# BuildZoom Scraper — Contractor Leads, Licenses & Permits (`scrapersdelight/buildzoom-scraper`) Actor

Scrape BuildZoom contractor profiles: name, phone, address, geo, service categories, license number + status, lifetime permit count and recent permit history. Feed contractor URLs or city listing pages.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapersdelight/buildzoom-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Scrapers Delight](https://apify.com/scrapersdelight) (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

$4.50 / 1,000 per contractor returneds

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## What is BuildZoom Scraper?

BuildZoom Scraper pulls **contractor profile data** from [BuildZoom](https://www.buildzoom.com) in
bulk — contact details, service categories, contracting license, and full permit history.
**No login, no cookies, no account.**

Two ways to feed it:

- Paste **contractor URLs** (`https://www.buildzoom.com/contractor/<slug>`) to scrape them directly.

- Paste **city listing URLs** (e.g. `https://www.buildzoom.com/austin-tx/general-contractors`) and the
  actor harvests every contractor listed on them, following pagination.

- **Bulk-friendly** — scrape a whole city of general contractors in one run

- **Real contact data** — name, phone, full street address and map coordinates

- **License intelligence** — license number, type, issuing board and current status

- **Permit history** — lifetime permit count plus the most recent ~20 permits (type, description,
  issuing authority, date and project address)

- **Runs light and cheap** — plain HTTP on standard datacenter proxies, no browser needed

- Export to Excel, CSV, JSON or HTML; schedule it or run it from the API

### What data can this scraper extract?

| | | |
|---|---|---|
| 🏢 Company name | ☎️ Phone | 📍 Street / city / state / ZIP |
| 🗺️ Latitude & longitude | 🧰 Service categories | 📝 Description |
| 🪪 License number & type | 🏛️ Issuing board | 🟢 License status |
| 🏗️ Lifetime permit count | 📋 Recent permits (type, desc, date, address) | 🌐 Areas served |
| ⭐ Rating & review count | 💬 Reviews | 🔗 Profile URL |

### How do I use it?

#### ⬇️ Input

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.buildzoom.com/austin-tx/general-contractors",
    "https://www.buildzoom.com/contractor/city-living-design-development-llc"
  ],
  "maxContractors": 100
}
```

#### ⬆️ Output

```json
{
  "slug": "city-living-design-development-llc",
  "url": "https://www.buildzoom.com/contractor/city-living-design-development-llc",
  "name": "City Living Design & Development LLC",
  "telephone": "(512) 225-4283",
  "street": "1104 Possum Trot",
  "city": "Austin", "region": "TX", "postal_code": "78703",
  "latitude": 30.285742, "longitude": -97.770525,
  "service_categories": ["Custom Home Build", "Kitchen Remodel", "…"],
  "primary_license_number": "H930040",
  "primary_license_type": "General Contractor",
  "primary_license_status": "Active",
  "lifetime_permit_count": 20,
  "permits_since_year": 2009,
  "recent_permits": [
    { "id": "2022-170887 BP", "type": "Home Addition", "issued_by": "City of Austin, TX",
      "issued_date": "2022-11-21", "address": "1310 Crestwood Rd", "city": "Austin", "region": "TX" }
  ],
  "rating": 5, "review_count": 5
}
```

Contractor pages that no longer exist are logged and skipped, so one bad slug never fails a run.

### Common uses

- **Home-services lead generation** — build outreach lists of licensed contractors by city and trade,
  with phone and address already attached
- **Construction / building-materials sales** — target the most active builders by permit volume
- **License verification & compliance** — pull license number, board and status at scale
- **Market research** — map contractor density, activity and specialties across metros

### Frequently asked questions

**Do I need a BuildZoom account or cookies?** No.

**Do I need residential proxies?** No — contractor pages were measured at 100% success on standard
Apify datacenter proxies with a fresh session per request, so the cheap default is the right one.

**How do the city listing URLs work?** Open BuildZoom, browse to a city's general-contractors page,
copy the URL, and paste it in. The actor reads the contractor links off it (and the next few result
pages) and scrapes each profile. You can mix listing URLs and direct contractor URLs freely.

**Does it return every permit ever filed?** It returns the lifetime permit **count** plus the most
recent ~20 permits that BuildZoom shows on the profile page. Full historical permit exports are a
different job and are not part of this actor.

**Is it legal?** It reads publicly visible contractor profile pages with no login. The data can still
include personal data (owner names, reviewer names), so you are responsible for complying with
BuildZoom's Terms of Service and applicable privacy law in how you store and use it.

### Your feedback

Hit a bug or want another field? Open an issue on the Issues tab.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

One per line. Accepts a contractor page (`https://www.buildzoom.com/contractor/<slug>`), a bare slug, or a city listing page (`https://www.buildzoom.com/<city>-<state>/general-contractors`) whose contractors are harvested automatically.

## `maxContractors` (type: `integer`):

Cap on how many contractor profiles to scrape in total. Use 0 for no limit.

## `maxListingPages` (type: `integer`):

How many paginated result pages (?page=N) to follow on each city listing URL. Each page lists ~40 contractors.

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

Apify datacenter proxy is enough — measured at 100% success on contractor pages with a fresh session per request. Residential is not required.

## `requestConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many pages to fetch at once. Keep modest to respect the site's rate limiter.

## `requestDelayMs` (type: `integer`):

Pacing per worker.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.buildzoom.com/austin-tx/general-contractors",
    "https://www.buildzoom.com/contractor/city-living-design-development-llc"
  ],
  "maxContractors": 100,
  "maxListingPages": 3,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  },
  "requestConcurrency": 4,
  "requestDelayMs": 300
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `contractors` (type: `string`):

Name, phone, address, geo, service categories, license number + status, lifetime permit count and recent permit history.

# 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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        "https://www.buildzoom.com/austin-tx/general-contractors",
        "https://www.buildzoom.com/contractor/city-living-design-development-llc"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("scrapersdelight/buildzoom-scraper").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 = { "startUrls": [
        "https://www.buildzoom.com/austin-tx/general-contractors",
        "https://www.buildzoom.com/contractor/city-living-design-development-llc",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("scrapersdelight/buildzoom-scraper").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 '{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.buildzoom.com/austin-tx/general-contractors",
    "https://www.buildzoom.com/contractor/city-living-design-development-llc"
  ]
}' |
apify call scrapersdelight/buildzoom-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,scrapersdelight/buildzoom-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

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/WJM0Bv1Ru2gJ5pvEk/builds/bWGx525agMobryZWx/openapi.json