Douglass D Pineda

US Patent:

20060282275, Dec 14, 2006

Filed:

Jun 8, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/160084

Inventors:

Douglass Pineda - Longmont CO, US
Christopher Hirai - Firestone CO, US
Kevan Davidson - Longmont CO, US

International Classification:

G06Q 99/00

US Classification:

705001000

Abstract:

The present invention is directed to a dynamic survey for extracting data from a consumer that is contemplating a real estate transaction (e.g., the purchase or sale of a residence), processing the data to produce a report, and providing the report to the consumer. In one embodiment, a Web server transmits a query over the Web to a computing device associated with the consumer; the consumer causes the computing device to transmit an answer to the query back to the Web server; the Web server processes the answer to determine a subsequent query. The use of an answer to a query to determine a subsequent query typically occurs throughout the survey and results in the consumer providing answers to questions that are focused to the consumer, as opposed to be a general survey in which the answers to many queries are unlikely to provide data that is meaningful in facilitating the real estate transaction contemplated by a particular, individual consumer. In one embodiment, the queries are directed to: (a) identifying aspects of the consumer's personality that may impact the real estate transaction being contemplated and (b) expectations of the consumer with respect to the real estate professionals that the consumer may want to engage to facilitate the contemplated transaction. The answers to the series of queries are used to produce the report that is provided to the consumer. In another embodiment, the report is provided to a real estate professional that evaluates the report to determine if the real estate professional is: (a) a good fit with respect to the real estate transaction being contemplated by the consumer and the expectations of the consumer with respect to the type of real estate professional that the consumer would want to engage to assist the consumer in the contemplated real estate transaction or (b) if the real estate professional knows of another real estate professional that is such a fit. If the real estate professional decides that there is a good fit, one or more referral transactions occur and a real estate professional is introduced to the consumer.