Real estate leads in Chicago, from public record.
Chicago Department of Buildings published 6,358 permits in the last 90 days, and 132 of them mention work this trade sells into. A major remodel or ADU permit, renovation reliably precedes a listing, or a rezoning decision that just changed what a parcel is worth.
Counted with a single aggregate query against Chicago Department of Buildings’s own permit descriptions, dataset ydr8-5enu, when this page was last rebuilt. It is the pool, not the feed: scoring and per-rule exclusions cut it down from here, and what reaches a rep is the part that clears 65.
6 filings worth a call.
These rules run against the words an applicant in Chicago wrote on the form, not against the category the city filed it under. That distinction matters: Chicago Department of Buildings groups a large share of work under "Permit – Express Permit Program", which tells you nothing about the trade it feeds.
Rezoning hearing scheduled
The earliest signal that exists. A case set for hearing means an owner has already filed and paid, weeks before the decision, months before a permit, and before any competitor reading permit data can see it.
Rezoning / variance approved
Pre-permit entitlement. Development intent is now on the public record, months before any permit exists.
New construction
Ground-up construction means a transaction on both ends, land in, finished product out.
Teardown / rebuild
Demolition is the clearest teardown-rebuild tell, and the owner is nearly always working with capital.
ADU / second unit
ADUs signal an owner optimizing for yield, usually an investor, or an owner about to become one.
Addition / major remodel
Renovation precedes listing far more often than not, the pre-sale improvement window is roughly 6 to 18 months.
How do I find real estate leads in Chicago?
Read Chicago Department of Buildings's permit feed daily and filter for the filings that predict your work. A major remodel or ADU permit, renovation reliably precedes a listing, or a rezoning decision that just changed what a parcel is worth. EarlyIntent does this automatically and scores each one.
Which Chicago permits matter for real estate?
Rezoning hearing scheduled, Rezoning / variance approved, New construction, Teardown / rebuild, ADU / second unit, Addition / major remodel. Filings matching none of these are never shown, which is what keeps the feed worth reading.
How fresh is it?
Chicago publishes daily and EarlyIntent reads it daily. The newest record in Chicago Department of Buildings's dataset was dated 2026-09-08 at the last check, 1 days old. A feed with nothing newer than 21 days is pulled from the product rather than served.
How many real estate filings does Chicago produce?
132 in the last 90 days, roughly 10 a week, which is 2% of everything Chicago Department of Buildings filed in the window. That is the pool before scoring: the feed is the part of it that clears 65.
What does a real estate territory in Chicago cost?
A territory is one trade in one geography, and Chicago ZIPs are sold individually. Starter carries three, Pro ten and exclusive, Scale forty. Reading the feed is unmetered; only owner-contact lookups draw down credits, because those are the only part that costs money per record.
Are these leads exclusive?
On Pro and above, yes, no other paying customer receives real estate leads for the same ZIP. It is enforced by a database constraint, so two people cannot be sold the same territory.