Stop Paying Per Lead: Why Smart Contractors Track Building Permits
If you've used Angi (formerly Angie's List) or HomeAdvisor to find leads, you know the math doesn't work. You pay $30 to $80 per lead. The lead is sent to three or four other contractors at the same time. The homeowner has already decided they're "getting quotes" — meaning your conversion rate is whatever the best sales pitch of the four delivers. And the leads are filtered through the platform's algorithm, not by what your business actually wants.
Building permit data works the opposite way. A permit is a public record that says: someone just committed money and paperwork to a specific construction project at a specific address. There's no auction. There's no shared inbox. If you see the permit first, you get the call first.
The cost comparison, unvarnished
Let's say you buy 50 shared leads per month from HomeAdvisor at $50 each. That's $2,500 a month. Your close rate on those leads, industry-wide, runs 4 to 8 percent. So out of 50 leads, you book between 2 and 4 jobs. Your acquisition cost per booked job: $625 to $1,250.
Compare that to a permit subscription. For a flat $149 a month, you see every permit filed in your target metros — typically 2,000 to 15,000 permits per month in a large market, filtered by trade. At a much lower contact rate (you're doing the outreach yourself), but a dramatically higher close rate (you're the only contractor contacting, and you already know what work they need), acquisition cost per booked job drops below $100.
Permits beat paid leads on four dimensions
Exclusivity. Permits are a public record, which means everyone could see them — but almost no contractors actually do, because pulling structured permit data from dozens of city portals takes real infrastructure. In practice, a permit feed gives you the same kind of exclusivity that lead platforms charge you for, without the $30/lead cover charge.
Timing. A HomeAdvisor lead hits your inbox the moment the homeowner fills out a form. By then they're shopping. A permit hits your inbox the moment the contractor files paperwork with the city — often months before construction starts, and always before the homeowner has shortlisted trades.
Specificity. A HomeAdvisor lead says "wants HVAC service." A permit says "Mechanical Permit, Residential, 3-ton heat pump replacement, $7,400 project value, permit number X." You bid from facts instead of guesses.
Owner contact. Every permit names the owner or contractor who pulled it. Public record. You reach them directly without paying a platform to gatekeep.
The first-mover advantage is real
Most permit filings in our index appear in our feed within 24 hours of being filed. That window — between "permit filed" and "homeowner starts asking around for quotes" — is where the best jobs get won. If you're the only contractor who emails with a prepared bid before the homeowner has even thought to shop, you're not competing on price.
Roofers use this to get in front of re-roof permits after hailstorms. HVAC contractors use it to catch AC replacements filed in spring before the summer rush. Plumbers scan for sewer-line and water-heater permits. General contractors watch for remodel and addition permits that require a dozen subs each.
Try it for one month
We're confident enough in the math that we'll show it on your market. Pick a city — Chicago, New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Austin — browse the live permit feed for free, then start a subscription. If permit leads don't outperform your current lead source after 30 days, cancel and we'll refund.
The contractors who dominate their markets over the next decade will be the ones who figured out how to source leads from public data instead of paying a platform for access. This is the easiest version of that — just permits, delivered daily, by trade.