Make the process yours

• SKILL.md — the method: how to pick comparables, how to adjust them, what the report and map must contain.
• PREFERENCES.md — your standards: how far back to look, how far out to search, what a bedroom is worth, how the report should look. This is the file that makes it yours.
• field-map.md — notes about the MLS data.

They can be as detailed or as loose as you like — "never use comps older than 6 months" is a valid instruction, and so is a page of rules about tract matching. Claude reads them and does what they say. Read them here — the docs page also shows three example rewrites with every changed line highlighted, and what each one did to the same property's value.

Just tell Claude what you want. You describe it; it writes the document. In the workshop chat:

"Change the lookback to 6 months, stay inside the subject's tract, and make the reports one page. Save that as Maria's recipe."

Claude edits the preferences for you, saves your named version, and from then on:

• "Run comps on … using Maria's recipe"
• "Run Maria's recipe and the default side by side — what's the difference?"
• "What did Maria's recipe change?" — shows the exact edited lines
• "Give me the skill zip for Maria's recipe" — your process as a file, to keep

You only ever need to know what you want. Any level of detail works, and Claude will ask when something's ambiguous.

Custom skills work on the free plan. The one-time setup:

1. On claude.ai: Settings → Capabilities → turn ON "Code execution and file creation." (Off by default; nothing works without it.)
2. Get the skill file: download ladera-comps.zip from this site — or, in the workshop chat, say "give me the skill zip" (add "for Maria's recipe" to take your version). The link opens in your browser; save the file.
3. Still in Settings → Capabilities: find Skills → Upload skill → choose the zip. Make sure it shows as enabled.
4. Get the data: in the workshop chat say "give me the dataset" and save the CSV from the link (permissioned — keep it inside the brokerage).
5. Start a new chat, attach the CSV, and ask: "Run comps on …" — exactly like in the workshop.

Free-tier survival tips: one property per chat, don't paste reports into the conversation, and expect a few runs per 5-hour window — the free limit is on volume, not features.

Want different standards next month? Open a chat with Claude, attach or reference your PREFERENCES.md, and say what should change:

"Rewrite this so the radius is one mile, pools add $40,000, and the report leads with a one-paragraph summary. Give me the updated file."

Claude hands back the edited document. Replace it in the folder, re-zip, re-upload under Skills — done. (Zip on Windows: right-click the ladera-comps folder → Send to → Compressed folder. Mac: right-click → Compress. The folder itself must be the top level of the zip.)