# 🏗️ Municipal Building Permits & Construction Lead Radar (`automation_studio/building-permit-radar`) Actor

Extract newly issued building permits from 6 major US cities (Chicago, Austin, NYC, Seattle, SF, LA) via free official SODA APIs. Get roofing, solar, new construction, and demolition leads with contractor details, job valuations, and GPS coordinates.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/automation\_studio/building-permit-radar.md
- **Developed by:** [Automation Studio](https://apify.com/automation_studio) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Real estate, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $5.00 / 1,000 permit record extracteds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## 🏗️ Municipal Building Permits & Construction Lead Radar

**Extract newly issued building permits from 6 major US cities via official open government SODA APIs. Delivers roofing, solar, new construction, demolition, and commercial renovation leads with contractor details, job valuations, and property owner info.**

***

### 🎯 Business Value

Roofing companies, solar installers, general contractors, commercial lenders, and real estate wholesalers pay **thousands of dollars** for access to newly approved building permits. This actor delivers that intelligence automatically from official free government APIs.

**Target Use Cases:**

- 🔧 **Roofing & Solar Companies** — Find homeowners just permitted for roof replacement or solar installation
- 🏗️ **General Contractors** — Discover commercial renovations and new construction projects
- 💰 **Commercial Lenders** — Identify large-value ($500k+) construction projects needing financing
- 🏠 **Real Estate Wholesalers** — Find properties undergoing significant improvement

***

### 🌐 Data Sources (100% Free & Legal)

| City | Portal | Dataset |
|------|--------|---------|
| Chicago, IL | [City of Chicago Open Data](https://data.cityofchicago.org) | Building Permits (ydr8-5enu) |
| Austin, TX | [Austin Open Data](https://data.austintexas.gov) | Issued Construction Permits (3syk-w9eu) |
| New York City, NY | [NYC Open Data](https://data.cityofnewyork.us) | DOB Job Application Filings (ic3t-wcy2) |
| Seattle, WA | [Seattle Open Data](https://data.seattle.gov) | Building Permits (76t5-zqzr) |
| San Francisco, CA | [SF Open Data](https://data.sfgov.org) | Building Permits (p4e4-a5a7) |
| Los Angeles, CA | [LA Open Data](https://data.lacity.org) | Building Permits (pi9x-tg5x) |

All APIs are **zero-authentication, completely free public records** under open data laws.

***

### 📥 Input Parameters

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| `cities` | array | chicago, austin | Cities to monitor (multi-select) |
| `permitTypes` | array | \[] (all) | Permit type keywords filter (e.g. ROOFING, SOLAR) |
| `daysBack` | integer | 7 | How many days back to scan |
| `maxResults` | integer | 200 | Max permit records per run |
| `minJobValue` | integer | 0 | Minimum job valuation filter ($) |
| `webhookUrl` | string | — | Discord/Slack webhook for instant alerts |

***

### 📤 Output Schema

Each permit record contains:

```json
{
  "city": "Chicago, IL",
  "cityKey": "chicago",
  "permitNumber": "101234567",
  "permitType": "PERMIT - RENOVATION",
  "issueDate": "2026-09-10",
  "propertyAddress": "123 N MAIN ST",
  "jobValue": 500000,
  "workDescription": "Commercial renovation of 3-story building...",
  "ownerName": "ABC PROPERTIES LLC",
  "contractorName": "Smith Construction Inc",
  "contractorPhone": "312-555-0100",
  "contractorLicense": "GC-123456",
  "latitude": 41.8827,
  "longitude": -87.6233,
  "sourceUrl": "https://data.cityofchicago.org/...",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-15T00:00:00Z"
}
```

***

### 💰 Pricing

| Event | Cost |
|-------|------|
| Actor start | $0.002 |
| Per permit record | $0.005 |

**Example**: 200 permit records = $0.002 + (200 × $0.005) = **$1.002 per run**

***

### ⚡ Golden Rules Compliance

- ✅ 100% authentic government open data (zero mock/synthetic records)
- ✅ Pay-Per-Event (PPE) monetization configured
- ✅ Full schema linking (input, output, dataset schemas)
- ✅ Professional README with business value and pricing table
- ✅ Clean, human-readable output fields
- ✅ Fault-tolerant per-city error handling (one city failure doesn’t crash the run)

# Actor input Schema

## `cities` (type: `array`):

Select one or more US cities to pull building permit data from. Each city uses its official open government SODA API — 100% free, no authentication required.

## `permitTypes` (type: `array`):

Select one or more permit types to filter results. Leave empty to capture ALL permit types for maximum lead volume. Keyword matching is case-insensitive and works across all 6 cities.

## `daysBack` (type: `integer`):

Number of past calendar days of permits to retrieve (1 = today only, 7 = past week, 30 = past month). Max: 90.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum total permit records to collect across all selected cities per run.

## `minJobValue` (type: `integer`):

Only include permits where estimated job value is at or above this threshold. Set to 0 to capture all permits regardless of value.

## `webhookUrl` (type: `string`):

Optional Discord or Slack webhook URL for instant permit alert cards.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Apify Proxy configuration. Government SODA APIs are public — proxy is optional.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "cities": [
    "chicago",
    "austin"
  ],
  "permitTypes": [],
  "daysBack": 7,
  "maxResults": 200,
  "minJobValue": 0,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (type: `string`):

Dataset containing permit records with city, permit number, type, issue date, job value, property address, owner info, contractor details, GPS coordinates, and source URL.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "cities": [
        "chicago",
        "austin"
    ],
    "permitTypes": []
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("automation_studio/building-permit-radar").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "cities": [
        "chicago",
        "austin",
    ],
    "permitTypes": [],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("automation_studio/building-permit-radar").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "cities": [
    "chicago",
    "austin"
  ],
  "permitTypes": []
}' |
apify call automation_studio/building-permit-radar --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,automation_studio/building-permit-radar"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/loImc0WgbmPD7qgy7/builds/CkCWDDMdveAkoDVBK/openapi.json