TE applies deduplication logic to contact data by TE API or data importers. When contact data enter into the TE system, the deduplication logic attempts to locate an existing matching contact record using from required fields and, if configured, the external ID fields. The deduplication logic for contacts that are agents (buyer’s agent, seller’s agent, etc.) uses employer information as an additional set of required fields used to match data. 

Any contact data submitted without a minimum set of required fields will be rejected. For example, a borrower submitted with the last name and email address, but no first name is invalid. Required fields for contacts are provided below.

Required Fields

The acceptable variations of required fields are listed below. Contact data for agents may contain either (or both) sets of required fields to satisfy de-duplication criteria.

Required fields, application to all contacts:

• First / Last Name
• At least 1 of the following:
  1. Email address
  2. Address (address, city, state, and zip)
  3. Phone home
  4. Phone cell
  5. Phone work

Required fields, application only to agents:

• Employer
• At least 1 of the following:
  1. Email address
  2. Employer Address (address, city, state, and zip)

What Data Importer Looks For:

Based on the above-required field information, the data importer will reject contacts where:

• Only first and last names are submitted (no email address, address, phone)
• Only one first name or last name is submitted
• The contact is submitted as a borrower, and only the employer and employer email address are submitted

Based on the above-required field information, the data importer will accept contacts where:

• First name, last name, and email address are submitted
• First name, last name, and address (address, city, state, and zip) are submitted

• First name, last name, and one or more of the following phone numbers are submitted: home, cell, or office.
• The contact is submitted as a buyer’s agent, and only the employer and employer address are submitted.

Correcting Duplicate Contacts:

TE recommends reviewing contact data prior to submittal to ensure separately listed contacts are unique. For example, Jim Jones, James Jones, and Jimmy Jones are all listed as separate contacts but have the same email address: jjones1@example.com. The three separate entries are the same person. TE will import these as three separate contacts if the first name is not normalized prior to submission to TE.

Matching Logic:

This section describes the matching logic used to match a submitted contact to an existing record in the TE system. The logic applied to most contacts is described first, followed by the logic used to match agent records. Each subsection lists the matching steps used by the data importer based on the importer’s configuration and then the steps used by the API.

Matching General Contacts without using External ID:

The diagram below shows the deduplication logic for contacts imports that do not have an external ID.

When the data importer is not configured to match on external ID, the steps for matching to an existing contact omit the consideration of the external ID and so are slightly different:

1. Match first name, last name, and email.
2. Match first name, last name, address, city, state, and zip code.
3. Match first name, last name, and home phone number.
4. Match first name, last name, and cell phone number.
5. Match first name, last name, and office phone number.
6. No match; create new contact record.

If a match is made at any step, the existing contact record will be updated with any new or updated information that is passed in. If no match is made, then a new contact is added to the system.

Matching General Contacts using External ID

The diagram below shows the deduplication logic for contacts when imports are configured to use an external ID.

As shown in the diagram, the steps for matching to an existing contact are: 

1. Match on external ID field value.
2. *Match first name, last name, and email.
3. *Match first name, last name, address, city, state, and zip code.
4. *Match first name, last name, and home phone number.
5. *Match first name, last name, and cell phone number.
6. *Match first name, last name, and office phone number.
7. No match; create new contact record.

*Steps 2 through 6 will only match to an existing contact record if the existing record does not have an external ID associated with it.

If a match is made at any step, the existing contact record will be updated with any new or updated information that is passed in. If no match is made, then a new contact is added to the system.

Matching Agents

The diagram below shows the additional deduplication steps taken for contacts submitted as agents. This applies to loan participants as being identified as agents. This includes the default loan participants available within TE (Buyer’s Agent, Seller’s Agent, Settlement Agent) as well as applicable custom loan participants when indicated by the customer.

When the data importer is not configured to match on external ID, the steps for locating and matching an agent to an existing contact are:

1. Match first name, last name, and email.
2. Match first name, last name, address, city, state, and zip code.
3. Match first name, last name, and home phone number.
4. Match first name, last name, and cell phone number.
5. Match first name, last name, and office phone number.
6. Match first name, last name, employer name, and email (personal email).
7. Match last name, employer name, email where first name is empty in the database and not provided.
8. Match employer name and email where first name and last name are empty in the database and are not provided.
9. Match first name, last name, employer name, employer address (address, city, state, and zip).
10. Match first name, employer name, and employer address where last name is empty in the database and not provided. 
11. Match last name, employer name, and employer address where first name is empty in the database and are not provided.
12. No match; create new contact record.