US Building Permit Leads Scraper: AI-Scored Contractor & Construction Leads

Get fresh construction leads every day from official US building permits. A building permit means a property owner is spending money on their home or building right now: a new roof, solar panels, a kitchen remodel, an addition or a brand-new house.

This Actor pulls newly issued permits from official city open-data portals, sorts them into project types, scores every lead from 0 to 100, and can add AI sales insights: what the project is, which trades the property will need next, and a ready-to-use opening line for your business.

Who is it for?

• Roofers, solar installers, HVAC, plumbers, electricians and pool builders: find homeowners who are starting projects in your area
• Remodelers, flooring, cabinets, landscaping, fencing and painters: large remodels and new builds need many trades
• Suppliers, dumpster rental and equipment rental: reach active job sites
• Home insurance, security and solar sales teams: new and renovated homes are great prospects
• Marketing agencies and lead-gen businesses: build lead lists for contractor clients

What you get

Each lead includes:

Field	Example
Lead score and temperature	80, hot
Project types	roofing, solar, remodel, new_construction...
Address, ZIP, city, map coordinates	1414 N Elk Grove Ave, Chicago, IL
Issued date	2026-10-26
Project value	$1,883,700
Full work description	"Erect a 3-story, 6-dwelling-unit building with basement..."
Owner name (where published)	Cornelia 1211 LLC
Contractor name, phone and email (where published)	Bachula Development Inc
Why it scored that way	"project value $1.9M", "issued 2 days ago", "no contractor listed yet"
AI summary (optional)	"New 6-unit residential building with basement."
AI services needed (optional)	HVAC, flooring, landscaping, security systems
AI sales angle (optional)	Tailored to your trade
AI fit score (optional)	How good this lead is for your business

Download as Excel, CSV, JSON or connect it to Google Sheets, a CRM, Zapier, Make or n8n.

Covered areas: 26 US cities and counties in 17 states

A typical week brings 9,000+ new permits across these areas.

State	City / county	Permits per week (approx.)	Owner	Contractor	Value
AZ	Mesa	50	—	✅ + phone + email	✅
CA	Los Angeles	550	—	—	✅
CA	San Diego County (unincorporated)	180	—	✅ + phone	some
CA	San Francisco	240	—	—	✅
CA	Marin County	60	—	✅	✅
CO	Denver (residential)	75	—	✅	✅
FL	Miami-Dade County	900	✅	✅ + phone	✅
FL	Orlando	450	✅	✅ + phone	✅
IL	Chicago	480	✅	✅	✅
LA	New Orleans	230	✅	✅	✅
LA	Baton Rouge	155	✅	✅	✅
MA	Boston	30	—	—	✅
MD	Montgomery County	50	—	—	✅
MI	Detroit	115	—	—	✅
NC	Raleigh	65	✅	✅ + phone + email	✅
NY	New York City (all 5 boroughs)	1,500	✅	✅	✅
OH	Columbus	520	—	✅	some
OH	Cleveland	140	—	✅	✅
OH	Cincinnati	125	—	✅	✅
PA	Philadelphia	640	✅	✅	—
TN	Nashville	150	—	✅	✅
TX	Dallas	1,100	—	rare	rare
TX	Austin	940	—	✅ + phone	some
TX	Collin County (Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen…)	150 (posted in batches; search 14–30 days)	✅	✅	some
VA	Norfolk	210	—	—	✅
WA	Seattle	110	—	some	✅

Every lead includes the address, issue date, permit type and work description. Most also have a ZIP code and map coordinates.

More cities are added regularly. Missing yours? Open an issue and ask.

How the lead score works

Each permit gets 0–100 points based on:

• Project value: bigger jobs score higher
• Freshness: issued in the last 3 days scores highest
• Residential: homeowners buy more add-on services
• Large multi-trade projects: new builds, additions and remodels over $50k
• No contractor listed yet: the owner may still be hiring (only counted in cities that publish contractor names)

Hot is 70+, warm is 45–69, cold is under 45.

How to use

1. Pick your cities and how many days back to search.
2. Optional: filter by project type, minimum value, ZIP codes, keywords, residential only, or no contractor yet.
3. Optional: turn on AI insights, enter your trade (e.g. "roofing company") and a free Google Gemini API key.
4. Run it. Best leads come first.

Tip: schedule the Actor daily or weekly with "days back" set to match, and send new leads straight to Google Sheets or your CRM.

Example input

{
  "cities": ["dallas", "austin", "collin_county_tx"],
  "daysBack": 7,
  "categories": ["roofing", "solar"],
  "residentialOnly": true,
  "minProjectValue": 5000,
  "useAi": true,
  "targetTrade": "roofing company",
  "geminiApiKey": "YOUR_KEY"
}

Is this legal?

Yes. All data comes from official government open-data portals published for public use (Socrata/SODA APIs and the City of Philadelphia's open data). No websites are scraped, no logins are used, and no anti-bot systems are bypassed.

When you contact leads, follow US marketing laws such as CAN-SPAM for email, TCPA for calls and texts (don't cold-text or auto-dial consumers without consent), and Do Not Call rules. Owner names here are public record but don't include phone numbers or emails.

FAQ

How fresh is the data? Most cities update daily, and permits usually appear 1–2 days after they're issued.

Why is the owner or contractor empty for some cities? Not every city publishes these fields. The table above shows what each one provides.

Do I need the AI? No. Categories and scores are built in and free. AI adds summaries, next-trade predictions and sales angles.

What does the AI cost? Gemini's free tier covers typical use. You use your own key, so there's no markup.