Interesting. However, I have to wonder about prior art. While I am sure that the patent holder did intensive research, I doubt that they were able to check for every possible GIS enabled real estate application that allowed the user to query both the parcel (map) and assessors databases and display the results graphically. There were dozens even back in the mid 1980's.

A couple of examples. Back in 1979/1980 I worked on a start up application that allowed real estate agents to use a PC (running CPM!) to specify an integrated set of geospatial and attribute search criteria that were then communicated to a MLS server. The server processed the query and returned a result set as text of all the properties in the MLS database that met the search criteria. Obviously, no graphics were involved in the initial version and communication was limited to 1200 Baud - but the application worked and was deployed for use by a real estate agency in Ft. Collins, CO.

Then in 1986, I worked on an application in which the GenaMap (DeltaMap back then) GIS running on an HP Unix workstation was networked with an HP 3000 running various local government financial and database applications including property management. The integrated application provided a GUI on the UNIX workstation that allowed the user to specify a query such as find all of the properties in North Sydney with 3 bedrooms, two baths, in a given price range and in a given geographic area. The returned set of properties was displayed as a map. The user could then zoom in/out, pan, point and query, generate reports, and perform drill down search operations, such as find out the zoning for each property or whether a given property was in a 100 year flood zone. This application was first deployed in 1986 in North Sydney and Campbell Town Councils in New South Wales.