SYSTEM AND METHOD OF RESEARCHING REAL ESTATE

• US 20090030707A1
• Filed: 07/23/2007
• Published: 01/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Oath Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Green, Ido
• Application Number:
  US11/781,578
• Publication Number:
  US 20090030707A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/16 Real estate

Abstract

A method of researching real estate properties online uses a local Rich Internet Application (RIA) to perform an online search through a real estate web service and stores the results of the search locally so that they may be accessed offline. The results of the search may be further used by a map web service to generate maps of, and driving directions between, selected properties, and this information may also be stored locally for offline retrieval.

Claims

1. A method of researching real estate properties online;

said method comprising;

responsive to first search criteria, performing a first online search on a real estate web service to retrieve first data associated with a plurality of real estate properties;

responsive to second search criteria, performing a further online search on the first data to retrieve second data associated with a subset of the plurality of real estate properties; and

storing the first and second data locally to enable searching and retrieval of the first or said second data offline.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the subset of the plurality of real estate properties is the plurality of real estate properties.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first data comprises, for one or more properties in the plurality of real estate properties, data selected from the group consisting of type of property, number of rooms, price, phone number, city, state, address, images of the property, and comments about the property.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising selectively ordering the first or second data.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said selectively ordering comprises filtering the first or second data according to one or more predetermined criteria.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein, for one or more properties in the plurality of real estate properties, said predetermined criteria are selected from the group consisting of type of property, number of rooms, price, phone number, city, state, address, and comments about the property.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second data comprises mapping data, received from a map web service, associated with the subset of the plurality of real estate properties.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the mapping data comprises location data for each member of the subset of the plurality of real estate properties.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the mapping data comprises directional information defining a respective route between a pre-determined start location and each member of the subset of the plurality of real estate properties.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the mapping data comprises directional information defining a route between a pre-determined start location and all members of the subset of the plurality of real estate properties, thereby creating a closed-loop route comprising the subset of the plurality of real estate properties.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the first data comprises web page information that corresponds to each of the plurality of real estate properties.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the second data comprises web page information that corresponds to each member of the subset of the plurality of real estate properties.

13. A computer-readable medium encoded with a computer-executable program to perform a method comprising:

responsive to first search criteria, performing a first online search on a real estate web service to retrieve first data associated with a plurality of real estate properties;

responsive to second search criteria, performing a further online search on the first data to retrieve second data associated with a subset of the plurality of real estate properties; and

storing the first and second data locally to enable searching and retrieval of the first or said second data offline.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the subset of the plurality of real estate properties is the plurality of real estate properties.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the first data comprises, for one or more properties in the plurality of real estate properties, data selected from the group consisting of type of property, number of rooms, price, phone number, city, state, address, images of the property, and comments about the property.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 further comprising selectively ordering the first or second data.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein said selectively ordering comprises filtering the first or second data according to one or more predetermined criteria.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein, for one or more properties in the plurality of real estate properties, said predetermined criteria are selected from the group consisting of type of property, number of rooms, price, phone number, city, state, address, and comments about the property.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the second data comprises mapping data, received from a map web service, associated with the subset of the plurality of real estate properties.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the mapping data comprises location data for each member of the subset of the plurality of real estate properties.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the mapping data comprises directional information defining a respective route between a pre-determined start location and each member of the subset of the plurality of real estate properties.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the mapping data comprises directional information defining a route between a pre-determined start location and all members of the subset of the plurality of real estate properties, thereby creating a closed-loop route comprising the subset of the plurality of real estate properties.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the first data comprises web page information that corresponds to each of the plurality of real estate properties.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the second data comprises web page information that corresponds to each member of the subset of the plurality of real estate properties.