Review public permit records only where the source description explicitly identifies EV-charger, EVSE, electric-vehicle, or car-charger context. Confirm the city source, record date, and published role fields before a territory or account team invests research time.
Check up to 10 business names against one listed public market before starting a trial. The result is a source-context receipt—not a contact list, purchase signal, bid, or finding about current activity.
Submitted names are used only to form the response. They are not saved, exported, or sent to analytics.
Inspect a current city sample for this exact published scope before starting a trial. If the source no longer contains a matching record, the sample says so instead of substituting a generic trade list.
Each market page identifies its public source, newest published record, and available fields before you subscribe.
For a branch, distributor, or outside-sales team, the useful question is not “who is guaranteed to buy?” It is whether a market is publishing enough relevant activity to justify research. Start with the public source, then use the available project type, date, location, and named-party fields to decide which accounts or projects deserve a rep’s time.
| Step | What to check | Decision it supports |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Validate the market | Official source and newest published record | Whether the market is timely enough to research |
| 2. Narrow the work | Published trade, project type, value, and location fields | Which activity fits your product category or territory |
| 3. Research the team | Named permit contact or contractor only where published | Which existing account or project team merits follow-up |
Start with a dated public snapshot before treating any market as part of a rep’s workflow: Raleigh, Philadelphia, and St. Louis each show the source date and the records their current public feeds support.
For a practical, source-bounded sequence a territory manager can use, see the supplier territory-research guide. It explains what to validate before a public record becomes part of a rep’s research queue.
If your team pays $30, $50, or another amount for an inquiry, keep that channel’s invoice, handling time, and booked-work result together. A paid inquiry is the request represented by its provider’s channel; its price alone does not establish fit, exclusivity, or a booked order. A public record is a different input: it can help a supplier decide which supported market or published project context deserves research before the team spends more time there.
That does not replace a paid inquiry or bid workflow. Use the contractor lead-cost worksheet with your own figures, and use the public-record versus bid-network guide when the job requires an actual solicitation, documents, invitation, or qualification path.
These are territory-research lenses, not product recommendations or purchase signals. Choose one only after a city page confirms the relevant public fields are being published for the market you serve.
| Sales team | Published context to validate | Research use |
|---|---|---|
| Electrical supply and controls | Electrical equipment, service, panel, EV-charger, or low-voltage scope where the permit text supports it | Prioritize territory and account research around relevant published activity |
| HVAC equipment and controls | Heat-pump, rooftop, capacity, or system context where published | Decide which markets and project context merit independent research |
| Roofing-material distributors | Roofing material or tear-off context where published | Review activity in the branch or outside-sales territory |
| Fire-protection and life-safety teams | Explicit protection, suppression, alarm, sprinkler, or standpipe context where published | Prioritize market research around relevant published activity |
Use the focused, canonical-safe evaluation views for electrical supply and controls, HVAC equipment and controls, or roofing materials, or fire protection and life safety. Each retains the same source-bounded supplier workflow rather than claiming a different dataset or a guaranteed sale.
For product-line-specific operating boundaries, read the guides for solar and storage, electrical controls and EV equipment, EV charging infrastructure research, HVAC equipment and controls, roofing-material territory research, or water-heating supply research. Each starts from source-published scope, not a generic trade label or an asserted buyer list.
For the exact-term fire and life-safety workflow, see the fire-protection project-research guide. It explains why a sprinkler or alarm term is useful for research only after the jurisdiction, record date, and published role are checked.
PermitGrab does not provide plans, specifications, bid invitations, bidder lists, or a purchase-order signal. It is a local public-record research layer: use it alongside your account knowledge and normal qualification process, not as proof that a contractor has a purchasing need or budget.
Real questions contractors have asked us. If yours is not here, email [email protected].
Suppliers and distributors use public permit records to research active construction, prioritize markets or project types, and build an informed territory plan. A permit indicates a project, not a promise that a buyer is seeking a new supplier.
Some sources publish an estimated project value or scope. Field availability varies by municipality and record, and an estimated permit value is not a material budget or purchase-order amount.
Where a source identifies a contractor of record, PermitGrab can show that business. Other sources publish only an applicant, owner, or generic permit contact, and some publish no named contact. City pages disclose what is available for that market.
Freshness varies by municipality and source. Each city page shows its public source, newest published record, and available update cadence. Review those signals for your market rather than assuming every city publishes the same day.
Some sources publish a contractor business name or phone; owner fields can also be available from public property records. Availability varies by city and record, and city pages disclose coverage rather than promising a phone or owner for every permit.
Pro is $149/month flat. No annual contract. Cancel anytime. No per-lead fee, no shared-lead surcharge, no surprises.
Available records can be exported as CSV on Pro for use in a CRM or internal research workflow. Exported fields reflect what the public source publishes, or what a documented public-record match supports, for that record.