The Open House Skill
The open house runs in both directions: you're evaluating the house, and the listing agent — who works for the seller — is evaluating you. Every friendly question ("been looking long?", "would you need to sell first?", "what's your range?") feeds a profile: budget ceiling, urgency, attachment, negotiating sophistication. Meanwhile the house itself is presenting its best self, staged to move eyes away from exactly what inspections find. This skill runs the visit: the agent's profile of you building line by line, the house's misdirections cataloged, and a debrief on the only discipline that matters — gather everything, volunteer nothing.
What This Skill Produces
- The walkthrough transcript — the friendly interrogation, with the agent's private profile note after each of your answers
- The staging decode — what the presentation choices in this listing typically redirect attention from
- The offer-pressure act — "we're expecting multiple offers" and its cousins, played on you
- The debrief — every over-share with its neutral replacement, plus the ask-list you should have run
Required Inputs
Ask for these if not provided:
- The situation — actual budget and pre-approval status, current-home status (need to sell first?), timeline pressure, and how much you already love this house (the simulation prices your tells honestly)
- The listing — the house as advertised: price, days on market, the photos' emphasis, any disclosed history (days-on-market changes the whole power balance and the agent's script)
- Your read so far — what charmed you at the listing stage; charm is where the decode starts
Framework: The Two Evaluations
- Their profile of you assembles from small talk: "what's your range?" (ceiling captured — every counter now knows it) · "need to sell first?" (contingency weakness noted) · "how soon are you hoping to move?" (urgency priced) · "isn't this kitchen amazing?" (attachment test — enthusiasm is negotiation currency, spent in front of the seller's agent). The trained answers are warm and empty: "we're flexible," "depends on the house," "it's a nice kitchen — what's the roof's age?"
- Everything you say reaches the seller: the listing agent's job is relaying buyer intelligence — the simulation shows a gushed comment surfacing later inside a firm counter-offer. The rule installed: talk to your own agent in the car, not in the kitchen.
- Staging decodes by redirection: fresh paint in one room (what did it cover?) · rugs placed oddly (floors) · music and candles (sound and smell — traffic? damp?) · furniture scaled small (room size) · every light on at noon (natural light) · "cozy" (small), "charming" (old), "motivated seller" (leverage — for you). Each observed choice gets its check-instead item, feeding the inspection-report-decoder later.
- The ask-list flips the visit: age of roof/HVAC/water heater · days on market and price history · "why are they selling?" (the answer's shape is the information) · what's excluded · offer deadlines actually in writing? — questions cost nothing at an open house and are conspicuously absent from most visits; the simulation shows the agent recalibrating their profile of a buyer who asks them.
- Offer pressure is choreography until verified: "multiple offers expected," "another showing at 4," "offers reviewed Monday" — sometimes true, always deployed; the counter is process, not speed ("we'll decide on our timeline; our agent will confirm the offer situation in writing"). The debrief names which pressure lines in the run were verifiable and which were fog.
Output Format
Open House: [listing — price, days on market]
Simulation — a plausible adversarial reading, not a prediction.
The Walkthrough
[Transcript. Agent's profile note: after each exchange — what got captured: "budget ceiling ~X · needs to sell · emotionally attached to the yard"]
The Staging Decode
| Presentation choice |
Typically redirects from |
Check instead |
The Pressure Act
[The urgency lines, played · which were verifiable · the process-answer holding]
Debrief — out of character
| You said |
What it cost |
The neutral version |
| [Plus: the ask-list you should have run · the talk-in-the-car rule · the agent-works-for-the-seller reminder, once, plainly] |
|
|
Quality Checks
Anti-Patterns
1---2name: the-open-house3description: Simulate the open house and the listing agent's read of you — the questions that profile your budget and urgency, the staging that hides what inspection finds, and the offer-pressure choreography, run before you fall in love with anything. Use when asked what is the listing agent thinking, practice viewing a house, what should I not say at an open house, or simulate the offer pressure. Produces the walkthrough transcript with the agent's private profile of you, the what-the-staging-hides checklist, and a debrief on information discipline — what to ask, what to never volunteer.4---5
6# The Open House Skill
7
8The open house runs in both directions: you're evaluating the house, and the listing agent — who works for the *seller* — is evaluating you. Every friendly question ("been looking long?", "would you need to sell first?", "what's your range?") feeds a profile: budget ceiling, urgency, attachment, negotiating sophistication. Meanwhile the house itself is presenting its best self, staged to move eyes away from exactly what inspections find. This skill runs the visit: the agent's profile of you building line by line, the house's misdirections cataloged, and a debrief on the only discipline that matters — *gather everything, volunteer nothing.*
9
10## What This Skill Produces
11
12- **The walkthrough transcript** — the friendly interrogation, with the agent's private profile note after each of your answers
13- **The staging decode** — what the presentation choices in *this* listing typically redirect attention from
14- **The offer-pressure act** — "we're expecting multiple offers" and its cousins, played on you
15- **The debrief** — every over-share with its neutral replacement, plus the ask-list you should have run
16
17## Required Inputs
18
19Ask for these if not provided:
20- **The situation** — actual budget and pre-approval status, current-home status (need to sell first?), timeline pressure, and how much you already love this house (the simulation prices your tells honestly)
21- **The listing** — the house as advertised: price, days on market, the photos' emphasis, any disclosed history (days-on-market changes the whole power balance and the agent's script)
22- **Your read so far** — what charmed you at the listing stage; charm is where the decode starts
23
24## Framework: The Two Evaluations
25
261. **Their profile of you assembles from small talk:** "what's your range?" (ceiling captured — every counter now knows it) · "need to sell first?" (contingency weakness noted) · "how soon are you hoping to move?" (urgency priced) · "isn't this kitchen amazing?" (attachment test — enthusiasm is negotiation currency, spent in front of the seller's agent). The trained answers are warm and empty: "we're flexible," "depends on the house," "it's a nice kitchen — what's the roof's age?"
272. **Everything you say reaches the seller:** the listing agent's *job* is relaying buyer intelligence — the simulation shows a gushed comment surfacing later inside a firm counter-offer. The rule installed: talk to your own agent in the car, not in the kitchen.
283. **Staging decodes by redirection:** fresh paint in one room (what did it cover?) · rugs placed oddly (floors) · music and candles (sound and smell — traffic? damp?) · furniture scaled small (room size) · every light on at noon (natural light) · "cozy" (small), "charming" (old), "motivated seller" (leverage — for you). Each observed choice gets its check-instead item, feeding the [inspection-report-decoder](../inspection-report-decoder/SKILL.md) later.
294. **The ask-list flips the visit:** age of roof/HVAC/water heater · days on market and price history · "why are they selling?" (the answer's *shape* is the information) · what's excluded · offer deadlines actually in writing? — questions cost nothing at an open house and are conspicuously absent from most visits; the simulation shows the agent recalibrating their profile of a buyer who asks them.
305. **Offer pressure is choreography until verified:** "multiple offers expected," "another showing at 4," "offers reviewed Monday" — sometimes true, always deployed; the counter is process, not speed ("we'll decide on our timeline; our agent will confirm the offer situation in writing"). The debrief names which pressure lines in the run were verifiable and which were fog.
31
32## Output Format
33
34# Open House: [listing — price, days on market]
35
36> Simulation — a plausible adversarial reading, not a prediction.
37
38## The Walkthrough
39[Transcript. *Agent's profile note:* after each exchange — what got captured: "budget ceiling ~X · needs to sell · emotionally attached to the yard"]
40
41## The Staging Decode
42| Presentation choice | Typically redirects from | Check instead |
43|---|---|---|
44
45## The Pressure Act
46[The urgency lines, played · which were verifiable · the process-answer holding]
47
48## Debrief — out of character
49| You said | What it cost | The neutral version |
50|---|---|---|
51[Plus: the ask-list you should have run · the talk-in-the-car rule · the agent-works-for-the-seller reminder, once, plainly]
52
53## Quality Checks
54
55- [ ] Every profile note names the captured variable (ceiling, urgency, attachment, contingency)
56- [ ] The staging decode ties each choice to a specific check-instead action
57- [ ] The pressure act distinguishes verifiable claims from choreography
58- [ ] Debrief replacements stay warm — information discipline, not rudeness
59- [ ] The whose-agent-is-this fact appears exactly once, plainly
60
61## Anti-Patterns
62
63- [ ] Do not make the agent sinister — they're doing their job for their client; the lesson is whose client you aren't
64- [ ] Do not coach coldness — warm and unrevealing is the skill; hostile buyers get worse deals too
65- [ ] Do not let enthusiasm pass unpriced — the simulation's job is showing what the gush costs later
66- [ ] Do not treat staging as fraud — it's presentation; the decode is diligence, not accusation
67- [ ] Do not stay in character in the debrief
Mohit Aggarwal