Ed 
Here are 10 prompts to ask Claude about Austin real estate, copy-paste ready, all of them tested by an actual Austin broker. Drop them into Claude. Change the zip codes, price ranges, and addresses to fit your situation. They all assume you’ve installed the free Austin MLS connector, which is what wires Claude up to the live Austin-area MLS in the first place.
I’m Ed Neuhaus, I’m a broker, I built the connector, and these are the 10 prompts I actually run or watch clients run. Buyer prompts, seller prompts, investor prompts, relocator prompts. The full spectrum.
Quick Setup Note
You need the connector. Without it, Claude does not have live MLS data and these prompts will return fabricated results. With it, Claude queries the actual Austin-area MLS and returns real listings, real comps, and real market stats. Setup takes about 4 minutes and works in Claude Desktop, Claude Web, Cursor, Cline, Windsurf, ChatGPT Developer Mode, Perplexity Pro, and Gemini CLI. Install instructions are at the Austin MLS MCP hub.
Prompt 1. The Morning New-Listing Scan (Buyer)
“What new listings hit the Austin MLS in the last 24 hours under $900K in 78704, 78745, and 78748? Single family only. Show me address, price, beds, baths, square feet, and the listing date.”
This fires the get_new_listings tool. It is the prompt that replaces your Zillow email alert. Run it every morning with coffee. About 6 seconds per pass. Adjust zip codes and price range for your target neighborhoods. The reason this matters is that the first 48 hours on the market is when the best stuff moves fastest in Austin. If you’re hunting an in-demand zip code, getting fresh inventory in your inbox before it gets traffic gives you a real edge.
Prompt 2. The Tight Comp Pull (Seller)
“Pull comps for a 3-bed, 2-bath, 1,950 square foot home at [YOUR ADDRESS]. Use a half-mile radius. Show me closings from the last 90 days, between 1,700 and 2,200 square feet. Include close price, original list price, days on market, and seller concessions if available.”
This fires get_comps. Use it when you’re thinking about selling and you want a fast read on what your house is actually worth right now. The tight radius (half a mile) and tight square footage band (plus or minus 250 square feet) matters because Austin neighborhoods can change in price by 30% across a mile. Comps need to be real peers, not just “nearby.”
Prompt 3. The Price-Drop Hunt (Buyer)
“Show me homes in 78733 between $1M and $1.5M that have had a price reduction in the last 30 days. Sort by biggest price drop first. Show original price, current price, dollar drop, and percent drop.”
Price drops are how the market tells you the seller is motivated. In a cooling market this is gold. Zillow shows price drops but buries the filter. With Claude, you just ask. Run this once a week on your target areas. The biggest drops on the longest-sitting listings are usually where the deal lives.
Prompt 4. The Investor Cash-Flow Screen (Investor)
“Find single family homes in 78745 and 78748 under $450K, 3 beds, 2+ baths, at least 1,400 square feet. For each one, estimate the rent at current market rates and calculate a rough cap rate assuming 25% down, 7% interest, 1% property tax, and $1,800/year insurance. Sort by best cap rate first.”
This is the workhorse prompt for buy-and-hold Austin rental investors. Cap rate is rough (real underwriting includes vacancy, capex, management) but it filters out the obvious non-starters fast.
Prompt 5. The Neighborhood Vibe Comparison (Relocator)
“Compare Westlake, Lakeway, and Bee Cave for someone moving from the Bay Area with a $2M budget. Pull median list price, what 4-bed homes in the 2,500 to 3,500 square foot range are listing for, the school district, average commute time to downtown Austin, and pull 2 to 3 paragraphs from any neighborhood guide you have on each one. End with a 4-line summary on which one fits best and why.”
This is the relocator prompt. It uses get_neighborhood_stats, search_listings, and critically search_guides to pull from our published Austin neighborhood research. The output is a comparison that would have taken three weekends of Googling. Two minutes with Claude.
Prompt 6. The Listing Description Reader (Buyer)
“Pull the listing details for [SPECIFIC ADDRESS]. Read the full description and tell me, plainly, what condition flags I should be aware of. Things like ‘sold as-is,’ ‘investor special,’ ‘cosmetic updates needed,’ ‘foundation work has been done,’ ‘roof recently replaced.’ Translate the agent-speak into what it actually means.”
Listing descriptions are written by listing agents to sell the property. They use real estate code language for things like “needs work” or “the foundation has issues.” Claude reads the description and translates the code. This saves you from getting excited about a property that has a $40K foundation problem the description was burying.
Prompt 7. The Active Competition Check (Seller)
“My house is going on the market in [NEIGHBORHOOD] at $850K, 4 beds, 3 baths, 2,800 square feet. Pull all active listings within a mile that match those rough specs. For each one tell me what makes them more or less attractive than mine. This is my competition. What should I beat them on?”
This is the prompt every seller should run before they list. Sellers obsess over comps (closings) and forget about competition (active listings). You’re not competing with what already sold. You’re competing with what is currently for sale alongside your house. Claude pulls the active set and gives you the competitive read.
Prompt 8. The Lifestyle Search (Buyer)
“Show me lakefront homes in Lakeway and the Lake Travis area under $3M with at least 4 bedrooms, a private dock, and a pool. Sort by newest listing first.”
This is the prompt that’s basically impossible to run cleanly on Zillow. Multiple specific lifestyle filters (lakefront, dock, pool, bed count, price), one sentence, real results. The Hill Country lifestyle search is one of the things Claude does well that traditional search portals do badly.
Prompt 9. The Market Temperature Read (Anyone)
“Pull current market stats for the Austin area. Median price now, year-over-year change, median days on market, inventory level, and the percent of homes closing below list price. Tell me in plain English whether this is a buyer’s market, a seller’s market, or somewhere in between right now.”
This is the prompt to run when you want a fast read on where the Austin market is overall. Useful for anyone, but especially for buyers trying to decide whether to push hard on a deal and sellers trying to set expectations. Run it monthly. The Austin market has been in motion for two years now and the data changes faster than the conventional wisdom.
Prompt 10. The Specific-Property Deep Dive (Buyer)
“Pull the full details for [ADDRESS]. Then pull comps in a half-mile radius from the last 90 days, same beds, similar square footage. Tell me whether this property is priced at, above, or below the comp range. What is the per-square-foot price compared to the comp set median. And read the description for any red flags.”
This is the prompt for when you’ve found a specific Austin property and you’re trying to figure out if it’s a good deal. Claude pulls the details, runs a tight comp set, calculates the price per square foot delta versus comps, and reads the description for red flags. About 90 seconds of work. That used to be a full evening of MLS searches and back-and-forth with your agent.
How to Use These Prompts as a Workflow
Standalone prompts are useful. Combinations are stronger. Here is how I’d actually thread them together for a typical Austin buyer.
Monday morning. Run Prompt 1 (new listing scan) over coffee. If anything looks interesting, save the address.
Anytime during the week. For any saved address, run Prompt 10 (specific deep dive). Get a fast read on whether the listing is fairly priced and whether there are red flags.
Once a week. Run Prompt 3 (price-drop hunt) on your target areas. Motivated sellers are who you want to be talking to.
Once a month. Run Prompt 9 (market temperature). Adjust your strategy based on whether the market is softening or tightening.
When you’re ready to actually offer. Run Prompt 6 (listing description reader) and Prompt 2 (tight comp pull on that property). Then call your realtor with informed questions instead of “should I offer.”
For sellers it’s the inverse. Run Prompt 2 to set the price, Prompt 7 to read the competition, Prompt 9 for market temperature. Then list.
For investors. Run Prompt 4 (cash-flow screen) across your target zip codes. Narrow to a shortlist. Run Prompt 6 and Prompt 10 on each shortlist property. Then walk them.
What These Prompts Get Wrong Without the Connector
Run any of these in Claude or ChatGPT without the Austin MLS connector installed and you will get an answer. The answer will be wrong in specific dangerous ways. Fake addresses. Wrong prices. Hallucinated days on market. Invented comp sets. We have covered this at length in why AI cannot tell you what is for sale and why AI does not know what just sold. Short version, generic AI without live data is a confident guesser. The connector turns it into a research assistant. Big difference.
Frequently Asked Questions
Install the Connector and Try the Prompts
Install the free Austin MLS connector, pick your AI client, and start with Prompt 1. About 4 minutes of setup, then you can run any of the 10 prompts above. Bookmark this post if you want a reference list.
For the longer context, here is how the Austin MLS Claude connector got built and why I use Claude specifically for Austin real estate work.
If you want to talk to a working Austin broker about any of this in real life, get in touch with Neuhaus Realty Group. We work in Austin, Westlake, Lakeway, Bee Cave, Spicewood, Dripping Springs, and the surrounding Hill Country.
