Everything you need to get the most out of PermitRadar
Go to permitradar.co/onboarding and enter your email address. No credit card required.
You'll get 7 days of full access: real permit alerts in your area, no restrictions.
From day one you'll receive daily permit alert emails for your service area. You have full access to your dashboard, permit history, and all permit types.
You'll get a reminder email on day 5 before the trial ends. If you don't add a payment method, alerts will pause at day 7. Your data stays intact.
No. You only enter payment details when you decide to subscribe after the trial.
Email ben@permitradar.co and we'll get back to you within a few hours.
Go to Dashboard → Settings → Service area.
Enter one or more ZIP codes. PermitRadar will monitor all permit filings within those ZIPs. This is the most precise method if you serve specific neighborhoods.
Enter a city name or ZIP and set a radius (5, 10, 25, or 50 miles). PermitRadar will monitor all municipalities within that radius.
Starter plan: 1 city or ZIP cluster. Pro plan: up to 5 cities.
You can change your service area at any time from Settings. Changes take effect on the next daily scan (within 24 hours).
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Go to Dashboard → Settings → Permit types and select only the types relevant to your trade.
Roofers: Roofing only. You don't need plumbing leads.
Electricians: Electrical, Solar (solar installs always need an electrical permit).
Plumbers: Plumbing, HVAC/Mechanical (HVAC often involves plumbing).
General contractors: Structural/Addition, General residential, Demolition.
HVAC companies: HVAC/Mechanical, Electrical.
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Alert emails go out every morning, typically between 7–9 AM in your local time zone. Your first email will arrive the morning after you complete setup.
You'll get a digest with each new permit filed in your area since the last alert. Each entry includes:
Check your spam folder. Add alerts@permitradar.co to your contacts to ensure delivery.
If there are no new permits matching your filters, you won't receive an email that day. That's normal; it means there were no relevant filings.
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Each permit alert includes everything from the public filing:
Phone numbers and email addresses are not part of permit records. You'll use the address for outreach (mailer, door knock, or look up the owner via public records).
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By default you get one email per morning with all permits filed since the previous scan. This keeps your inbox clean while still getting you leads fast.
Pro plan users can switch to real-time alerts in Settings. You'll get an email as soon as a new permit matching your filters is detected, sometimes within hours of the filing.
PermitRadar checks each municipality's public portal every few hours. Most cities publish permit data within 24–48 hours of filing. Some update in real time; others batch-publish once a day.
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If you know a permit was pulled but didn't see it in your alerts, here's why it might have been missed:
We don't cover every city yet. Check your dashboard to see which municipalities in your area are active. Email ben@permitradar.co to request your city; we prioritize additions based on demand.
Go to Settings → Permit types and make sure the relevant type is checked.
Some permits are categorized differently by different cities. A "re-roof" permit in one city might be filed under "General residential" in another. If you're missing a specific type, try adding adjacent categories.
Some municipalities batch-publish weekly or even monthly. There's nothing we can do about that. It's a data availability issue on their end.
Email ben@permitradar.co
Permits include the property address. Here are the most effective outreach methods, in order of conversion rate:
For local contractors, showing up in person within 48 hours of a permit filing is highly effective. The homeowner just committed to a project and is in buying mode. Introduce yourself, reference the permit, and offer a free estimate.
Send a postcard or letter to the property address. Reference the project type ("We saw you recently pulled a roofing permit..."). This feels personal and stands out from generic mailers. Services like Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) via USPS make this affordable at scale.
Some permits include owner names. You can cross-reference with county property records (usually available at your county assessor's website) to find a phone number. Services like WhitePages Pro or BeenVerified can help.
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The sooner you reach out after a permit filing, the better. Homeowners who just pulled a permit are actively in the project planning phase and haven't hired anyone yet.
After 2 weeks, the homeowner has likely already spoken to several contractors and may have made a decision.
Roofing: Fast. Most homeowners hire within 1–2 weeks of filing. Contact ASAP.
HVAC: Medium. Usually 2–4 weeks from permit to hire.
Additions / structural: Slow. These projects take months to plan. You have more time, but earlier is still better.
Solar: Very fast. The installer often pulls the permit, but sometimes homeowners pull it themselves. Contact within 24 hours.
Tuesday–Thursday, 9–11 AM or 4–6 PM are generally the best times to reach homeowners by phone or door knock. Avoid Monday mornings and Friday afternoons.
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Go to Dashboard → Permits, apply any filters you want (date range, type, city), then click Export CSV in the top right.
The CSV is formatted to import directly into most CRMs (HubSpot, Salesforce, JobNimbus, ServiceTitan). Map the "Property address" field to your CRM's address field and "Owner name" to contact name.
Native CRM integrations are on the roadmap. Email ben@permitradar.co to vote for your CRM.
Email ben@permitradar.co
All new accounts start with a 7-day free trial. Full Pro access, no credit card required. You'll be prompted to choose a plan at the end of the trial.
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On day 7, you'll receive an email asking you to choose a plan.
If you don't subscribe, your alert emails pause. Your account and all permit data stay intact. You can reactivate at any time without losing history.
If you subscribe, billing starts on day 8 and your alerts continue without interruption.
Log into your dashboard and go to Settings → Billing to reactivate your account. Your history will be right where you left it.
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Go to Settings → Billing → Upgrade to Pro. Your new plan takes effect immediately. You're charged the prorated difference for the remainder of the current billing period.
Go to Settings → Billing → Change plan. Your current plan continues until the end of the billing period, then switches. You won't lose any data.
Go to Settings → Billing → Cancel subscription. Your access continues until the end of the current billing period. No cancellation fees, no questions asked.
After cancellation, your data is retained for 90 days then deleted. To request immediate deletion, email ben@permitradar.co.
Email ben@permitradar.co
PermitRadar aggregates data from municipal building permit portals. Most cities and counties publish permit filings as public records, as they are required to do so in most US states.
We have direct integrations with hundreds of city permit portals and use a combination of official APIs, open data feeds, and structured scraping to collect filings as they're published.
Tier 1 cities (NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, etc.): real-time API access, data within hours of filing.
Tier 2 cities (mid-size metros): daily batch feed, data within 24–48 hours.
Tier 3 cities (smaller municipalities): 1–3 day lag, some publish weekly.
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Data freshness depends entirely on the municipality and is outside our control. Here's what to expect:
Major metros with open data APIs: NYC, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Austin. Permits appear in PermitRadar within 2–6 hours of filing.
Most mid-size cities. This is the most common tier. You receive permits the day after or two days after filing.
Some smaller municipalities only update their public portals weekly or on a less frequent schedule. We can't accelerate this; it's a municipal data availability issue.
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Yes. Building permits are public records under the Freedom of Information Act and equivalent state open records laws. Municipalities are legally required to make permit filings available to the public.
Using publicly filed permit data for business development is entirely legal and is standard practice in the home services industry. Large data companies like CoreLogic, BuildZoom, and DataTree have been doing this for decades.
Mailing a postcard to a home address obtained from public records is legal. Cold calling using a number found via separate public records research is legal but subject to Do Not Call registry rules. Door-to-door canvassing is legal in most jurisdictions but check your local ordinances for any canvassing restrictions.
The data PermitRadar provides comes from public government records. You're responsible for your own compliance when using the data for outreach, especially for any data subjects in California (CCPA) or EU (GDPR).
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Enter your ZIP or city at sign-up to confirm your area is covered before starting a trial.
We cover major metros and hundreds of surrounding municipalities across:
If your area isn't covered yet, email ben@permitradar.co with your city and ZIP. We prioritize new cities based on contractor demand and will notify you when your area goes live.
Email ben@permitradar.co
Alert emails come from alerts@permitradar.co. Check your spam folder and mark it as not spam. Add the address to your contacts to ensure future delivery.
Go to Settings and confirm the email address on file is correct.
If no permits matching your filters were filed that day, you won't receive an email. Check your dashboard to confirm permits are showing up there. If they are, your email filters may be too narrow.
Go to Settings → Notifications and make sure email alerts are enabled.
If your trial ended or your subscription lapsed, alerts are paused. Go to Settings → Billing to reactivate.
Still not working? Email ben@permitradar.co with your account email and we'll investigate.
Email ben@permitradar.co
If you're seeing no permits at all, work through this checklist:
Go to Dashboard → Settings → Coverage to see which municipalities PermitRadar actively monitors. If your city isn't listed, email ben@permitradar.co to request it.
If you set a very tight ZIP code, there may genuinely be few permits filed. Try widening to a 10 or 25 mile radius.
If you're only monitoring one or two types, you might miss a day where nothing was filed in those categories. Try adding adjacent types temporarily to see if permits appear.
In your dashboard, make sure you're viewing the correct date range. New accounts default to "last 7 days."
Some cities publish data weekly. If you signed up recently, you may be waiting for the city's next publication cycle.
Email ben@permitradar.co
If you're receiving permit alerts that don't match your trade, here's how to fix it:
Go to Settings → Permit types and uncheck anything you don't want. Be specific.
Municipalities categorize permits differently. A roofing job in one city might be filed under "General residential" instead of "Roofing." PermitRadar normalizes categories as much as possible, but some variation is unavoidable.
Even if a permit appears in a broad category, the description field usually makes it clear what the work is. "Re-roof 1,800 sq ft residential" in the "General residential" category is still a roofing lead.
We're working on keyword-based filtering to let you filter by description text; this feature is coming soon.
Email ben@permitradar.co