# US Building Permits & Construction Leads (`clever_firebox/us-building-permits`) Actor

New building permits from official city open-data portals: Chicago, NYC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Mesa, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Cincinnati, Montgomery County MD. Contractor, owner, valuation, address, geo. Keyword, value and daily new-only alerts.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/clever_firebox/us-building-permits.md
- **Developed by:** [Agentic Hobby](https://apify.com/clever_firebox) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Real estate
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.80 / 1,000 building permits

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

## US Building Permits & Construction Leads

Get **new building permits** from **official city and county open-data portals** in one clean format: permit number, issue date, permit and work type, description, address, ZIP, **project value**, **contractor name (and phone where published)**, owner, applicant and coordinates. Built for **construction lead generation**, roofing / solar / HVAC / pool sales, suppliers, insurers, real-estate investors and market research.

**Covered (official Socrata open-data APIs, refreshed daily by each city):** Chicago IL, New York City NY (DOB NOW), Los Angeles CA, San Francisco CA, Seattle WA, Austin TX, Mesa AZ, New Orleans LA, Baton Rouge LA, Cincinnati OH, Montgomery County MD (residential and commercial).

No scraping of city websites, no CAPTCHAs and no login, so runs take seconds and don't break when a site redesigns.

### Use cases

- **Contractor and home-services leads:** new roofing, solar, HVAC, pool, addition or ADU permits issued this week.
- **Subcontractor / supplier prospecting:** which general contractors are pulling the most permits, with phone numbers in Austin and Mesa.
- **Real estate & investing:** new construction and big-ticket alterations (filter by minimum project value).
- **Daily alerts:** schedule it with **"Only new since last run"** to get only permits you haven't seen.

### Input examples

Solar and roofing permits over $10k issued in the last 14 days:

```json
{"cities": ["austin", "seattle", "nyc", "chicago"], "lastNDays": 14, "keywords": ["solar", "roof"], "minValuation": 10000}
```

Electrical contractors pulling permits in Austin and Mesa (with phone numbers):

```json
{"cities": ["austin", "mesa"], "contractorContains": "electric", "requireContractor": true}
```

Daily alert for new construction in NYC and LA:

```json
{"cities": ["nyc", "los_angeles"], "lastNDays": 3, "keywords": ["new building", "new construction"], "onlyNewSinceLastRun": true, "alertStateName": "new-builds"}
```

### Output

`city, locality, state, permitNumber, issueDate, applicationDate, status, permitType, workType, description, address, zip, valuation, housingUnits, contractorName, contractorPhone, contractorEmail, contractorLicense, contractorAddress, ownerName, applicantName, contacts[], latitude, longitude, url, sourceDataset, sourceLicense, retrievedAt`

Fields depend on what each city publishes. For example, contractor phones come from Austin and Mesa, contractor emails from Mesa, and owner names from Chicago, NYC, New Orleans and Baton Rouge. See `samples/` for real output.

### Pricing

Pay per permit delivered. Filters run before you are charged. Use **Max results** to cap spend.

### Notes

Data is published by each city or county under its open-data terms (see `sourceLicense` and `sourceDataset` on every item). This Actor is not affiliated with any government. Want another city? Open an issue: any city with an open-data permit feed can be added quickly.

# Actor input Schema

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

Official open-data permit feeds to query. Empty = Chicago, Austin, Seattle.

## `lastNDays` (type: `integer`):

Used when 'Issued after' is empty. Portals usually lag 1-3 days.

## `issuedAfter` (type: `string`):

Optional explicit start date.

## `issuedBefore` (type: `string`):

Optional end date.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Whole-word match in description / permit type / work type, e.g. solar, roof, pool, ADU, demolition, HVAC.

## `minValuation` (type: `integer`):

Declared job value. Permits without a value are dropped when this is above 0.

## `zipCodes` (type: `array`):

E.g. 60614 or 787.

## `contractorContains` (type: `string`):

Only cities that publish contractor names are queried.

## `requireContractor` (type: `boolean`):

Useful for contractor lead lists.

## `onlyNewSinceLastRun` (type: `boolean`):

Remembers permits already delivered (per alert name). Ideal with a daily schedule.

## `alertStateName` (type: `string`):

Separate memory per saved search.

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

You are charged per permit delivered.

## `splitEvenly` (type: `boolean`):

Share Max results across the selected cities (unused share passes to the next city).

## `socrataAppToken` (type: `string`):

Optional free token for higher rate limits on large pulls.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "cities": [
    "chicago",
    "austin",
    "seattle"
  ],
  "lastNDays": 7,
  "minValuation": 0,
  "requireContractor": false,
  "onlyNewSinceLastRun": false,
  "alertStateName": "default",
  "maxResults": 100,
  "splitEvenly": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Normalized building permits, one item per permit. Opens the Overview view by default.

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

Counts per city and any portal errors for this run.

# 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("clever_firebox/us-building-permits").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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("clever_firebox/us-building-permits").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 '{}' |
apify call clever_firebox/us-building-permits --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/eBtY6SFcKpfLEOmwy/builds/tTGjmCQ1MmpASiwAj/openapi.json