Method and system for retrieving and serving regulatory history for a property

• US 9,786,021 B1
• Filed: 12/23/2016
• Issued: 10/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unearthed Land Technologies LLC
• Original Assignee: Unearthed Land Technologies LLC
• Inventors: Carrington, Charles C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Uddin, Md. I
• Application Number:
  US15/390,027
• Time in Patent Office: 291 Days
• Field of Search: 707603, 707693, 707706, 707770
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/16 Real estate
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/163 Real estate management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services

Abstract

Described are methods and systems for retrieving and serving the regulatory history of a property. For example, an identification of data sources for permits and approvals is stored in a computer system. Property identifiers from the data sources are stored in the computer system. The system identifies the types of permit and approval data available from each of the data sources for each of the property identifiers. A determination can be made of the completeness of the regulatory history available for each property associated with each of said property identifiers. The system receives a request for the regulatory history of at least one of the properties associated with the property identifiers. A web page may be populated with a list of the regulatory history for the property.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

using a local computer selectively coupled to a plurality of remote computers via a communications network, the plurality of remote computers having land use based regulatory history data associated therewith, and having data sources associated therewith, a further remote computer having a data source associated therewith that is different from the data sources associated with each of said plurality of remote computers, the local computer being used to communicate with the plurality of remote computers over the communications network to build a local database, wherein a web crawler identifies and connects to a plurality of web servers at the data sources;

storing a first identifier of a first source of a first type of real property information in the database;

storing a different second identifier of a different second source of a second type of real property information in the database;

performing automatically data layering of the data sources, wherein a data layering feature of a software automatically identifies a particular property at web servers of a plurality of governmental authorities;

generating a data source index associating a plurality of types of real property information with respective identifiers of a plurality of different sources, the plurality of types of real property information including the first type of real property information and the second type of real property information, and the plurality of different sources including the first source and the second source;

receiving a user input from the local computer using a website an identifier of a property wherein property identifiers are input as a file containing comma separated values or in XML format;

retrieving automatically from the first source and the second source, using the data source index and matching the identifier of the property, real property information of the property including the first type of real property information and the second type of real property information, wherein the user is prompted to confirm the match or the match is determined if a quantity of possible matches is below a certain predetermined threshold;

associating, using the database, the retrieved real property information of the property including the first type of real property information and the second type of real property information with the identifier of the property;

determining automatically that the real property information is incomplete, based on the data source index including at least one type of real property information that is unavailable in the retrieved real property information of the property in the database;

flagging automatically the identifier of the property as incomplete in the database;

identifying the data source associated with the further remote computer to query to complete the real property information of the property;

generating automatically a notification of completeness of the real property information of the property; and

providing automatically the notification of completeness to an interface of a user computer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the first identifier and the second identifier is a URL.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the first source and the second source is a public facing website.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first source and the second source is a backend database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein none of the first source and the second source is a public facing website.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first source is a source of a third type of real property information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the database is stored in the local computer.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input includes an address.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input includes a GPS position.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input includes a tax parcel number.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input includes a search.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying the first identifier as identifying the first source; and

identifying the second identifier as identifying the second source.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a third identifier of a third source of the first type of real property information; and

storing the third identifier in the database.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

retrieving from the third source, using the data source index and based on the identifier of the property, real property information of the property including the first type of real property information.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a third identifier of a third source of a third type of real property information; and

storing the third identifier in the database.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

retrieving from the third source, using the data source index and based on the identifier of the property, real property information of the property including the third type of real property information.

17. A system comprising:

a plurality of remote computers having land use based regulatory history data associated therewith and having data sources associated therewith;

a further remote computer having a data source associated therewith that is different from the data sources associated with each of said plurality of remote computers;

a communications network; and

a local computer selectively coupled to said plurality of remote computers via said communications network, said local computer being configured to communicate with said plurality of remote computers over said communications network to build a local database, wherein a web crawler identifies and connects to a plurality of web servers at the data sources;

a memory including the database; and

a processor, wherein the processor is configured to;

store a first identifier of a first source of a first type of real property information in the database;

store a different second identifier of a different second source of a second type of real property information in the database;

perform automatically data layering of the data sources, wherein a data layering feature of a software automatically identifies a particular property at web servers of a plurality of governmental authorities;

generate a data source index associating a plurality of types of real property information with respective identifiers of a plurality of different sources, the plurality of types of real property information including the first type of real property information and the second type of real property information, and the plurality of different sources including the first source and the second source;

receive a user input from the local computer using a website an identifier of a property wherein property identifiers are input as a file containing comma separated values or in XML format;

retrieve automatically from the first source and the second source, using the data source index and matching the identifier of the property, real property information of the property including the first type of real property information and the second type of real property information, wherein the user is prompted to confirm the match or the match is determined if a quantity of possible matches is below a certain predetermined threshold;

associate, using the database, the retrieved real property information of the property including the first type of real property information and the second type of real property information with the identifier of the property;

determine automatically that the real property information is incomplete, based on the data source index including at least one type of real property information that is unavailable in the retrieved real property information of the property in the database;

flag automatically the identifier of the property as incomplete in the database;

identify the data source associated with the further remote computer to query to complete the real property information of the property;

generate automatically a notification of completeness of the real property information of the property; and

provide automatically the notification of completeness to an interface of a user computer.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein one of the first identifier and the second identifier is a URL.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein at least one of the first source and the second source is a backend database.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the system includes the one of the first source and the second source.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the system includes the interface of the user computer, which includes a display.