Patent ID: 7844478

Claim:
A method of protecting a person with a property interest in a piece of real property against a loss of market value of the real property during ownership of the property interest, the method being performed by a hardware computing device including a processor, a memory, and a communications module, the method comprising: determining a base market value of the real property at a current time, the current time comprising one of when the property interest in the real property arises and after when the property interest in the real property arises; defining in the memory of the computing device a number of types of loss events that cause the real property to lose market value as compared with the base market value, each of the number of types of events occurring prior to the person selling the property interest; storing the defined types of loss events in the memory; selecting a number of the defined types of loss events for which the person is to be protected; issuing to the person at about the current time a real estate market value insurance policy, the policy promising to compensate the person for any loss experienced by the person when the real property loses market value as compared with the base market value based on any of the selected types of loss events, the issued policy not requiring the person to sell the property interest to establish the loss; establishing, using the processor, a premium with regard to the policy based on a calculation of a risk of loss incurred in connection with the policy; collecting the established premium; receiving a notification of an occurrence of one of the selected types of loss events; transmitting information to compensate the person with a payment equal to a value of the one of the selected types of loss events; thereafter, receiving, using the communications module, a notification of a sale of the property interest; determining that the property interest has regained at least a portion of the value of the one of the selected types of loss events; and collecting an offset payment from the person to offset the payment.