options near the message box.
Paste the Day 5 prompt and send it.
Give it the job. Ask for what you want, and add "show me your plan first".
Read the list of files it plans to use. Confirm it's only the ones in Claude Work, then let it go ahead.

When it's finished, open the folder and check the result. Then, while you're there, take a look at the Trusted folders list in Claude's Settings. Any folder you've connected shows up there, so make sure Claude Work is the only one you meant to share.

Where to go from here

The one-folder rule isn't about being nervous of SI. It's the same thing you'd do with a new assistant on their first day. You wouldn't hand them the keys to every filing cabinet. You'd give them the files for the job in front of them, and check their work until you trust it.

Set up Claude Work once, keep approvals on, and start each session with the Day 5 prompt. You'll get the benefit of Claude doing real work with your files, without handing over everything else.

Missed yesterday? Day 4: Projects: stop repeating yourself

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.

Claude Projects for real estate agents: stop repeating yourself every chat

Matt Manser — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000

You're explaining your business to Claude every single time. Stop.

If you've been using Claude for a few days, you've probably noticed a pattern. You open a new chat, and before you can ask for anything useful you're typing the same background again. Who you are. Where you work. What you sell. How you like things written. What it must never do.

Then you close that chat, open a new one tomorrow, and do it all again.

There's a better way, and it's built into Claude. It's called a Project.

What a Project actually is

A Project is a space in Claude that remembers who you are. You put your business details, your voice and your rules in once, and every chat you start inside that Project already knows them.

Think of it like briefing a new assistant. You wouldn't re-explain your whole business to them every morning. You'd tell them once on day one, and from then on they'd just get on with it. A Project gives Claude that same day-one briefing, and it keeps it.

A Project usually has two parts:

Instructions. A short written briefing that applies to every chat in the Project. Who you are, how to write, what the rules are.
Files. Documents you add for Claude to refer to across those chats. Optional, and worth keeping tight, which I'll come back to.

Inside the Project you can start as many chats as you like. Each one starts with the briefing already in place.

Why this matters in an agent's week

So much of what we ask Claude to do depends on context. A listing description, a follow-up email, a social post, an appraisal summary. All of them come out better when Claude knows where you work, who you're writing for and how you sound.

Without a Project, you either retype that context every time or skip it and get something generic. Generic is the problem. It reads like it could have come from any agent in any city, and you end up rewriting it yourself.

With a Project, the context is already there. You can open a chat and just say "write a follow-up to someone who came through the open home on Saturday", and Claude already knows your area, your tone and your rules.

It also means your rules stay consistent. If you've told it never to make up a price, that rule is in place for every chat in the Project, not just the ones where you remembered to say it.

If you did yesterday's episode on making Claude sound like you, this is where that work earns its keep. Your voice notes belong in your Project instructions, so they apply everywhere.

The Day 4 prompt

This one is a little different. It's not something you paste into a chat. It's the starting text for your Project instructions.

Prompt

I'm a real estate agent with eXp Realty in Adelaide's north-east. I sell family homes in suburbs like Redwood Park, Modbury and Golden Grove. Write in plain Australian English, warm but direct. Never invent prices, dates or facts; ask me if you don't know.

It's short on purpose. Four sentences, and each one is doing a job.

"I'm a real estate agent with eXp Realty in Adelaide's north-east." This tells Claude who you are and where you work. Swap in your own brokerage and area. Now it isn't guessing whether you're in Sydney, Texas or London.

"I sell family homes in suburbs like Redwood Park, Modbury and Golden Grove." This tells it what you sell and who you're likely writing for. Use your own suburbs and property types. If you mostly sell units to investors, say that instead.

"Write in plain Australian English, warm but direct." This sets the voice. Australian spelling, no American phrasing, and a tone that fits how agents actually talk to clients. Change the adjectives to match you.

"Never invent prices, dates or facts; ask me if you don't know." This is the most important line. Claude is good at filling gaps, and in real estate a filled gap can be a wrong price, a wrong settlement date or a feature the property doesn't have. This line tells it to stop and ask instead. Keep it, whatever else you change.

Once this is in, you can add to it over time. Your sign-off. Words you never want used. How you format emails. Treat it as a living briefing, not a one-off.

Try it yourself

This takes about five minutes.

Open Claude and find Projects. In the Claude app or on claude.ai, look for Projects in the sidebar. Availability can depend on your plan, so if you can't see it, check your plan details.
Create a new Project. Call it something clear, like "My Real Estate Business".
Open the Project instructions. There's a place in the Project to set instructions. That's where your briefing goes.
Paste the Day 4 prompt and change the details to match your business. Your brokerage, your suburbs, your property types, your voice.
Save it, then start a new chat inside the Project. Ask for something ordinary, like a short email to a buyer after an inspection. Don't give it any background.
Read what comes back. Check it's used Australian spelling, sounds like you and hasn't made up anything it couldn't know. If it asks you a question instead of inventing a detail, that's the rule working.
Compare it. Start a normal chat outside the Project and ask the same thing. Put the two side by side. You'll see what the briefing is doing.

If something in the result isn't right, don't fix it in the chat. Fix it in the instructions, so every future chat gets the improvement too.

Keep the Project tight

The same safety habits from Day 1 apply here, with a Project-shaped twist.

Be careful what files you add. Anything you add to a Project is available to every chat inside it. Start with general material, like a style guide or a description of your services, not client files. As agents we hold a lot of personal information, and the rules for handling it depend on where you work. If it isn't in the Project, Claude isn't reading it.
One Project per purpose. It's tempting to build one giant Project for everything. A focused Project with a clear purpose gives cleaner results, and it's easier to see what's in it.
When you give it a job with your files, still use one narrow folder. A Project briefing doesn't change that. Add the one folder for the job, never your whole computer.
Keep approvals on for anything that sends, spends or deletes, so nothing goes out or disappears without you saying yes.
End bigger jobs with "show me your plan first". Even with a good briefing, you want to see what it intends to do before it does it.

Your instructions are a good place to put these rules too. A line like "always show me your plan before changing any files" will apply to every chat in the Project.

Where to go from here

A Project is one of the simplest changes you can make, and it changes every chat after it. Set it up once, then keep improving the instructions as you notice what Claude gets wrong or what you keep having to repeat.

If you find yourself typing the same thing into a chat twice, that's your signal. It belongs in the Project.

Missed yesterday? Day 3: Make it sound like you

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.

Make it sound like you: how to teach Claude your writing voice as a real estate agent

Matt Manser — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000

If your AI writes like a robot, it's because you never showed it how you talk.

That's the most common complaint I hear about Claude and every tool like it. The writing is fine, but it doesn't sound like a person. It's too polished, too long, too keen. It says "I hope this message finds you well" to someone you've known for ten years.

That's not a flaw in the tool. It's a gap in what you've given it. Claude has never read anything you've written, so it falls back on a safe, generic voice. Give it a few real examples and that changes.

A quick reminder on words. I call it SI, super intelligence. Most people say AI. When I say SI I mean tools like Claude, made by Anthropic.

Why your voice matters more than you'd think

Clients don't just read what you send. They hear it in your voice.

Your vendors know how you talk on the phone, at the open, across the kitchen bench at the appraisal. If the written update they get on Monday sounds like a different person, they notice. It might not be a big thing, but it chips away at the feeling that they're dealing with you.

And so much of an agent's week is writing. Vendor updates after the weekend. Follow-ups after opens. Replies to enquiries. Quick texts to confirm times. If Claude is going to help with any of that, it has to sound like you, or you'll end up rewriting every draft yourself. At that point it hasn't saved you anything.

The idea: show it, then name it

The fix has two parts.

Show it real examples

Don't describe your style. Most people are bad at that. Ask an agent how they write and they'll say "friendly but professional", which is what everyone says and doesn't tell Claude much.

Instead, give it the real thing. Three messages you've actually sent to clients. Not your best work, not something you've polished for the occasion. Just normal messages that sound like you on a normal day.

Get it to name what it sees

Then ask Claude to describe your voice back to you in a few plain points. This step matters. It makes Claude show you what it picked up, so you can check it got it right before it writes anything. And it gives you a short description of your voice you can reuse every time.

Once you have that, you're not starting from zero with each new draft.

The Day 3 prompt

Prompt

Here are 3 messages I've written to clients: [paste]. Describe my writing style in 5 bullet points: tone, sentence length, words I use, words I'd never use. Then rewrite this vendor update in my voice: [paste].

Here's what each part is doing.

"Here are 3 messages I've written to clients: [paste]." This is the evidence. Three is enough to show a pattern without overloading it. Pick messages that are a bit different from each other, say a text, an email and a longer update, so it sees your range.

"Describe my writing style in 5 bullet points." Five points keeps it short and specific. You want something you can read in ten seconds and say "yes, that's me" or "no, that's not right".

"tone, sentence length, words I use, words I'd never use." These four tell Claude exactly what to look for. Tone is how you come across. Sentence length is how short or long you write. Words you use are your habits, the phrases you lean on. Words you'd never use is often the most useful one, because it stops Claude slipping in the stiff, salesy language that gives it away.

"Then rewrite this vendor update in my voice: [paste]." This is the test. Give it a vendor update that's correct but doesn't sound like you, maybe one Claude wrote earlier or one from a template. Seeing the before and after side by side is the quickest way to tell whether the description worked.

Try it yourself

Pick three messages you've sent to clients. Texts or emails, whatever you write most. Choose everyday ones, not your best.
Take out anything personal. Remove names, phone numbers, addresses and anything else that identifies a client. Swap in placeholders like "[vendor name]" or "[address]". Your voice is in how you write, not in the details.
Find a vendor update to rewrite. One that has the right information but doesn't sound like you. Again, strip out client details.
Open Claude and paste the prompt above, dropping your three messages and the vendor update in where it says [paste].
Read the five bullet points first. Do they sound like you? If one is wrong, tell Claude. "I'm not that formal" or "I never use exclamation marks" is enough. Ask it to update the list.
Then read the rewrite. If it still feels off, say what's off and ask for another go.
Save the five bullet points. Copy them into a note somewhere you'll find them. That's your voice description.

You don't need a folder for this one. Pasting straight into the chat is fine.

Use it every time

The five points are the bit you keep.

The simplest way to use them is to paste them at the top of any writing job. Something like "Write this in my voice. Here's how I write:" followed by your five points, then the job.

If you'd rather not paste it each time, Claude has places to store instructions it should always follow. Many people put their voice description in their profile preferences in Settings, or in the instructions for a project they use for client writing. Menus move around between versions, so if you can't find it, ask Claude where to put standing instructions in the version you're using. Claude also has writing style options, and some versions let you create a custom style from your own samples, which does a similar job.

Whichever way you do it, check it now and then. Your voice with a first-home buyer might be different to your voice with a developer. It's fine to have more than one description.

A few safety habits

Writing in your voice makes the drafts more convincing, which is exactly why you should still read every one before it goes out.

You send, not Claude. If you ever connect Claude to email or messaging, keep approvals on for anything that sends. A message in your voice that you didn't check is worse than a robotic one, because the client will assume you wrote it.
Keep client details out where you can. As agents we hold a lot of personal information, and the rules about how that's handled depend on where you work. Placeholders work just as well for teaching it your voice.
Ask for the plan on bigger jobs. If you're getting it to rewrite a batch of templates in a folder, give it one narrow folder and ask it to show you its plan first before it changes anything.

Where to go from here

Three messages, five bullet points, one rewrite. That's the whole job, and it fixes the most common reason people give up on Claude for writing.

Once Claude knows how you talk, everything it drafts for you after that starts closer to finished. You're editing, not rewriting.

Missed yesterday? Day 2: Your first real job in Chat

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.

Your first real job in Claude Chat: turn listing appointment notes into a portal-ready description

Matt Manser — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Stop asking Claude questions. Give it a job.

Yesterday was about the difference between asking Claude something and handing it a job. Today you do your first real one, and you don't need a folder or any setup to do it. Just Chat, and the notes you already take at every listing appointment.

Dot points from your listing appointment go in. A portal-ready description comes out.

Why this is a good first job

Writing listing descriptions is a perfect first job to hand over, for a few reasons.

You already have the raw material. Most agents walk out of a listing appointment with notes: bedrooms, the renovated kitchen, the north-facing yard, the walk to school. The facts are done. What's left is turning them into readable copy.
It's slow, not hard. You know what the home is like. Finding the words, again, for the next three-bedroom home, is the part that eats time.
It's easy to check. You were in the house. You'll know straight away if something in the description is wrong.

That last point matters. A good first job is one where you can judge the result yourself, without needing to trust Claude blindly.

Asking vs giving it the job

Here's the same request done both ways.

Ask it as a question, like "how do I write a good listing description?", and you get tips. Use active language, lead with the best feature, keep it short. Useful, maybe, but you still have to sit down and write it.

Give it the job instead, with your notes pasted in, and you get the description itself. Then your work becomes reading and editing, not writing from a blank page.

The three things Claude needs from you

A description job goes well when you give Claude three things. Leave any of them out and you'll get something generic.

1. The facts

Your dot points. Paste them in as they are. They don't need to be tidy, full sentences or in any particular order. Claude can sort that out.

What matters is that the facts are there. Claude can only describe what you tell it, so the more specific your notes, the better the description. "Big backyard" gives it less to work with than "flat, grassed backyard with side access".

2. Who the buyer is

The same house can be written for different people. A young family wants to hear about bedrooms, the yard and the school. A downsizer cares about low maintenance and single-level living. An investor wants the rental appeal.

You know who's most likely to buy. Tell Claude, and it will lead with what that buyer cares about.

3. What not to say

This is the part most people skip, and it's the one that makes the biggest difference to quality.

Without guidance, AI-written property copy tends to fall back on the same tired phrases you've seen a thousand times on the portals. Telling Claude which words to avoid pushes it toward plainer, more honest writing.

More importantly, tell it not to invent anything. If your notes don't mention a renovated bathroom, the description shouldn't either. You're responsible for what goes into the ad, so you want every claim in it to come straight from your notes.

The Day 2 prompt

Prompt

Here are my notes from a listing appointment: [paste dot points]. Write a warm, honest description for realestate.com.au, 150 words, for a young family buying their first home. No clichés like 'nestled' or 'boasting', and don't invent anything that isn't in my notes.

Here's what each part is doing.

"Here are my notes from a listing appointment: [paste dot points]" gives it the facts and tells it where they came from, so it knows these are the details to work from.
"Write a warm, honest description" sets the tone. Warm, so it reads like a home, not a spec sheet. Honest, so it doesn't oversell.
"for realestate.com.au" tells it where the copy is going, so it writes something suited to a portal listing rather than a brochure or a social post.
"150 words" keeps it to a length that's easy to read on a phone. Change the number if your agency or the listing calls for something different.
"for a young family buying their first home" is the buyer. Swap this for whoever is actually most likely to buy the property.
"No clichés like 'nestled' or 'boasting'" steers it away from the phrases buyers skim past. Add any others you're sick of seeing.
"don't invent anything that isn't in my notes" is the most important line in the prompt. It keeps the description tied to the facts you gave it.

Try it yourself

This takes a few minutes, and it's a good one to try on a listing you're writing up this week.

Get your notes ready. Use dot points from a recent listing appointment. Leave out owner names, phone numbers and anything else personal. Claude doesn't need any of that to describe a house.
Open a new chat in Claude. No folder needed for this one. You're pasting the information straight in.
Paste the prompt and replace [paste dot points] with your notes. Change the buyer if a young family isn't the right fit.
Send it and read the result carefully. Check every claim against your notes. If anything has crept in that you didn't say, point it out and ask Claude to remove it.
Ask for changes in plain English. "Make it a bit less formal." "Lead with the backyard." "Cut it to 120 words." You don't need to start again. Just tell it what to change, the same way you'd give feedback to an assistant.
Copy the final version into your listing once you're happy with it, and give it your usual final read before it goes live.

If you want to see the difference the details make, run it a second time with the buyer changed to a downsizer or an investor. Same notes, a noticeably different description.

A few habits to keep

The safety habits from Day 1 still apply, even for a job this simple.

Only share what the job needs. Here that means property details, not client details. If you later move to working with files instead of pasting, give Claude one narrow folder for the job, never your whole computer.
You publish, not Claude. Claude writes the draft. You check it and put it on the portal. Keep approvals on for anything that sends, spends or deletes, so nothing goes out without your say-so.
Check before it goes anywhere. For bigger jobs, end your prompt with "show me your plan first". For a description, the equivalent is simple: read every line before it's published.

Where to go from here

This is the pattern for almost every job you'll hand Claude: give it the facts, tell it who it's for, and tell it what to avoid. Once it clicks for descriptions, you'll start seeing the same shape in other parts of your week.

Try it on your next listing. Keep the prompt somewhere handy and adjust the buyer and word count each time.

Missed yesterday? Day 1: Ask it vs give it a job

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.

Ask it vs give it a job: the first thing every real estate agent should understand about Claude

Matt Manser — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000

This is where I started with Claude, and most agents never get past it.

They open Claude, type a question, get a decent answer, and decide that's what it's for. A smarter search engine. Something to help word an email. And it is good at that. But it's only half of what's sitting in front of you, and it's the less useful half for someone running a real estate business.

The other half is giving it a job. Not asking how to do something, but handing the thing over and getting the finished result back.

A quick note on words before we go further. I call it SI, super intelligence. Most people say AI. When I say SI in this post I mean tools like Claude, made by Anthropic. Same thing, I just think the name undersells it.

Same Claude, two ways to use it

There's no special mode to switch on and nothing extra to buy. It's the same Claude in the same window. What changes is whether you ask it something or give it a job, and whether it has your files to work with.

Asking: you get advice

Ask Claude a question with no files attached and you get advice back. Often good advice. But it's working blind. Ask it about your own documents and it will tell you it can't see them, then give you general tips instead.

Notice who's still doing the work. Claude tells you what to do, and then you go and do it. You're still the one opening the files, sorting things out, copying text into the right place and saving it.

Giving it a job: you get the finished thing

Now give it the job instead. Add one folder of your files, say what you want back, and Claude takes it from there. It reads the files, plans the job, works through them and hands you the finished thing.

That's the whole shift. Same Claude, completely different result.

What that looks like in practice

The easiest way to see it is to take one request and try it both ways.

Ask it as a plain question, something like "what's in my listing files and what could you do with them?", with nothing attached. It can't see your files, so it says so and gives you general ideas. Then it's over to you.

Give it the same request as a job, with one folder added, and it's a different conversation. It reads what's actually in the folder, lists what's there in plain English, and suggests three jobs based on your real files. Pick one, say yes, and it does the work and saves a new file in that folder for you to open.

For a real estate agent that difference matters more than for most people. So much of our week is admin that isn't hard, just slow: notes from appointments, property details, marketing copy, documents that need checking against each other, lists that need tidying. Those are jobs, not questions. If all you ever do is ask Claude questions about them, you're still doing every one of them yourself.

Questions vs instructions

The thing that changes isn't the tool. It's how you talk to it.

When you're asking, you tend to write questions: "What's the best way to...?", "Can you give me tips for...?" When you're handing over a job, you write instructions, the same way you'd brief a good assistant on their first day:

What to look at. Which folder, which files.
What you want back. A summary, a list, a finished document, a tidied file.
What not to touch. Especially at the start.

That last one is important, and it's why the prompt below ends the way it does.

The Day 1 prompt

This is the first prompt from my 21 Days of SI series. It's deliberately simple, and it doesn't change anything. It just gets Claude to look at what you've given it and tell you what it could do.

Prompt

Look through every file in this folder. Tell me in plain English what's here, then suggest 3 jobs you could do with these files that would save me time. Don't change anything yet.

Three things are going on in there. "Every file in this folder" tells it what to look at. "Tell me in plain English what's here" makes it show you it understood before it does anything. "Don't change anything yet" means nothing gets moved, edited or deleted while you're still learning how it works.

The three suggested jobs are the useful bit. They're based on your actual files, not generic tips, so they're a good way to find your first real job to hand over.

Try it yourself

You can do this in about the time it takes to make a coffee.

Make a new folder. Copy in a handful of everyday work files you're comfortable with Claude reading. Copies, not originals.
Open the Claude desktop app and add that folder. Under the message box, choose "Work in a project or folder" and pick the folder you just made. Just that one folder.
Paste the prompt above and send it.
Read what comes back. Check it's described your files correctly, then look at the three jobs it suggests.
Pick one job and ask it to show you its plan first. When you're happy, let it go ahead and allow Claude to edit files in that folder. It saves the finished file there for you to check.

Then, if you want to really see the difference, start a new conversation with no folder added and ask the same thing as a plain question. Put the two answers side by side. One tells you what you could do. The other has already done it.

Add one folder, not your whole computer

If you take one tip from this post, make it this one: give Claude one narrow folder for the job. Never your whole computer.

There are a few reasons.

It keeps Claude focused. A folder with the files for one job gives it one clear thing to work on.
It keeps everything else private. As agents we hold a lot of personal information about clients, and the rules about how that's handled depend on where you work. If it isn't in the folder, Claude isn't reading it.
It's easy to check. When the job's done you can see exactly what's in that one folder and what changed.

Any folder you've connected shows up under Trusted folders in Claude's Settings, so it's worth a look now and then to make sure the list is only what you meant to share.

Two more habits are worth building from day one. Keep approvals on for anything that sends, spends or deletes, so nothing goes out or disappears without you saying yes. And end your jobs with "show me your plan first", so you see what it intends to do before it does it.

You can loosen the reins once you trust it. Start tight.

Where to go from here

Asking still has its place. For a quick question or a first draft, it's perfect. But if you've only ever used Claude that way, you've been using it as an adviser when it can be an assistant.

Start with one folder and the Day 1 prompt. Read what it tells you. Pick one of the three jobs and let it do it. That's the first step from asking Claude things to having it do things for you.

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.