Owning a house can be very complicated and time consuming. To maximize appreciation of the house, or even just to prevent reduction in the resale value of the house, the home must be properly maintained. In order to maintain a home, it is typically necessary to monitor the status of various parts of the house, such as the structure (roof, siding, mechanical systems, etc.), decor, appliances, and the like. Additionally, to properly manage a house and increase its value, the home owner may need to select from among several maintenance and improvement projects. Available funds might not allow completing all desired projects. The process of selecting and prioritizing such projects may require gathering and analyzing information from several sources.
In accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure, examples of various systems and computer implemented processes include receiving data regarding a house condition, storing the house condition data in a database and generating a user interface for displaying house information. For example, the generated user interface may display a real-time status of predetermined areas of the house based on the house condition data. Further, the house condition data may be applied to predetermined rules to identify home projects. The home projects are then displayed on the user interface. Data regarding the house may be received from various sources, such as from a home owner via the user interface, from an appraisal of the house, from smart devices in the house, from contractors or service providers working on the house, from financial institutions, from comparable houses, and the like.
In the following Detailed Description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. The following detailed description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense.
Owning a house can be a complicated and expensive undertaking. Buying a home is often one of the biggest financial transactions in a person's life. Financial transactions associated with home buying such as home loans or home refinances are often complex, and providing financing to home buyers is also complicated and expensive for the financial institution originating the various home loans. Moreover, when a home is sold, the process may have to be repeated for the buyer, even if the same financial institution provides financing for both the current and previous home buyer. Among other things, this requires repeating the home appraisal and other steps in the loan process.
Once the home is purchased, it must be properly maintained to maintain the value of the property. In order to maintain a home, it is typically necessary to monitor the status of various parts of the house, such as the structure (roof, siding, mechanical systems, etc.), decor, appliances, and the like. Additionally, to properly manage a house and increase its value, the home owner may need to select from among several maintenance and improvement projects based on available funds, return on investment, severity of the projects, etc.
For some home owners, monitoring the status of their homes is difficult. For instance, it can be difficult to know when to replace a roof or siding. Keeping up with maintenance of mechanical systems such as heating systems is also daunting, and when a system fails it can be difficult to decide whether to repair or replace the failed system. Home improvement projects such as room additions or remodels are also complicated and expensive undertakings. It can be difficult to decide which projects provide the best return on the investment when the homeowner goes to sell the house, for example.
Some example systems and processes disclosed herein provide real time house information homeowner. Data from various sources is combined and analyzed, and applied to predetermined rules to generate a user interface that displays real time house information. Some examples provide information and recommendations regarding home projects, just as improvement or maintenance projects.
For example, data about house condition and status is gathered from various sources, such as information in inspection reports and appraisals. Appraisers may provide additional information about the house at the time of appraisal, such as amount of time left on a roof, when the last roof was installed, etc. Information may also be gathered from the owner of the house on an ongoing basis, either directly from the home owner or automatically from other sources such as internet enabled smart devices/appliances within the house. Information regarding updates to work done on the house may further be provided, such as new siding, updated kitchen or bathroom, etc.
Service providers can also provide information about improvements made to the house, and information regarding contractors may be maintained and provided to the homeowner. Analysis of such state may provide the home owner with ongoing information about the house, and generate recommendations for improvements to the house that would provide good return on investment. As discussed further herein, a user interface can show the status of repair of certain portions of the house, such as roof, siding, windows, etc. based on the information gathered.
Disclosed systems analyze the effect of home improvement projects on the home's value based on data related to comparable houses, and make recommendations, based on age and status of various portions of the house to recommend improvements that could be made to increase value, such kitchen remodel, bathroom remodel, new flooring, etc. Such recommendations may be generated to maximize the return on investment, for example, by identifying a recommended budget for the recommended projects.
By maintaining real time, ongoing status information regarding the house, future loans related to the house could be automatically preapproved, and may not require an appraisal when the house is later sold.
For example, data about house condition and status may be gathered from various sources, such as information in inspection reports and appraisals. Information may also be gathered from the owner of the house on an ongoing basis; either via responses collected from the owner or from internet connected smart devices/appliances within the house. Service providers, such as repair or maintenance contractors, can also provide information about improvements made to the house. The home owner can then be provided with real time, ongoing information about the house based on the gathered information. Further, the collected data may be analyzed and applied to rules to generate recommendations for improvements to the house that would provide good return on investment. In some implementations, the ongoing status information is further used to do an automatic loan preapproval of a house without an appraisal when the house is later sold.
In general, the computer 102 is operable to access the database 110 to obtain information regarding a particular house that has been saved in the database 110. One or more user interfaces 120 are configured to display and receive information from a home owner. For example, the user interface 120 may be configured to receive house information from a home owner, as well as display home information for the home owner. The user interface 120 could be implemented on a user computer 122, which could be any of a number of suitable devices such as a desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet device, smart phone, etc. that communicates with the server 102, for example, via a network such as the internet. The house analysis engine further includes a rules engine 106 implemented by the computer 102, that applies predetermined rules to the gathered data to generate house status information as well as improvement project information and recommendations.
In some examples, application programming interfaces (API) are created to allow application developers for smart devices such as thermostats, home heating and cooling systems, smart appliances, etc. to connect with the home analysis engine 104 to directly provide information. Such APIs may also allow application developers for other information sources discussed further below to provide house information. Additional sources of house information may include, for example, appraisal information 210, home inspection information 212, public records information 214 such as various tax records, deed information, etc. Financial institutions 216 may provide information regarding various home loans and amounts spent for home improvements and maintenance. Further, in some implementations, information from contractors 216 providing repairs, maintenance, improvements, etc. is received. Still further, information from sources such as those shown in
As time progresses (left to right) on the timeline 400, additional information not necessarily related to specific events may further be received by the computer 102 and saved in the database 110 for application to the rules engine 106. For instance, data for comparable houses may be analyzed to provide recommendations to the home owner. Additionally, information regarding the typical life cycles of home systems may be received and saved. Applying such information to the rules engine 106 may result in providing and displaying on the user interface 120 a real time status of the home and various systems and items contained in the house. Moreover, receiving and saving such information allows the rules engine 106 to constantly update a real time value of the house.
As noted above, it can be difficult for a home owner to determine appropriate times for completing home improvement and maintenance projects. By providing a real time home status to the home owner, such decisions may be simplified. Further, by analyzing data relating to the house and comparable houses, the analysis engine 104 may provide recommendations for various home improvement projects. For example, as the home owner's family grows, he or she may desire to add on to the home. Based on data associated with projects completed on comparable homes, the analysis engine 104 generate and display information regarding costs of various types of additions, typical return on investment for such projects, recommendations for contractors, loan preapprovals, etc.
When a room addition project 412 is undertaken, data from sources such as contractors and service providers 140 completing the work, financial institutions 216 providing funds, etc. are received and stored. Such information is applied to the rules engine 106 to update the home status.
An appliance replacement project 416 is shown on the timeline 400 of
Information regarding the real time status of various portions of the house may be obtained by selecting the desired areas. For example, in response to a user's selection of the exterior 510 of the house in
Referring back to
In some embodiments, the information collected and stored in the database 110 includes images of physical documents and digital documents such as XML documents. The physical and/or digital documents may include, for example, tax returns and related documents, permits, appraisals, deeds, etc. Among other things, storing such assembled information in the database 110 allows subsequent use of the data for future home and financial processes. For example, if information is assembled for a mortgage application and stored in the vault, much of the same information could later be used if the same homeowner refinances or applies for a home equity line of credit.
The mass storage device 714 is connected to the CPU 702 through a mass storage controller (not shown) connected to the system bus 722. The mass storage device 714 and its associated computer-readable data storage media provide non-volatile, non-transitory storage for the server computer 102. Although the description of computer-readable data storage media contained herein refers to a mass storage device, such as a hard disk or solid state disk, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that computer-readable data storage media can be any available non-transitory, physical device or article of manufacture from which the central display station can read data and/or instructions.
Computer-readable data storage media include volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable software instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Example types of computer-readable data storage media include, but are not limited to, RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other solid state memory technology, CD-ROMs, digital versatile discs (“DVDs”), other optical storage media, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by the server computer 102.
According to various embodiments of the invention, the server computer 102 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to remote network devices through the network 720, such as a wireless network, the Internet, or another type of network. The server computer 102 may connect to the network 720 through a network interface unit 704 connected to the system bus 722. It should be appreciated that the network interface unit 704 may also be utilized to connect to other types of networks and remote computing systems. The server computer 102 also includes an input/output controller 706 for receiving and processing input from a number of other devices, including a touch user interface display screen, or another type of input device. Similarly, the input/output controller 706 may provide output to a touch user interface display screen or other type of output device.
As mentioned briefly above, the mass storage device 714 and the RAM 710 of the server computer 102 can store software instructions and data. The software instructions include an operating system 718 suitable for controlling the operation of the server computer 102. The mass storage device 714 and/or the RAM 710 also store software instructions, that when executed by the CPU 702, cause the server computer 102 to provide the functionality of the server computer 102 discussed in this document. For example, the mass storage device 714 and/or the RAM 710 can store software instructions that, when executed by the CPU 702, cause the server computer 102 to implement the house analysis engine 104 and the rules engine 106 shown in
Although various embodiments are described herein, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that many modifications may be made thereto within the scope of the present disclosure. For instance, examples related to home loans are included herein, though the disclosed systems and methods are also applicable to many other financial processes, such as personal and business loans, credit card accounts, home equity lines of credit, mortgage refinances, etc. Accordingly, it is not intended that the scope of the disclosure in any way be limited by the examples provided.