What is the 3-3-3 rule in real estate?

A rule with no official registry and no governing body is still worth knowing, because it shapes how buyers think before they ever call anyone. The 3-3-3 rule is an informal framework buyers use to focus their search before things get complicated. The idea is to narrow your options to three neighborhoods, three property types or price ranges, and three must-have features. That's it. Three cuts, made early, so the process doesn't sprawl into an exhausting comparison of things that have nothing in common. For a condo buyer in DENVER, that framing has specific teeth. The condo market here covers a wide range: older buildings with character and higher HOA fees, newer towers with amenity packages and different financing considerations, smaller boutique buildings with no on-site staff. If you go in without a filter, you can spend weeks touring properties that feel comparable but aren't, because the monthly carrying costs, the reserve fund health, and the rules around rentals or pets can all vary sharply from building to building. If I were narrowing a condo search in DENVER, I'd use the three-features cut to surface the building rules, not just the unit finishes. What a building allows, and what it restricts, often matters more to your daily life than the countertops. The rule doesn't tell you what to buy. It tells you what to stop looking at. In a city with as many condo options as DENVER has, that's the question worth sitting with: what have you already decided you don't need? For general informational purposes only. Not legal, tax, financial, or real estate advice. Kevin Protest1 | Xanadu Realty | Equal Housing Opportunity