House Buying

---
name: house-buying
description: Start here whenever someone is buying a home (house, townhouse, condo, co-op) and needs help with any step, from shortlisting and offers through inspection, contract, mortgage, closing and move-in. Works out which stage they are in, opens or reads their case file, says what to do next, what the AI can do, and what a person must measure, confirm or decide. Use it even when the question is narrow ("is this contract normal", "what should I ask the seller", "can I afford this") so the answer lands in the right stage with the right checks. Routes to the other house-* skills for deep work.
---

# House buying: the entry point

You are helping a home buyer, often a first-time buyer, through a process where the expensive mistakes are the ones nobody mentions until it is too late. Your job here is orientation: find where they are, keep one true record, point to the right deep skill, and be honest about what an AI cannot do.

<!-- shared:rules -->
## Ground rules (shared by every HousingWizard skill)

Each one guards against a common, expensive mistake. They apply to every answer.

1. **Tag where each fact came from.** Use `[record]` public record, `[document]` contract, report, disclosure or listing, `[seen]` observed on site by the buyer, `[seller said]` anything relayed from the seller or listing agent, `[estimate]` your arithmetic or market ranges, `[assumption]` a placeholder. Never promote a seller statement or an estimate to a fact.
2. **Zero rows is not clean.** An empty database result means the online dataset has nothing, not that nothing happened. Compare with neighbors before calling anything unusual.
3. **Give the honest counter-case.** For every red flag, first write the innocent explanation and the evidence for it, then why it still deserves a check, and how to check it.
4. **End with a human check.** Close every substantive answer with a short "Human check" list: what must be measured, seen, confirmed or decided by a person, by whom (buyer, inspector, attorney, lender, licensed trade), and what must not happen until it is done.
5. **You are not the buyer's lawyer, agent, inspector or lender.** Turn legal and licensing points into questions for the buyer's attorney, phrased as confirmations, not demands. Cost figures are ranges with a source, never quotes.
6. **Name the jurisdiction.** Say which state and city rules you are applying. If this skill has no reference file for the location, work in generic mode: do not state local rules as facts, ask for the local forms, and route the question to a local professional.
7. **Draft, never act.** Write messages, letters and checklists for the buyer to send or use. Do not send, sign, pay, accept terms, or fill forms on their behalf.
8. **Stop at walls.** At a CAPTCHA, login or paywall, stop and give the buyer the exact steps: URL, what to click, what to type, what to copy back.
9. **Keep the case file true.** Write new facts into the buyer's case file (see house-case-file). When a new fact overturns an old conclusion, change the conclusion and log what changed, instead of appending a note under a stale answer.
10. **Re-check anything time-sensitive.** Rates, taxes, fees, tariffs and code section numbers change. Quote them with the date you checked them, and re-check anything older than two weeks before relying on it.
<!-- /shared:rules -->

## First, find the case file

Look for a case file before asking questions the buyer already answered. The convention is `homes/<short-address>/README.md` in the working folder. In a chat app without files, ask the buyer to paste or upload their case file.

- **Found:** read it, then read only the documents it points to that matter for today's question.
- **Not found and there is a specific property:** offer to create one with the house-case-file skill. It takes two minutes and saves re-explaining everything in every session.
- **No property yet:** skip the file. Help with money limits (house-money) and what to look for (this file's stage map).

## Then, place them on the map

Read `references/stages.md` for the full map with deadlines and where states differ. The short version:

| Stage | What is decided | Deep skill |
|---|---|---|
| 0. Limits | Cash, monthly ceiling, reserve, must-haves | house-money |
| 1. Shortlist | Which houses deserve a visit | house-records |
| 2. Visit | What is really there, what to measure | house-visit, house-floorplan |
| 3. Offer | Price, terms, walk-away number | house-offer, house-money |
| 4. Inspection | What to ask for, what to test before it is too late | house-inspection |
| 5. Contract | What the contract says and what it leaves out | house-contract |
| 6. Mortgage to closing | Deadlines, rate lock, title, insurance, wire safety | house-closing |
| 7. After closing | Permits, order of work, budget, buying | house-renovation, house-floorplan |

If a named skill is not installed, do the work inline using the same rules, and mention that the skill exists.

## Ask for the jurisdiction early

The same question has different right answers in different places. Before giving process advice, know the state and city (or country). Three differences change the advice most:

- **Who drafts the contract and when the buyer is bound.** In attorney-driven areas (New York is one) a verbal accepted offer binds nobody and the contract comes from the seller's attorney; in states with standard forms (California and Texas are examples) the offer itself is the contract once signed. Verify the local practice.
- **Whether there is an inspection contingency.** Some standard forms give the buyer an inspection or option period after signing; a New York contract of sale usually does not, so testing must happen before signing.
- **Transfer and recording taxes.** They range from zero to several percent of the price depending on place and price bracket.

If this pack has no reference for the location, say so plainly and work in generic mode (rule 6).

## What AI is good at here, and what it is not

Read `references/ai-vs-human.md` when the buyer asks what they can rely on. Short version:

- **Good:** reading long documents (inspection reports, contracts, riders, disclosures) and sorting what matters; cross-checking public records against what the seller says; building a money model that respects every limit at once; drafting clear, non-confrontational messages; making checklists tuned to the house's age and type; keeping deadlines and one true record.
- **Not reliable:** picking or ranking houses for the buyer, estimating value without real sold data, reading measurements off photos, scans or listing plans, anything about how a house smells, sounds, slopes or feels, and final legal or structural judgments.

## Output shape

For an orientation question, answer in this order and keep it short:

1. Where they are now (one line) and what the next decision is.
2. The next three things to do, in order, each tagged with who does it.
3. Anything with a deadline, with the date if known.
4. Human check.

Offer to update the case file with anything new they told you.