Patent ID: 8219471

Claim:
A method of operating a financial fund to share in an appreciation in a value of real estate in return for a payment by the fund, comprising the steps of: receiving at a fund server an electronic request from an owner or prospective owner of real estate for the payment; assessing a credit worthiness of the owner; if the owner is credit worthy, electronically providing to the owner a non-loan contract between the fund and the owner, the contract being for a fixed period of time and having one or more terms and by which the fund receives only a monetary value of a share of the appreciation in the value of the real estate over the fixed period of time in return for the payment; executing the non-loan contract with the owner and storing a copy in a database connected with the fund server; making the agreed payment to the owner for the fixed period of time; subsequent to entering the non-loan contract, realizing the appreciation in the value of the real estate by converting the non-loan contract into a liquid asset; and receiving the monetary value of the share of the appreciation from the liquid asset; wherein the fixed period of time is a limited time frame after which the real estate is at least one of (a) refinanced, (b) sold, and (c) transferred.