If you've decided that building permit data can help your business — whether you're a contractor, solar installer, or real estate investor — the next question is: how do you actually monitor permits at scale?
You have three options: do it manually, build your own scraper, or use permit monitoring software. Here's what to consider.
Option 1: Manual monitoring
How it works: Check your city's permit portal daily. Download CSV files, filter them in Excel, and track what's new.
Pros: Free. You control the process.
Cons: Time-consuming (30–60 minutes per city per day). Easy to miss permits. Doesn't scale beyond 1–2 cities. No alerts — you have to remember to check.
Best for: Testing the concept before investing in a tool.
Option 2: Build your own scraper
How it works: Write code to hit city APIs (Socrata, ArcGIS, CKAN), store the data, deduplicate, and send alerts.
Pros: Full control. Can be customized to your exact needs.
Cons: Significant engineering time. Each city has a different API format. APIs change without notice. You need to handle deduplication, normalization, and delivery infrastructure.
Best for: Software engineers or companies with dev teams who want full data control.
Option 3: Permit monitoring software
How it works: A SaaS tool scrapes multiple city databases, normalizes the data, and delivers matching permits via email based on your custom filters.
Best for: Anyone who wants permit data delivered to their inbox without building or maintaining a system.
What to look for in permit monitoring software
1. City coverage
How many cities does the tool monitor? Make sure your primary markets are covered. The best tools cover 10+ major metros and are adding new ones regularly.
2. Data freshness
How often does the tool check for new permits? Once a day is okay for weekly digests. Every 10 minutes is what you want for real-time competitive advantage.
3. Filtering capabilities
Can you filter by:
- City
- Permit type (building, electrical, plumbing, roofing, mechanical)
- Valuation range (focus on jobs worth your time)
- Address or neighborhood keywords
- Include/exclude keywords in the description
4. Filer information
Does the tool provide the applicant name, contractor name, and property owner? This information turns a raw permit into an actionable lead.
5. Alert delivery
How do you get notified? Email is standard. SMS is useful for time-sensitive leads. The best tools let you choose between immediate alerts and daily/weekly digests.
6. Pricing
Permit monitoring should pay for itself within the first month. A tool that costs $49–$149/month and helps you land even one additional job per quarter is a massive ROI.
7. Free tier
Can you try it before you pay? A good free tier lets you validate that the data is useful for your specific market and trade before committing.
The Permit Sheet
The Permit Sheet checks the boxes above:
- 10 cities monitored (SF, LA, Austin, Seattle, Chicago, Columbus, NYC, Boston, Pittsburgh, DC)
- Every 10 minutes during the day
- Custom filters for city, permit type, valuation, address, keywords
- Filer data including applicant, contractor, and owner names
- Email alerts — immediate, daily, or weekly
- Free plan — 1 alert, 1 city, no credit card
Try it free and see if permit data works for your business.