Dissemination of real estate information through text messaging

Abstract

A system for use by prospective real estate customers includes a mobile software module that has been downloaded to the user's mobile device via at least one of a mobile phone network and the Internet. A server module is associated with a website that includes one or more secure pages for receiving input from the user to perform entering, displaying, updating, requesting, filtering and sorting of information. The mobile software module receives updated information from the server module through the Internet and synchronizes the information with the mobile device. The mobile software module also enables the user to: request real estate information from the server module for properties in a neighborhood determined from a location based service, a zip code or an address; and receive from the server module real estate information in response to the request.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for use by prospective real estate customers for managing personal information including real estate information, wherein the system comprises:
 a mobile software module configured to run as an application for managing real estate information on a mobile device of a user that is a prospective real estate customer, wherein the software module has been downloaded by the user to the mobile device via at least one of a mobile phone network and the Internet and is recorded on a non-transitory computer-readable medium of the mobile device;   a server module associated with a website for managing personal information including real estate information;   wherein the website includes one or more secure pages for receiving input from the user to perform one or more of entering, displaying, updating, requesting, filtering and sorting of information;   wherein the user can visit the website through the Internet and provide a username and password associated with the user to access the secure pages of the website;   wherein the mobile software module is configured to receive updated information from the server module through the Internet and to synchronize the information so that the user has access to the synchronized information both on the mobile device and on the website; and   wherein the mobile software module includes programming instructions that enable the user to:
 make a request to the server module for real estate information associated with a plurality of properties in a neighborhood determined from at least one of a location based service, a zip code and an address; and 
 receive from the server module real estate information in response to the request and relating to one or more properties within the neighborhood. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system according to  claim 1  wherein the real estate information received from the server module includes at least one of a picture and a graphic and wherein the mobile software module further includes programming instructions for making the received real estate information accessible to the user and sorted by real estate topic. 
     
     
         3 . The system according to  claim 1  wherein at least one of the server module and the website is in communication with one or more real estate servers to obtain real estate information requested by the user. 
     
     
         4 . The system according to  claim 1  wherein at least one of the server module and the website provides a secure storage area for storing the user's personal information received from the user. 
     
     
         5 . The system according to  claim 1  wherein the mobile software module includes programming instructions that enable the user to update the information on the website through the mobile phone. 
     
     
         6 . A system for dissemination of real estate information to a prospective real estate customer, wherein the system comprises:
 a mobile software module configured to receive real estate information from one or more real estate servers including a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) server via a server software module recorded on a computer-readable medium;   wherein the mobile software module is configured to run as an application on a mobile device of the prospective real estate customer and is downloaded by the prospective real estate customer to the mobile device via at least one of a mobile phone network and the Internet and is recorded on a non-transitory computer-readable medium of the mobile device;   wherein the mobile software module includes programming instructions that enable the prospective real estate customer to request from the server software module real estate information for a plurality of properties in a neighborhood determined from at least one of a location based service, a zip code and an address;   wherein the server software module is in communication with the one or more real estate servers including the Multiple Listing Service (WS) server and has programming instructions to obtain the real estate information for the plurality of properties requested by the user;   wherein the server software module has programming instructions to send the obtained real estate information for the plurality of properties to the mobile software module; and   wherein the mobile software module has programming instructions to receive the obtained real estate information for the plurality of properties and make it accessible to the user sorted by one or more real estate topics.   
     
     
         7 . The system according to  claim 6  wherein the obtained real estate information for the plurality of properties includes at least one of a picture and a graphic. 
     
     
         8 . The system according to  claim 6  wherein the server software module is associated with a website for managing personal information including real estate information. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8  wherein at least one of the server module and the website includes a secure storage area for storing personal information received from the prospective real estate customer. 
     
     
         10 . The system according to  claim 8  wherein the mobile software module includes programming instructions that enable the prospective real estate customer to update the information on the website through the mobile phone. 
     
     
         11 . The system according to  claim 8  wherein the mobile software module is configured to receive updated information from the server software module through the Internet and to synchronize the information so that the prospective real estate customer has access to the synchronized information both on the mobile device and on the website. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 8  wherein the website includes one or more secure pages configured to receive input from the prospective real estate customer to perform one or more of entering, displaying, updating, requesting, filtering and sorting of information, and wherein the prospective real estate customer can visit the website through the Internet and provide a username and password associated with the prospective real estate customer to access the secure pages of the website.