Patent ID: 8380596

Claim:
A method of determining a flat fee for a selected mortgage, the method comprising: receiving, via a computing device, data taken from a plurality of historical mortgages, wherein the data for each of the plurality of historical mortgages comprises information about one or more loan characteristics and loan costs; determining the loan costs across the plurality of historical mortgages to identify which of loan characteristics are key drivers in loan cost associated with the historical mortgages; identifying, via the computing device, break points that define the parameters of a plurality of mortgage groups into which the historical mortgages cart be grouped by using loan characteristics that are identified as being key drivers in the loan cost associated with the historical mortgages; determining, via the computing device, for one or more of the mortgage groups, a flat fee for new mortgages having substantially the same loan characteristics as mortgages in the mortgage group based on the loan costs associated with the historical mortgages in the mortgage group; determining a flat fee for the selected mortgage based on the mortgage group with which the selected mortgage is associated; thereafter determining whether the flat fee for the selected mortgage is greater than a sum of a plurality of itemized actual lender fees and third-party fees associated with the selected mortgage; and if the flat fee is greater than the sum of the plurality of itemized actual lender fees and third-party fees associated with the selected mortgage, calculating a reimbursement amount equal to the difference between the flat fee for the selected mortgage and the sum of the plurality of itemized actual lender fees and third-party fees associated with the selected mortgage.