GB2376153A

GB2376153A - Providing property details to a mobile.

Info

Publication number: GB2376153A
Application number: GB0113076A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Kevin Strong; David Wilson; Debra Hillman
Original assignee: 24X Ltd
Current assignee: 24X Ltd
Priority date: 2001-05-30
Filing date: 2001-05-30
Publication date: 2002-12-04
Also published as: GB0113076D0

Abstract

A system for providing property details to a mobile communication device of a user, which transmitts property data from the database of properties to the mobile communication device such that the property data can be read from the mobile communication device by the user. Typically, the communication device is a mobile telephone and the data is transmitted as an SMS text message. The system may respond to a received enquiry message from the mobile to select matching houses from the real estate database in accordance with the user's preference request.

Description

SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATIC PROVISION OF PROPERTY DETAILS The present invention relates to a system for providing property details to a communication device of a user, particularly, but not exclusively, to a mobile telephone of the user, as a text message.

Conventionally, estate agents market properties for sale or to let by placing an advertisement board with the agent's name and contact details at the property. If a person wishes to view the property they must contact the agent in writing or, more usually, by telephone to obtain further details of the property, such as its price, number of bedrooms, etc. Alternatively, a person will visit the agent's office to obtain property details. Of course, as well as obtaining details of a specific property, a person may wish to obtain from the agent details of any suitable properties in a particular area.

This conventional method of providing property details to customers is time-consuming for the agent and costly, when particulars of available properties have to be provided to customers, for example by mail. Also, at particular times, the number of enquiries made of an agent may exceed the agent's capacity to deal with these enquiries, potentially losing business.

According to the present invention, there is provided a system for providing property details to a mobile communication device of a user, the system including a database of properties, means for transmitting property

data from that database to the mobile communication device such that the property data can be read from the mobile communication device by the user.

Typically, the communication device is a mobile telephone and the data is transmitted as a text message.

This provides a convenient and economical way of transmitting details of properties to potential customers without requiring the agent to conduct a potentially lengthy telephone conversation or mailing property details to a customer.

Preferably, means for receiving enquiry data from the mobile communication system is provided, and means for analysing the enquiry data and selecting property data from the database in accordance with the enquiry data is provided. This is a convenient way of allowing the potential customer to communicate details of a property or properties in which he or she is interested to the agent. The enquiry may concern a particular property, for example, where the customer has seen the agent's advertisement board at the property, or may be an enquiry about a general type of property in which the customer is interested. The system may analyse the enquiry data to select suitable entries in the property database that would satisfy the customer's requirements.

Relevant property data can then be transmitted to the user's mobile telephone as a text message or series of text messages.

Conveniently, the enquiry data is transmitted as a text message. This is a convenient method for the customer to transmit data to the agent, without requiring the agent's personal attention.

For example, the agent can provide the advertisement at a property (or elsewhere) which asked an interested person to send a text message to a given telephone number with the first line of the property's address or a reference number. The system would interpret the text message and search the database. If an exact match is found, the details of that particular property would be returned to the customer as a text message. If a match cannot be made, extra information can be requested from the user by a text message. Alternatively, a system could select property details which were calculated to suit the potential customer's requirements. The system may also allow viewing, offers, full property details and many other property-centred commands to be supported. For example, when details of a property have been sent to a customer's mobile telephone, the customer could reply that he wishes to view the property and the request could then be forwarded to the owner or manager of the property, or the appropriate responsible person at the agent's office. The viewing request is logged, so that the agent knows that it took place, and the agent need not be involved in the viewing arrangement process, if for example, the viewing is arranged directly with the person who owns or manages the property. Requests can also be made for details of available properties on a particular street or area. The system would return to the user list of properties that were available. The

sy 2m may also send details previous users of properties which later become available which are considered to meet the requirements of the user.

The embodiment uses technology operating according to the GSM (Global System for Mobiles) protocol. SMS (or Short Message Service) is part of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) digital standard, originally only at 900 MHz but later also at 1800 MHz (also known as DCS 1800), 1900 MHz (also known as PCS 1900) and 800 MHz (E-GSM). SMS provides the ability to send and receive short messages of up to 160 characters of text through a mobile phone. The SMS service functions similarly to two-way paging, but it is rapidly evolving into an electronic messaging ("e-mail") system.

With the appropriate software, users may send, receive, and forward messages from a personal computer (PC) to single addressees, or groups of addressees. These SMS messages are managed by the user's telephone Service Centre in a"store and forward"manner, similar to email, such that delivery is guaranteed. Thus, when the target telephone is unavailable due to being out of service area, for example, the network will hold the message and deliver it shortly after the phone comes back into range. The message can be sent by a central paging service, or by a compatible handset.

Not all digital phones are capable of transmitting SMS messages, but most current digital phones can receive them, as long as the network operator has the facility enabled. The SMS message text may be keyed into the

mobile phone using the phone's keypad, and with some telephone models, through a full QWERTY keyboard with which the model is adapted to interface.

Under the GSM protocol each network provides one or more Service Centres, and each of these can send to any GSM mobile on any network. These Service Centres provide a store-and-forward SMS function, which holds the message until it can be delivered or until a SMSC timeout occurs. In SMS operation, a user may enter a correspondent's mobile number, type a message, and forward the message to the user's Service Centre. The Service Centre address is normally stored in the phone and/or SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) smart card. The cellular exchange routes the SMS message in an SCCP packet within the GSM's TDMA frame format. International SCCP messages are routed based on a Global Title. The Global Title used for SMS is the Service Centre address.

The SCCP packet is passed from exchange to exchange until it reaches the destination Service Centre. Each exchange along the route inspects the Global Title and uses this to route the message to the next exchange in the chain.

Once the message is received at the correspondent's Service Centre, the addressed centre sends back a confirmation in a return SCCP packet, either directly to the user's SMSC or to the nearest exchange, and the confirmation is routed in similar fashion back to the original cellular exchange and on to the user's mobile unit. When a message is received by the phone, it will be stored in the SIM card, and will be available to be

read whenever needed. It will be saved until deleted, allowing use as a simple notepad. Most phones can be configured to provide an audible indication when a message is received, or just a visual indication if an audible indication would be unacceptable. Depending upon the phone and the SIM, usually between 5 and 50 messages can be stored. SMS is also used for"internal"messages, such as activating a new mobile telephone, remote programming of telephone numbers into a user's SIM telephone directory, and alerting the user of voicemail.

By taking advantage of an existing wireless communications protocol such as GSM, the present invention avoids the necessity of building and maintaining a separate network for transmitting data.

Other existing wireless protocols may be used to transmit data according to the invention, including by way of example a two-way paging service or messaging via the GPRS protocol.

For a better understanding of the present invention, an embodiment will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which :- Figure 1 shows an overview flow diagram of data exchange occurring in the system; Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the components of the system and the data transmitted therebetween; Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the text message handler;

Figure 4 is an schematic diagram of the reporting functions of the system; and Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the client management function of the system.

The system includes the following elements :- Client Manager, which gives the agent the ability to view, edit and adjust client details stored in a database.

Property Manager, which gives the agent the ability to view, edit and adjust property details stored in a database.

SMS Handler, which sends and receives SMS messages to and from agents and clients.

Reporting, enables agents access to information regarding properties and clients as well as billing data.

The system has two users groups, agents and clients, but benefits three groups of people :- Agents It provides agents with an additional lead generation route, i. e. enquiry via SMS, thereby potentially increasing the client base. Also, because it adds to the

ways of establishing a lead, i. e. a board giving details of the SMS service added to the traditional"For Sale" board, it adds weight to the argument for placing a board outside a property.

Clients Provides a convenient way of receiving property details, 24 hours a day.

Vendors As the system adds another way of enquiring after a property's details, it increases the chance of selling their property.

Agents enter abbreviated property details into the database via a web interface; no software is loaded onto the agent's PC. If, after a specified number of days, the property has not been deleted, a reminder is communicated to the agent via batched or real time SMS or email.

Clients make requests for property details data held on the database via SMS and are sent property details also via SMS. Clients'details are stored, as are the details of the properties they request details of, this can be used for client profiling. If a client fails to make an enquiry over a given period the agent is informed in real time or batched SMS or email.

Referring to Figure 1, a client 1 sends a text message to a message handler 3. For example, if the client is outside a property in 12 Finch Road, to obtain further

details of this property he or she will send the text message"12 Finch Road"from his or her mobile telephone to a number given on an advertising board at the property. The text message is forwarded by the message handler 3 to a database 5. If a match to"12 Finch Road" is found in database 5, details of the property are transmitted to the messaging system 3, from where they are forwarded to the mobile telephone of the client 1.

The message displayed may be, for example,"12 Finch Road, 3 beds, 2 recep, large garden, E150, 000".

The database 5 is also accessible by the estate agent 7.

The estate agent 7 is advised that an enquiry has been made. Details of the client 1 are also passed to the agent via the database 5. If a property has been on database 5 for a considerable length of time or if a client 1 has not accessed the database 5 for a considerable amount of time, the agent 7 is notified of this and may take appropriate action. The agent 7 is able to access the database 5 to view, edit and delete property details.

The SMS handler shown in Figure 3 will now be described.

The SMS handler deals with all incoming and out going SMS messages. This breaks down into: Enquiry SMS interpreter/clearer Database search Agent Notification Property information SMS When clients 1 send messages to the system they are accepted by the SMS handler 9. After a validation

process the handler then performs a property database 5 enquiry and returns the results to the client 1.

Data types stored for this part of the system are

"Agents"11,"MAS Agents"13,"MAS Utilities"15 and "SMS Messages"17.

The inputs are as follows :-

Source Description Clients SMS messages containing requests for details, contact, etc.

Client details Client details MAS Agents Agent's property information, i.e. 'agent A has on their books property X, Y & Z' Property details Properties that match a client's search criteria MAS Utilities General system information The outputs are as follows :-

Destination Description Clients SMS message containing property details, instructions, etc.

Clients details Details of clients and client interaction Agents Notification of property enquiries and requests for contact SMS Messages Details of messages sent Property details Search criteria Because of the likelihood of misspellings and abbreviations being sent in detail requests, the system must check what has been sent before searching the database for matching properties. For this it uses a multi stage interpreting filter. Once the SMS has passed through this process it is described as 'cleaned'.

Stage 1-The removal of bogus characters. Characters like'$'and'I'will never feature in an address but

may be entered in error. The system removes these characters.

Stage 2-Ignore case,'road'must be interpreted the same as'Road'or'ROAD'.

Stage 3-Abbreviations,'Road'and'Rd'must be treated the same.

Stage 4-Handles the fact that client may leave out spaces, i. e.'Finchroad'or put in too many spaces, i. e.

'Finch Road'.

Stage 5-Corrects misspelled words.

Stages 1 to 4 take place prior to a database search and 5 only after an unsuccessful search.

The multi stage filter takes the following steps :- Step 1-Search for and remove all characters that are found in a bogus character table.

Step 2-Reduce all characters to lower case.

Step 3-Search for all abbreviations in the abbreviation table and replace with full word.

Step 4-Reduce joined up multi spaces to one space.

A search is then made on the property table for matching properties. With regard to house numbers, these are located in the SMS, removed and dealt with separately, so'12 Finch Road'is the same as'Finch Road 12'.

Step 5-Only carried out if the search returns no records, the table of misspelled words is used for the correction of common mistakes.

To prevent accidental or malicious over use of the system, a limit of 500 SMS messages will be sent out to any one phone number. Reports will be available to see requests by phone numbers so that very active clients can be spotted.

Messages received that return no properties are ignored and no SMS is sent back to the originator.

The text sent for a property database 5 search is the same text as was entered but with abbreviations replaced with full length words, plus search retries with alternative spellings.

The database search will now be described. Once the SMS message sent by the client has been cleaned, a search is made on the property table. This search uses artificial intelligence techniques to work out what is meant rather than what is entered in the SMS.

There are several scenarios which can occur after the database search is made.

Scenario 1 A one to one match is found.

The details of the property are extracted.

Scenario 2

Many properties match the text entered, e. g. the text sent is"Finch Road", there are 3 properties in Finch Road. In this case the Message that will be returned will not contain property details, it will simply contain the numbers of the properties in Finch Road.

Scenario 3a No records match. A retry is made with corrected spellings.

Scenario 3b No records match. A retry is made with alternative spellings.

Scenario 3c No records match. A message is sent saying that no properties matched the criteria.

Agents can choose to have details of clients'enquiries sent directly to their phones via SMS.

As the details of a property or list of properties are sent to the client, an SMS is also sent to a preset agent mobile phone number. The agent can set these messages to be stored until a particular time and then have a summary message sent to their phone of via email including client details.

Clients receive property information from the system via an SMS message. This information can be details of a property, a list of properties that match the criteria.

A method of noting mobile numbers to which SMS manager should not be sent is available.

The database interrogation will return either a set of property's details, a list of properties or other instructions.

A reporting function 17 enables agents to draw off information stored within the system (Figure 4).

Reports can be historic or current as well as batched, ad-hoc, or real time. The format of the report can be SMS, email or HTML.

The inputs are as follows :-

Source Description SMS Messages Details of SMS messages that have been sent detabase Agents Requests for data/reports Client database Client details, properties considered etc.

Agents database Property list for agent Property details Property details The outputs are as follows :-

Destination Description Agents Billing, client and property reports A client management system 19 allows the agents to view and adjust details of the clients stored for them (Figure 5).

Via an HTML page the agent can add a new client, delete clients or add/change details held against a client.

The inputs are as follows :-

Source Description Clients Changes to a clients own information MAS Utilities Agent specific configuration and security Information database Agent New and changed client details Clients database Existing details The outputs are as follows :-

Destination Description Clients Client's own information Agent Existing client information Clients database New and changes to existing client information using a property manager system 21, agents can add, change and delete details of their properties held.

Sharing of properties with other agents is also possible.

A HTML page available on the Internet via an agent specific usernames and password can be used to add, delete and adjust property details held on file.

The inputs are as follows :-

Source Description Property details Existing property details database Agents database List of properties help by this agent Agent New and adjusted property details MAS utilities System information database The outputs are as follows :-

Destination Description Property details | New and changed property details L

Destination Description database Agents database Changes to agent's property list Agent Existing property details

An alert system allows agents to see details of the messages sent to and from the system. Details of messages sent by clients can be gathered by agents in a number of ways: SMS Message-Agents can receive an SMS message in real time, when an SMS is received from the client.

Web based Reports-Agents can view detailed or summary reports based on different time frames and for different types of message.

Email-Agents can receive any report via Email at a pre-specified time interval.

Via the agent configuration screen the agent can choose the type of message they wish to be informed of and the times of day and days of the week on which they want to receive real time notifications By selecting a report the agent can set a time and period of days and have that report Emailed to them.

Agents can decide to be sent an SMS message at the time that system receives a message.

The following tables show the data stored by the system :Property Details

Properties Data Type Description Validation Propertyid Integer Property id unique in Unique to MAS MAS system PropertyTypeld Integer Property type indicator Existing property type DateAdded Datetime Date property added to Vaiid date MAS Agencyid Character Unique Id of agent that Existing agency id added property to MAS AgencyRef Character Reference set by agent No validation to uniquely identify the property AddressLine Character First line of property Cannot be blank address for matching purposes Area Character For searching purposes, No validation which are is this property in Price Character Price of the property No validation Statusld Integer An id that identifies if the Valid status id property is for sale, sold, under offer, etc.

FreeFormatText Character Any additional text about No validation the property that might be of use when selling.

I. e. inglenook fireplace.

Data Type Description Validation Propertyld Integer Property id unique in Unique in MAS MAS system system Roomld Integer Room id unique to this Unique to this property property Quantity Integer Number of rooms of this No validation type, ie 2 bathrooms Status Data Type Description Validation Propertyld Integer Property id unique in Unique in MAS MAS system system Statusld Integer Unique id for a given Unique in MAS

Data Type Description Validation status Description Character Description of the status, Cannot be blank i.e. sold, for sale, under offer

PropertyFeatures

Data Type Description Validation Propertyld Integer Property id unique in Existing property id MAS system Featureld Integer Unique id by property Existing Feature id MAS Utilities FeatureTvpes

Data Type Description Validation Featureld Integer Unique id Unique to MAS Feature Character Feature name i.e. DG Cannot be blank Description Character Description of feature i.e. Cannot be blank double glazing Agents Agency

Data Type Description Validation Agency Characters 3 character agency id Must be unique to based of agency name MAS i.e. Frost and Brown could be FAB Password Characters Password used to Must be strong, ie access this agents data contain a capital via the internet letter and a number AgencyName Characters Full name of agency Cannot be blank Portfolio

Data Type Description Validation Portfoliold Integer Unique id within this Must be unique to agents portfolio this agent Agency Characters 3 character agency id Must be an existing based of agency name agency i.e. Frost and Brown could be FAB Propertyld Integer Property unique id Must be an existing property id

Confias ration

Data type Description Validation Agency Characters 3 character agency id Must be an existing based of agency name agency i.e. Frost and Brown could be FAB ClientExpiry Integer Number of days after the 0-999 last enquiry by a client before a message is sent to agent suggesting action PropertyExpiry Integer Number of days after the 0-999 last enquiry on a property before a message is sent to the agent suggesting action Clients Clients

Data type Description Validation MobileNumber Character Contact's mobile phone Duplicates not number used as unique allowed id DateLastEnquiry DateTime Date and time last Valid date and time enquiry was made by this client.

FirstName Character First name No validation LastName Character Last name No validation Salutation Character Eg Mr Smith, Dave, Don No validation and Michelle, etc.

Email Character Client's email address No validation Ref Character Reference to allow No validation agent to tie up the MAS client record with any other system they may be using SMS Messages SMSMessane

Data type Description Validation Messageld Integer Unique message id Must be unique to MAS Message text Character Text of message sent No validation MobileNumber Character Number to which No validation message was sent

Data type Description Validation WhenSent DataTime Date and time when Valid date and time message was sent

Advantages of the system are potentially increased leads for agents, potentially increased advertising board placement, added strength when taking on new properties, and allows clients to proceed with their enquiry 24 hours a day 365 days a year, reducing the chances of clients'going cold'.

Claims

Claims 1. A system for providing property details to a mobile communication device of a user, the system including a database of properties, means for transmitting property data from the database to the mobile communication device such that the property data can be read from the mobile communication device by the user.
2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the communication device is a mobile telephone and the property data is transmitted as a text message.
3. A system according to claim 1 or 2, including means for receiving enquiry data from the communication device, means for analysing the enquiry data and selecting property data from the database in accordance with the enquiry data.
4. A system according to claim 3, wherein the enquiry data is transmitted as a text message.
5. A system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and/or substantially as illustrated in any one of or in any combination of the accompanying drawings.