# Real Estate Cold-Start Interview > Use when a real-estate practice group is adopting AgentCounsel and needs to configure its practice profile by answering a structured interview covering jurisdictions, client context, escalation thresholds, output preferences, source documents, standard positions, review requirements, and prohibited assumptions. - Skill: `zgbrenner/real-estate-cold-start-interview` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add zgbrenner/real-estate-cold-start-interview` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/zgbrenner/real-estate-cold-start-interview/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: zgbrenner (https://skillmd.com/u/zgbrenner) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/zgbrenner/real-estate-cold-start-interview --- # Real Estate Cold-Start Interview ## Purpose Conduct a structured, staged interview with a real-estate practice group — led by a supervising attorney or authorized designee — to gather the information required to populate `practice-profiles/real-estate.md`. The skill walks through all eight profile fields in sequence, records every answer, and assembles a filled draft of the profile for the practice group's review and approval. It produces draft legal work product for attorney review — not legal advice and not a final configuration. ## Use When - A team is adopting AgentCounsel and needs to configure `practice-profiles/real-estate.md` for the first time. - A real-estate practice group is being onboarded to the library and no current profile exists. - The library is being stood up for the first time and the real-estate area is included in scope. - A practice group wishes to revisit or rebuild its profile from scratch rather than make incremental updates. ## Required Inputs - A knowledgeable person from the real-estate practice group — a supervising attorney or an authorized designee — who can answer questions about the group's jurisdiction, positions, escalation rules, and review requirements. - Any existing playbooks, templates, source-of-truth documents, or standard-form documents the group already uses, so they can be referenced or cited in the profile. ## Do Not Use When - The group is actively working a live real-estate matter. This skill configures the library; it does not support an open matter. - A `practice-profiles/real-estate.md` already exists and is current. In that case this is a refresh, not a cold start — though the skill may still be used to rebuild the profile deliberately. - No authorized person is available to answer. Do not complete the interview with guessed or inferred answers; record all gaps as `[CONFIRM: ...]` placeholders. - The purpose is to handle a specific real-estate matter (use the appropriate matter-level skill for that task). ## Legal Safety Rules - Produce draft legal work product for attorney review. This is not legal advice. - Never guess or infer an answer to any interview question. If the interviewee cannot answer a question, record `[CONFIRM: answer required from practice group]` and move on. - The filled profile is a draft. It must be reviewed and explicitly approved by the supervising attorney or practice group before it governs any AgentCounsel work product. - Do not invent standard positions, clause preferences, escalation thresholds, or review rules. Record only what the interviewee provides. - Do not include client-specific facts, client names, matter identifiers, or privileged details in the profile. The profile is a reusable group-level configuration, not a matter record. - Do not state or imply that any threshold, position, or rule in the profile satisfies a legal requirement under any jurisdiction. Jurisdiction-specific legal obligations are for the attorney to verify. - Flag every item the interviewee defers or leaves open with a visible `[CONFIRM: ...]` placeholder so the reviewer can see exactly what is unresolved. ## Workflow **Stage 1 — Jurisdictions** Ask the interviewee: - In which states or countries does the group handle real-estate matters most frequently — commercial, residential, industrial, mixed? - Does the group regularly engage with multi-state portfolios, and which jurisdictions are most common? - Are there municipal regimes — rent control / RSO, transfer-tax rules, building-code regimes — that drive a meaningful share of the work? - Does the group regularly engage with foreign-jurisdiction property matters? - Are there sectors or jurisdictions the group treats as out of scope, requiring specialist counsel? Record answers. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: jurisdiction not yet specified]`. **Stage 2 — Client and Team Context** Ask the interviewee: - Does the group represent primarily owners, tenants, lenders, developers, REITs, or a mix? - What types of real-estate matters does the group handle most frequently — acquisitions and dispositions, leasing, development, financing, title resolution, environmental, zoning? - How is the team structured — partners, associates, paralegals, title specialists, surveyors? - Are there asset types (multifamily, office, industrial, retail, hospitality, mixed-use) that require special handling? - How does the group coordinate with title insurance, lenders, environmental consultants, and zoning counsel? Record answers. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: client/team context not yet specified]`. **Stage 3 — Escalation Thresholds** Ask the interviewee: - Which findings automatically require escalation — title defect (encumbrance, easement, lien), zoning non-conformity, environmental issue (CERCLA, state superfund, brownfield), historic-preservation issue? - Are there deal-value thresholds that trigger escalation? - When does a rent-control / RSO question or a fair-housing question require immediate specialist involvement? - Which lender-required deliverables (SNDA, estoppel, non-disturbance) require partner-level review regardless of stage? - Who is the designated escalation contact for real-estate matters, and what is the expected turnaround? Record answers. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: escalation threshold not yet specified]`. **Stage 4 — Preferred Output Style** Ask the interviewee: - Should real-estate work product default to issue-list format, redline format, closing-checklist format, or narrative memo? - What level of detail does the practice group expect for diligence reports — executive summary, full issue analysis, both layered? - Are there house style rules for risk ratings, deal-breaker flags, or open-items lists in real-estate work product? - Does the group produce lease abstracts, title-objection letters, or closing memos in a standard format? - Are there particular deliverable types — title objections, estoppel certificates, environmental memos — for which the group has mandatory format requirements? Record answers. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: output style preference not yet specified]`. **Stage 5 — Source-of-Truth Documents** Ask the interviewee: - What is the group's authoritative lease-template library, and where is it stored? - Is there a closing-checklist template, and how is it tailored by asset class or jurisdiction? - What document governs the group's title-objection or title-objection-letter framework? - Are there environmental-review checklists or guidance the group treats as authoritative? - Does the group maintain a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction reference on transfer taxes, recording requirements, and local-rule peculiarities? Record answers and document names. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: source document not yet identified]`. **Stage 6 — Standard Positions and Playbooks** Ask the interviewee: - What is the group's default SNDA posture — required, preferred, negotiable? - What is the group's default estoppel content — minimum content, expanded content? - What is the group's default position on lender approval rights, particularly for transfers and leasing decisions? - What is the group's default position on permitted-use carveouts, exclusive-use clauses, and radius restrictions? - What is the group's default lien-priority posture and approach to subordination? - What is the group's default approach to environmental reps and indemnities? Record answers. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: standard position not yet specified]`. **Stage 7 — Attorney Review Requirements** Ask the interviewee: - At what stage does attorney review of real-estate work product become mandatory — initial diligence summary, LOI, definitive agreement, closing certificates, post-closing matters? - Are there work-product types for which attorney review is always required regardless of size — any deed, any lease above a threshold, any title-objection letter, any environmental memo? - What is the designated reviewer's role — handling attorney, supervising attorney, partner, general counsel? - What is the expected turnaround for definitive-agreement and lease review, and how are urgent reviews (closing-day issues, title-clearance pressures) handled? - Is there a formal sign-off step before closing, before recording, or before delivering any closing certificate? Record answers. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: review requirement not yet specified]`. **Stage 8 — Prohibited Assumptions** Ask the interviewee: - Are there facts agents must never assume without explicit confirmation — that title is clean, that zoning is conforming, that no environmental issues exist, that lender consent is given, that no easements affect use? - Are there real-estate risks — environmental, title, zoning, rent-control, fair-housing — where an agent must stop and escalate rather than reason through independently? - Are there matter types where agents must never proceed beyond intake without direct attorney involvement — environmental contamination, title disputes, zoning variance applications? - Are there prior incidents — failed closings, title disputes, environmental claims — that should be encoded as explicit prohibitions for agents working on real-estate matters? Record answers. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: prohibited assumption not yet specified]`. **Stage 9 — Assemble the Draft Profile** Compile all answers into a filled draft of `practice-profiles/real-estate.md`, populating each of the eight profile sections. For every item that was not answered, insert a visible `[CONFIRM: ...]` placeholder with enough context for the reviewer to understand what needs to be supplied. Append a list of all open placeholders so the reviewing attorney can see at a glance what remains unresolved. ## Output Format Deliver: 1. **Filled draft of `practice-profiles/real-estate.md`** — all eight sections populated with answers from the interview. Every unanswered item is a visible `[CONFIRM: ...]` placeholder. 2. **Open-items list** — an explicit enumeration of every placeholder inserted, with the stage and question it corresponds to, so the reviewing attorney can resolve them efficiently. Label the entire output: **Draft legal work product for attorney review. Not legal advice. This profile draft must be reviewed and approved by the supervising attorney or practice group before it is relied upon.** ## Attorney Verification Checklist - [ ] All eight profile sections have been reviewed by a supervising attorney or authorized practice-group representative. - [ ] Jurisdiction coverage — including municipal regimes — is accurately recorded. - [ ] Title, environmental, and zoning escalation triggers are accurately recorded. - [ ] Lender-required deliverables (SNDA, estoppel, non-disturbance) defaults reflect current market practice. - [ ] Transfer-tax, recording, and filing deadlines are marked `[deadline verification required]` in any related deliverable. - [ ] Environmental-risk posture is current and tied to applicable CERCLA / state superfund / brownfield frameworks `[Verify current law]`. - [ ] No client-specific facts, matter identifiers, or privileged details appear in the profile. - [ ] All `[CONFIRM: ...]` placeholders have been resolved or explicitly accepted as pending. - [ ] The approved profile has been saved to `practice-profiles/real-estate.md` and its effective date recorded. - [ ] A process for periodic profile review and update has been identified.