Envelope work already budgeted, and the jobs that force it.
A storm-damaged or failing roof with a permit already filed, or a solar permit on a roof old enough to need replacing first.
6,309 filings across 5 metros mention this trade's work.
One counted query per city against its own permit descriptions, run when this page was last rebuilt. It is the size of the pool, not the size of your feed: scoring and per-rule exclusions cut it down from here.
| Metro | All permits | Mention this trade | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | 15,060 | 3,360 | 22% |
| New York City | 17,502 | 1,303 | 7% |
| Chicago | 6,358 | 944 | 15% |
| Austin | 7,980 | 689 | 9% |
| Seattle | 1,477 | 13 | 1% |
4 filings worth a call, and the weight each one carries.
These are the rules, not a summary of them. A filing has to match one of them on its own text before it costs anything to score, which is why the feed is short enough to work through and why a rep is not paid to read a fence permit.
Storm or fire repair
Insurance-funded and urgent. The shortest sales cycle in the trade.
matches: storm damage · hail · wind damage · fire damage · emergency repair · tarp
Roof replacement
Direct roofing permit, competitive, but the homeowner has committed budget.
matches: reroof · re-roof · roof replacement · new roof · roofing · tear off
Solar on an ageing roof
Solar on a roof that has not been replaced means a tear-off and re-mount within a decade. Reaching the owner before the array goes up saves them that twice.
matches: solar · photovoltaic · pv system
excludes: reroof · new roof
New construction roofing
Sold to the builder rather than the owner, but a much larger single order.
matches: new construction · new building · ground up · new sfd
Context the filing alone does not carry.
The same permit is worth different amounts depending on what else has happened at that address. Every record is resolved to a property first, by assessor parcel number where the county publishes one, so the history is real rather than a string match on an address.
Solar filed with no roof work on record
Large envelope spend
Job value at or above $80,000. Smaller bands score proportionally.
What the number tells a rep to do.
80 and above
Call today. The window on this one closes in days, usually because a contractor is already booking the follow-on work.
65 to 79
Work it this week. Real intent, but nothing about the record says it is about to be decided.
50 to 64
Sequence it. Worth an email and a follow-up, not worth a rep's afternoon.
Below 50
Monitor. Held in the index so a second filing at the same property can lift it later.
What kind of filings become roofing leads?
Roof replacement, Solar on an ageing roof, Storm or fire repair, New construction roofing. Each is matched against the filing's own text, and a record matching none of them is dropped before any model sees it, so you are never charged for volume you would not have called.
How early do these arrive?
Permits are read from the city feed the morning they post, a median of a few hours after filing. Where a city legislates land use parcel by parcel, a scheduled hearing arrives weeks before the decision and months before any permit exists, which is the earliest a buying intention becomes public at all.
What makes one lead score higher than another?
Rule weight sets the floor, then the property's own history and the job value move it. A storm-damaged or failing roof with a permit already filed, or a solar permit on a roof old enough to need replacing first. A score of 65 is the line we call worth calling; 80 and above is worth calling today.
Is this the same list my competitors are buying?
No. Aggregators sell the same homeowner to three or four contractors and charge each of you per lead. Here a territory is a fixed monthly cost, and on Pro and above your segment in your geography is exclusive, enforced by a unique index in the database rather than by a promise in a contract.
Where does the data come from?
Municipal open-data APIs and council agenda systems, read directly. Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Austin, Seattle are live today. No scraping, no purchased lists, and no data broker between the city and your feed.
What if a filing has no owner contact?
Most do not, out of the box. Owner phone and email are bought per property on demand and cached forever after, so a property costs credits once no matter how many times your team opens it. Numbers flagged on a do-not-call or litigator list are struck through in the product and excluded from exports and webhooks entirely.
See what is filed in your ZIP today.
Live city data, scored for roofing. No account, about ten seconds.