Detroit Building Permits & Contractor Leads (BSEED permit data API)

Get fresh Detroit building permits, electrical, plumbing and mechanical (trades) permits and demolition permits as clean, filterable data. Every run reads the City of Detroit's official open-data permit services (BSEED), which the city updates daily. No login, no proxies, no scraping of private sites.

Use it to find Detroit contractor leads, spot new construction and roofing jobs, and track construction activity by ZIP code or neighborhood.

Who it is for

• Roofers, concrete, HVAC, electrical and plumbing companies who want to see where work is being permitted.
• Building-material suppliers and rental yards targeting active job sites.
• Real estate investors and rehabbers tracking renovation activity and estimated costs on a street or in a neighborhood.
• Lead-generation agencies and analysts who need a repeatable Detroit construction feed.
• AI agents and automations that need Detroit permit data through an API.

Example inputs

Roofing and solar permits in the last 30 days:

{ "datasets": ["building"], "daysBack": 30, "keyword": "roof" }

Electrical and plumbing permits with the contractor business (last 14 days):

{ "datasets": ["trades"], "daysBack": 14, "permitTypes": ["Electrical Permit", "Plumbing Permit"] }

New builds and additions over $50,000 this quarter:

{ "datasets": ["building"], "daysBack": 90, "permitTypes": ["New", "Addition"], "minEstimatedCost": 50000 }

Demolition permits with contractors:

{ "datasets": ["demolition"], "daysBack": 60 }

Real sample rows (October 2026)

Permit	Type	Issued	Address	Estimated cost / detail
BLD2026-01199	Alteration	2026-10-13	7200 Mack Ave	$44,772, solar array on roof
RES2026-03094	Alteration	2026-10-13	4457 Kensington Ave	$103,496, storm-damage alterations
RES2026-03788	Alteration	2026-10-13	19211 Woodston Rd	$40,457
MEC2026-04642	Mechanical Permit	2026-10-13	15905 Glastonbury Ave	Contractor: Aladdin Heating & Cooling

Input fields

Field	What it does
Permit datasets	building, trades, demolition (default: building and trades)
Days back / Start and end date	Which issue dates to return
Permit types	Exact names, e.g. New, Addition, Alteration, Electrical Permit, Plumbing Permit
Keyword	Word that must start a word in the work description (roof, foundation, basement, addition)
Minimum estimated cost	Building permits only
Max results	Hard cap on rows and on what you are charged

Output

{
  "dataset": "building",
  "permitId": "RES2026-03094",
  "permitType": "Alteration",
  "issuedDate": "2026-10-13",
  "address": "4457 Kensington Ave",
  "zipCode": "48224",
  "neighborhood": "...",
  "estimatedContractorCost": 103496,
  "workDescription": "Interior/Exterior alterations (Due to Storm damage / tree Damage) ...",
  "latitude": 42.4,
  "longitude": -82.9
}

Trades and demolition rows add contractorBusiness, contractorContact and contractorAddress.

Pricing

Pay per result: $3.00 per 1,000 permits. A 30-day pull of building and trades permits is a few thousand rows, so a typical run costs a few dollars. Use Max results to cap spending.

Good to know

• Covers the City of Detroit only, not the surrounding suburbs.
• Building permits do not include a contractor name in the city's data; trades and demolition permits do. Some trades rows have only a contact name, or neither.
• Records reflect what the city publishes. Fields can be blank, and some permits are corrected later.
• The data is public government data. If you use contractor contact details for marketing, follow the rules that apply to you (for example CAN-SPAM for email and TCPA for calls and texts).
• Related Actor: Detroit Distressed Property & Blight Leads (blight tickets, vacant properties, property sales).