Every contractor spends money on leads. Angi, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, Google Ads — they all take a cut. But there's a lead source that's completely free, publicly available, and almost nobody in your market is using it.
Building permits.
Why permits are the best leads in construction
When someone files a building permit, they've already made three decisions:
- They're doing the project (not "just looking")
- They've committed enough to file paperwork with the city
- They need the work done — and they may not have a contractor yet
Compare that to a HomeAdvisor lead, where someone clicked a button and is now being sold to 5 contractors simultaneously. Permit leads are warmer, less competitive, and free.
What's in a building permit?
Every city publishes permit data slightly differently, but most include:
- Address — exactly where the work is happening
- Type of work — new construction, renovation, electrical, plumbing, roofing, solar
- Estimated cost/valuation — how much the project is worth
- Filing date — when the permit was submitted
- Applicant name — who filed it (homeowner, GC, or architect)
- Owner name — the property owner on record
This is everything you need to show up at the right place, at the right time, with the right context.
The problem: permit portals are terrible
If permits are so great, why isn't everyone using them?
Because city permit portals are designed for compliance, not lead generation. To actually use permit data for business development, you'd need to:
- Check 10 different city websites multiple times per day
- Parse cryptic CSV files with inconsistent column names
- Filter through thousands of irrelevant permits
- Track what you've already seen vs. what's new
- Do this every single day without missing a beat
That's a full-time job. Most contractors try it for a week and give up.
The solution: automated permit monitoring
This is exactly what The Permit Sheet does. We scrape official city permit databases every 10 minutes during the day. When a new permit matches your criteria — your city, your trade, your valuation range — we send you an email.
You define the filter once. We do the work every day.
Free plan: 1 alert, 1 city, weekly digest. Enough to see the data and decide if it works for your business.
Starter ($49/mo): 5 alerts across 5 cities, with applicant and contractor names. Daily or immediate email alerts.
Pro ($149/mo): 15 alerts across all cities, property owner data, full history access.
Who this works for
- Roofers tracking re-roofing and storm damage permits
- Solar installers finding homes already under construction
- Electricians and plumbers looking for renovation projects
- General contractors tracking high-value new builds
- Real estate investors spotting renovation activity patterns
Getting started
Sign up for free and create your first alert in under 2 minutes. Pick your city, pick your permit type, and let the leads come to you.
No credit card. No contracts. Just permits, delivered to your inbox.