Method and system for auction information management

• US 9,135,656 B2
• Filed: 08/24/2011
• Issued: 09/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Strategic Acquisitions Inc. (Exworth Management LLC)
• Original Assignee: Strategic Acquisitions Inc. (Exworth Management LLC)
• Inventors: Jones, David N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vy, Hung T
• Application Number:
  US13/217,188
• Publication Number:
  US 20130054513A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,483 Days
• Field of Search: 707/607, 707/705, 707/736, 707/737
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/167 Closing

Abstract

Foreclosure auction information received from each of a plurality of sources of such information via respective Internet bots, manual updates, or other sources, is used to populate a database according to a predefined schema and ruleset. The database is updated in near real time (from any or all of the datasources), and actionable auction information that meets user-determined criteria for accuracy, timeliness and/or relevancy is extracted from the database and presented for use by a user.

Claims

1. A method for managing foreclosure auction information, the method comprising the steps of:

deploying, by a processor and via a communications network, to each of a plurality of foreclosure property information data sources, a respective Internet bot;

receiving, by the processor, from each Internet bot a respective input dataset, each input dataset relating to at least one real estate foreclosure auction event;

parsing, by the processor, information from the received input datasets, the information including a plurality of records associated with a respective plurality of properties, the parsing step including categorizing the information according to at least user-defined criteria for properties of interest, and the categorizing step including grouping the plurality of records into at least a first group of records and a second group of records, the first group of records being associated with properties categorized as having an active status, the active status indicating that a record is associated with a property meeting the user-defined criteria, and the second group of records being associated with properties being categorized as having a pass status, the pass status indicating that a record is associated with a property not meeting the user-defined criteria;

populating, by the processor, a database with information parsed from the input datasets according to a predefined schema and ruleset;

updating, by the processor, information stored in the database by incorporating into the database information extracted from updated input datasets received from respective ones of the Internet bots, the updating step including (i) updating the active or pass status of one or more of the plurality of records based on the information extracted from the updated input datasets, and (ii) automatically re-categorizing the one or more records in accordance with a change in the status of the record;

presenting, by the processor, actionable auction information extracted from the database,

wherein the populating step comprises;

executing, by the processor, a first comparison of a parsed record from a first input dataset and a parsed record from a second input dataset to the records in the database based at least in part on a first unique identifier associated with each of the records;

executing, by the processor, a second comparison of the parsed record from the first input dataset to the parsed record from the second input dataset based at least in part on the first unique identifier and a second unique identifier associated with each of the records; and

populating, by the processor, the database with the parsed record from the first input dataset and the parsed record from the second input dataset when a result of each of the first and second comparison indicates that the parsed records from the first and second input datasets and the records in the database are distinct.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the parsing step further includes collating information in the received input datasets to eliminate redundancies.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined schema defines different notations for common features present in the information.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of updating the information stored in the database manually.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of updating the information stored in the database by incorporating information received from really simple syndication (RSS) feeds.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the information stored in the database is updated at user-defined intervals.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the actionable auction information is presented upon updating of information concerning a subject property of interest.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein specifications of the properties of interest are used as inputs to extract from the database information concerning properties that are available or similar.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the information regarding the properties of interest is ranked according to a user interest level.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein information obtained by each Internet bot is first transferred to a web form, prior to being stored in the database.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the web form is configured to organize the information according to the schema.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the parsing step further includes categorizing the information according to one or more fields.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the updating step further includes determining whether or not a record for a given property already exists in the database, so that

if the record for the given property already exists in the database, the record is updated to reflect newly obtained information from one or more of the foreclosure property information data sources, and

if the record for the given property does not exist in the database, a new record is created and populated with information obtained from the one or more of the foreclosure property information data sources.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the change in the status of the record is from the active status to the pass status.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the change in the status of the record is from the pass status to the active status.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the change in the status of the record is a result of a change in a price of a property associated with the record.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the change in the status of the record is a result of a change in an equity percentage of a property associated with the record.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the change in the status of the record is a result of a change in an auction status of a property associated with the record.