Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Discount or incentive
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-17
2001-01-23
Poinvil, Frantzy (Department: 2768)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Discount or incentive
Reexamination Certificate
active
06178406
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to real estate appraisals and more particularly to a method for estimating the value of real property.
Real estate appraisals are used to estimate the defined value of a real property interest in real estate. The real estate appraisals are quite useful in many types of real estate transactions. However, a problem with real estate appraisals is that they take a lot of time to perform and are expensive. Typically, an appraiser is sent to a subject property (i.e. a property to be appraised) to inspect and determine an estimate price at which the property would most likely sell in the market under certain specified conditions. In order to estimate the price, the real estate appraiser finds recent sales that are comparable to the subject property. Then the most relevant units of comparison for each sale are determined from the comparables. Next, the sales prices of the comparables are adjusted to reflect their differences from the subject property. The adjusted sales prices are then reconciled to the comparables in order to derive a single value estimate of the subject property, which is a reflection of the probable price that would be agreed upon between knowledgeable parties acting without duress in a competitive market. This real estate appraisal process typically takes about four days to finish, which may be too long in many of today's fast paced real estate transactions. In addition, this appraisal process does not provide much insight on how to select comparable properties, which often results in estimates that do not accurately reflect the best price. Therefore, there is a need for a method that speeds up the appraisal process of a subject property and that provides a better estimate.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Thus, in accordance with this invention, there is provided a computer-implemented method for estimating the price of a subject property. The method comprises retrieving a set of real estate properties comparable to the subject property from a case base. The comparable properties and the subject property are characterized by a plurality of common attributes each having a respective value. Each attribute value from the comparable properties are evaluated to the same attribute value of the subject property on a fuzzy preference scale indicating desirable and tolerable deviations from an ideal match with the subject property. Each evaluation generates a preference vector having a value between 0 and 1. A measurement of similarity between each comparable property and the subject property is then determined. Next, comparable properties are extracted according to a predetermined threshold. The price of the extracted comparable properties are then adjusted to the value of the subject property by evaluating additional characteristics between the comparable properties and the subject property. Comparable properties are then extracted according to predetermined selection criteria. The extracted comparable properties are then aggregated into an estimate price of the subject property.
While the present invention will hereinafter be described in connection with an illustrative embodiment and method of use, it will be understood that it is not intended to limit the invention to this embodiment. Instead, it is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5361201 (1994-11-01), Jost et al.
patent: 5414621 (1995-05-01), Hough
patent: 5680305 (1997-10-01), Apgar, IV
patent: 5960407 (1999-09-01), Vivona
American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers, Appraising Residential Properties, 371-436 (2d ed.), Jul. 1994.
Avelino J. Gonzales, “A Case-Based Reasoning Approach to Real Estate Property Appraisal”, Expert Systems with Applications, v 4, pp. 229-246, 1992.
“A Case-Based Reasoning Approach to Real Estate Property Appraisal” By a Gonzalez, et al., pp. 229-246.
“The Sales Comparison Approach” Apraising Residential Properties (2nd Edition, 1994) pp. 371-436.
US Patent Application, RD-24,354 “A Method for Validating Specified Prices on Real Property” by William E. Cheetam and Piero P. Bonissone.
US Patent Application, RD-24,353 “A Method for Estimating the Dollar Per Square Foot Value of Real Property According to a Set of Comparable Properties” by Piero P. Bonissone & William E. Cheetam.
Bonissone Piero Patrone
Cheetham William Estel
Breedlove Jill M.
General Electric Company
Goldman David C.
Poinvil Frantzy
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