Exclusive HVAC Leads: What Public Permit Data Can—and Cannot—Provide

What an HVAC lead actually costs

Every lead vendor markets a per-lead price. Almost none market the two numbers that decide whether you make money: how many other contractors got the same lead, and what share of those leads you close. Cost per booked job is the only comparable figure — cost per lead ÷ close rate.

The cheap lead is the expensive one. A $90 shared lead sold four ways, closing 10%, costs $900 per booked job. A $220 exclusive lead closing 30% costs $733. The $90 lead is 23% more expensive per job — and it arrives in three competitors’ inboxes at the same second, so the close rate is a race you often lose before you dial.

CPL ranges above are compiled from published vendor pricing and industry write-ups and are directional only. There is no audited public dataset of HVAC lead costs, and most published figures originate with companies that sell leads.

The regulator has already examined these claims

In March 2022 the FTC filed an administrative complaint alleging that since at least mid-2014 HomeAdvisor made false, misleading or unsubstantiated claims about the quality and source of the leads it sold — including telling providers that leads converted into jobs at rates it could not substantiate, and selling leads that did not match the services or geography the provider signed up for. HomeAdvisor agreed to an order requiring payment of up to $7.2 million; the FTC approved the final consent order in April 2023 and began returning money to affected businesses that November.

Primary sources: the $7.2M order · final order · case file. The lesson is not “never buy leads” — it is that the conversion rate a vendor quotes you is the least reliable number in the transaction.

What we sell, stated honestly

We are not going to tell you a permit is a homeowner waiting for your quote. A homeowner who pulled an HVAC permit has already hired an HVAC contractor. Any vendor claiming otherwise is overselling, and you should discount everything else they say.

We will also tell you what we do NOT have. A “your system is 14 years old, time to replace” play needs a decade of permit history. Our HVAC file goes back about eighteen months. If someone sells you replacement-timing data, ask them how many years deep their permit archive actually is.

What HVAC permits are genuinely the best available source for:

• The service-contract annuity. A system installed this week is a maintenance customer for the next ten to fifteen years — and the company that installed it does not automatically win the service agreement. The permit tells you the address and the month the warranty clock started.
• Competitive intelligence. See who is taking visible permit volume in your zips and what they declare per job — a source-backed view of local activity.
• Route density. HVAC margin is destroyed by drive time. Permits carry addresses, so you can build a call list that clusters instead of one that scatters you across a metro.
• New-construction relationships. Install permits on new builds name the general contractor. That is a B2B introduction, not a homeowner cold call.

What varies by HVAC market

Phone coverage is partial and source-specific. Some records carry a business name and job address but no phone; other markets publish richer contact fields. We show the available fields on the city page rather than implying every row has a phone number.

Coverage varies by city because permit offices vary. Check your metro on the city list before you subscribe, and read the full HVAC lead-cost breakdown or the roofing equivalent. Trade pages: Wichita HVAC · Austin HVAC.