Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Home History Records and Database”, for Approval (USPTO 20220028014): Patent Application

2022 FEB 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventor Huth, Michael J. (Sarasota, FL, US), filed on July 14, 2021, was made available online on January 27, 2022.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “By way of background, real estate business deals with the buying, selling, management, operation, or investment of real property, land and buildings. Purchasing or buying real property, such as a home, is one of the biggest investments made by an individual. Every residential property undergoes some kind of repair and maintenance during its lifetime, and therefore, at the time of a purchase of a home, a great level of transparency and disclosure regarding the home is required between a buyer and a seller, particularly for the purchasers. Therefore, buying and/or selling a residential property can be an immensely stressful process. Buyers and sellers may be unaware of the complete history of the house during negotiations. Even if a seller discloses the history of the residential property for the deal, there is always a chance of overlooking relevant repair and maintenance information of the residential property to be sold. There may have been maintenance and repairs completed on the home without the current owner’s knowledge. In such cases, crucial information will not become known to the purchaser, and they may get frustrated during or after purchasing the home. Even after buying the home, if new information related to repairs and maintenance is disclosed later, people may not feel confident with the deal. Repeated discoveries of maintenance, repairs, etc. on a newly-purchased home can be alarming, or it can be reassuring to know that a property was well-maintained.

“Typically, buyers rely on the information disclosed by the current owner of the home. However, the current owner may themselves not be aware of some facts about the home, thereby leaving some important information undisclosed to the buyers. Further, the buyers may connect with neighbors, or other indirect sources of information, to extract additional information regarding the repair and maintenance of the home to be bought. Furthermore, the buyer may connect with residential property management committees and homeowners’ associations (HOA) to get information related to repairs, maintenance, taxes and more. However, there is always a chance of missing out on some relevant and crucial information related to the home, and the information received through neighbors or other sources may be erroneous or misleading.

“Therefore, there exists a long felt need in the art for a platform which provides information related to residential properties for both potential buyers and sellers. There is also a long felt need in the art for an information software system which provides exhaustive and complete information on repairs and maintenance of residential property such as homes and other real property. Additionally, there is a long felt need in the art for an information database which eliminates the need for buyers to connect with neighbors, real estate management committees, or HOAs to gain additional indirect information on a property. Moreover, there is a long felt need in the art for an information system which provides all the relevant and crucial repair and maintenance information for a home or any other real property. Further, there is a long felt need in the art for an information system which provides accurate repair and maintenance information for a home, and ensures the buyers/purchasers of a safe real estate deal. Furthermore, there is a long felt need in the art for an information system which ensures all the repair and maintenance information is disclosed to the buyers before the deal is finalized. Finally, there is a long felt need in the art for an information system that ensures the home buyers and sellers are fully aware of all maintenance completed at the property.

“The subject matter disclosed and claimed herein, in one potential embodiment, comprises a system for creating and providing a home (i.e. real property) profile including a compiled report of all repairs, visits, service calls, etc., of a property. The system comprises: a user interface for a user to login, subscribe and input an address of a property for information related to a property; a server configured to retrieve repair, service, insurance and legal information from a plurality of operatively-connected databases; and a report module to prepare a report containing the retrieved information and description of the property wherein the server is accessed after authorization of the user. The server updates information in the databases from a plurality of third-party data sources and the system allows the user to view all relevant service calls to the address to help prospective home buyers and sellers become fully aware of all maintenance completed at a property. The user interface can be offered by a smartphone application (i.e. app) or a webpage, and is adapted for use on laptops, desktop computers, smartphones, tablets and more.

“In this manner, the novel complete home profile history system of the present invention accomplishes all of the forgoing objectives, and provides a relatively easy, convenient and efficient solution of listing all repair and maintenance information related to a home thereby ensuring the buyers and sellers are fully aware of all pertinent information before finalizing any real estate deal. The complete home address history system of the present invention can be accessed on subscription, or can be optioned for unlimited use as per the requirements of the user. Accordingly, the user may pay a subscription fee or a flat-fee pricing system to access the system in a desired manner.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent application: “The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosed innovation. This summary is not an extensive overview, and it is not intended to identify key/critical elements or to delineate the scope thereof. Its sole purpose is to present some general concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

“The subject matter disclosed and claimed herein, in one potential embodiment, comprises a system for creating and providing a home profile including a compiled report of all repairs, visits, service calls, etc., of a property. The system comprises: a user interface for a user to login, subscribe and input an address of a property for information related to a property; a server configured to retrieve repair, service, insurance and legal information from a plurality of operatively-connected databases; and a report module to prepare a report containing the retrieved information and description of the property wherein the server is accessed after authorization of the user. The server updates information in the databases from a plurality of third-party data sources and the system allows the user to view all relevant service calls to the address to help prospective home buyers and sellers become fully aware of all maintenance completed at a property. The user interface can be offered by a smartphone application or a webpage, and is adapted for use on laptops, desktop computers, smartphones, tablets and more.

“In a further embodiment of the present invention, a method for compiling a profile including maintenance and service information of a residential property to a prospective buyer or seller is disclosed and comprises: receiving an address of a real estate property for which the maintenance, insurance and service information is to be provided, wherein a user inputs the address on a user interface; determining a property corresponding to the address; retrieving the maintenance, service, insurance and legal information for the property from a plurality of databases; compiling a report containing the retrieved information; and, displaying the report on the user interface in an online manner for viewing and downloading by the user, wherein the information included in the report is based on a subscription level of the user.

“In yet a further embodiment of the present invention, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-readable instructions that cause a processor executing the computer-readable instructions to effectuate operations is disclosed. The storage medium and instructions comprise: providing a plurality of databases; the databases including information and details of various maintenance services performed on a residential property; receiving an address of a real estate property for which the maintenance, insurance and service information is required; identifying a property corresponding to the address; retrieving the maintenance, service, insurance, legal, et. al. information for the property; and, compiling an online report containing the retrieved maintenance, service, insurance, legal, et. al. information which can be downloaded and used for discussions and negotiations during both the selling and buying of the property.

“The method, application, software and system of the present invention are particularly advantageous because they provide a comprehensive information system for residential addresses. A report or profile containing a list of all relevant repairs and services done at a desired address is provided to ensure that a prospective buyer, renter, or seller gets all the required relevant information, including the insurance and legal information. Based on the subscription level of a user, a subset of information can be provided to the user.

“In yet still a further embodiment of the present invention, a method of building a home or real property profile, and enabling sharing of the home profile, is disclosed. The method comprises: registering a user device associated with a first user and at least a second user with a home profile system app; creating a first home profile of the first user, wherein the first home profile includes information selected from a group consisting of a service call, an insurance claim, a legal proceeding, a maintenance item, a repair, an upgrade, a renovation and a replacement; entering the first home profile into the home profile system app; inputting an address into a user interface of the home profile system app by the second user; searching the address to determine if the address matches the first home profile; receiving a request for the first home profile; compiling a report of the first home profile; accessing the report of the first real property profile by the at least second user; downloading the first home profile on the user interface of the second user; and, displaying the first home profile on the user interface of the at least second user.

“In one embodiment, a notification can be sent to a prospective buyer, renter or seller in case any information is updated of the desired property. In addition to the third-party data sources, information in blogs, newspapers, magazines, websites, and the like can be utilized and aggregated to provide inputs to the system. The information in the system of the present invention is collected from both publicly available data sources and private data sources.

“To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certain illustrative aspects of the disclosed innovation are described herein in connection with the following description and the annexed drawings. These aspects are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles disclosed herein can be employed and are intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents. Other advantages and novel features will become apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the drawings.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method of building a home profile and enabling sharing of the home profile, the method comprising the steps of: registering a user device associated with a first user and at least a second user with a home profile system app; creating a first home profile of said first user, wherein said first home profile includes information selected from a group consisting of a service call, an insurance claim, a legal proceeding, a maintenance item, a repair, an upgrade, a renovation, and a replacement; entering said first home profile into said home profile system app; inputting an address into a user interface of said home profile system app by said at least second user; searching said address to determine if said address matches said first home profile; receiving a request for said first home profile; compiling a report of said first home profile; downloading said first home profile on said user interface of said at least second user; and displaying said first home profile on said user interface of said at least second user.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first user is an owner of real property corresponding to said address of said first home profile.

“3. The method of claim 2, wherein said at least second user is a prospective buyer of said real property corresponding to said address of said first home profile.

“4. The method of claim 2, wherein said at least second user is a real estate agent.

“5. The method of claim 3, wherein said first home profile includes information from publicly available data sources.

“6. The method of claim 5, wherein said first home profile includes information from privately available data sources.

“7. The method of claim 3 further comprising a step of paying a subscription fee by said at least second user for downloading said first home profile on said user interface of said at least second user.

“8. The method of claim 4 further comprising a step of paying a subscription fee by said at least second user for downloading said first home profile on said user interface of said at least second user.

“9. The method of claim 2 further comprising a step of notifying said first user of said request for said first home profile.

“10. A method of generating a real property profile for a group of users connected on a content sharing platform, the method comprising the steps of: registering a user device associated with a first user and at least a second user with a real property profile system app; creating a first real property profile of said first user, wherein said first real property profile includes information selected from a group consisting of a service call, an insurance claim, a legal proceeding, a maintenance item, a repair, an upgrade, a renovation, and a replacement; entering said first real property profile into said real property profile system app; inputting an address into a user interface of said real property profile system app by said at least second user; searching said address to determine if said address matches said first real property profile; receiving a request for said first real property profile; compiling a report of said first real property profile; and accessing said report of said first real property profile by said at least second user.

“11. The method of claim 10, wherein said first user is an owner of real property corresponding to said address of said first real property profile and said at least second user is a prospective buyer of said real property corresponding to said address of said first real property profile.

“12. The method of claim 10, wherein said first user is an owner of real property corresponding to said address of said first real property profile and said at least second user is a real estate agent of said real property corresponding to said address of said first real property profile.

“13. The method of claim 11 further comprising a step of downloading said first real property profile on said user interface of said at least second user.

“14. The method of claim 13 further comprising a step of displaying said first real property profile on said user interface of said at least second user.

“15. The method of claim 14, wherein said first real property profile includes information from publicly available data sources.

“16. The method of claim 15, wherein said first real property profile includes information from privately available data sources.

“17. The method of claim 16 further comprising a step of paying a subscription fee by said at least second user for downloading said first real property profile on said user interface of said at least second user.

“18. The method of claim 17 further comprising a step of notifying said first user of said request for said first real property profile.

“19. The method of claim 12 further comprising a step of downloading said first real property profile on said user interface of said at least second user, and displaying said first real property profile on said user interface of said at least second user.

“20. The method of claim 19 further comprising a step of paying a subscription fee by said at least second user for downloading said first real property profile on said user interface of said at least second user.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Huth, Michael J. Home History Records and Database. Filed July 14, 2021 and posted January 27, 2022. Patent URL: https://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220220028014%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20220028014&RS=DN/20220028014

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