Contractor Playbooks

How Roofing Contractors Use Permit Data to Win Jobs

Roof replacement permits are publicly filed, and they arrive before a contractor is hired. The exact playbook roofers use to turn permit data into steady jobs.

Roofing is one of the most competitive trades in the US. Every storm sends a wave of canvassers door-to-door, and Google Ads for 'roofing contractor near me' can run $50–$100 per click in major markets. But there's a channel most roofers don't know exists: building permit data. Specifically, roof replacement permits, which are filed before any contractor is hired.

Why Roof Replacement Permits Are Different

In most cities, any roof replacement above a certain square footage or value requires a building permit. That permit is typically filed either by the property owner or by the contractor they're planning to hire. Here's the key: in many cases, especially for insurance-related replacements, the permit is filed before the final contractor selection is made.

When you get a roof permit feed for your area, you're seeing homeowners who have explicitly decided they need a new roof. That's a fundamentally warmer lead than someone who clicked an ad, they've already committed to spending money.

What a Roof Permit Record Looks Like

A typical residential roof replacement permit contains:

• Property address, the house that needs a new roof
• Permit type (usually 'Roofing,' 'Roof Replacement,' or 'Building) Residential Alteration' depending on the city
• Issue date, when the permit was filed or approved
• Estimated project value, often reflects the insurance estimate or contractor quote
• Contractor of record, the roofing company listed on the permit (if already selected)
• Owner name, the homeowner, when available from public records

Your target records are those where the Contractor of Record field is blank, homeowners who filed the permit themselves or haven't locked in a contractor yet.

The Roofing Permit Lead Playbook

Here's the system that works for roofing contractors who use permit data consistently:

1. Get a weekly permit feed for your city, filtered to roofing and residential alteration permits
2. Remove records where Contractor of Record is already filled in
3. Sort by estimated value, prioritize jobs above $10,000
4. Send a postcard or letter within 7 days of permit issue: 'We saw your roof permit, we'd like to give you a free estimate'
5. Follow up with a door knock if you haven't heard back in 10–14 days
6. Track which neighborhoods and permit value ranges produce the best conversion rates
7. Double down on the segments that convert

Postcard vs. Door Knock: Which Works Better?

Both approaches work, the best results come from combining them. A postcard gets your name in front of the homeowner without pressure. A follow-up door knock 2 weeks later, when they've had time to think, converts better than a cold knock would.

Postcard best practices for roofers: include a photo of a completed local job, your license number, a clear CTA ('Call for a free estimate'), and your Google review count. Homeowners hiring for roofing are extremely review-sensitive.

How Many Roof Permits Are Filed Per Month?

Volume varies significantly by city and season. Some benchmarks from Permit Ledger's covered markets:

Permit Ledger filters to residential renovation, remodel, and addition permits, including roofing. New construction and commercial permits are excluded.

Cost vs. Return

Let's run the math for a roofer in Columbus, Ohio who subscribes to Permit Ledger's $39/mo dashboard:

• ~1,400–1,500 permit records per month
• Filter to roofing permits: roughly 15–25% of records, ~200–350 leads
• Remove records with contractor already assigned: ~150–250 actionable leads
• Cost per actionable lead: ~$0.12–$0.20
• If postcards cost $0.50 each for 200 sends: total monthly spend ~$149 including the dashboard
• At 2% response rate: ~4 inbound inquiries per month
• At 40% close rate: ~1–2 new jobs per month from this channel alone
• Average roofing job value: $8,000–$20,000
• Return: $8,000–$40,000 from a $149/month investment

Even with conservative assumptions, permit-based marketing has the highest ROI of any paid lead source available to roofing contractors.

Frequently asked questions

What's the best way for a roofer to filter permit data?

Export the recent permits from your city portal into Google Sheets or Excel and filter the work-description column for the keywords 'roof', 're-roof', 'reroof', 'shingle', 'reshingling', 'roofing', or 'tear-off'. A typical week in a mid-size city returns 20–80 roofing-relevant addresses after filtering. See the dedicated roofer's playbook for outreach scripts.

How fast should I mail after a roofing permit is filed?

Inside 10 days. The window between filing and signed contract on a re-roof is typically 14–30 days. Mailing within 10 days of the permit date puts your postcard in front of the homeowner before most competitors even know the permit exists.

What's a realistic close rate on permit-based roofing leads?

1–3% of mailed addresses convert to scheduled estimates, and 30–50% of those estimates convert to signed jobs. So 200 postcards typically yield 2–6 estimates and 1–3 jobs. With a postcard cost of about $0.75 each, customer acquisition cost lands around $50–$150 per job, vastly cheaper than Angi or Google LSA. Compare with other renovation lead sources.

Does this work after a storm?

Especially well. After a hailstorm or windstorm, re-roof permit filings spike 5–10x in affected zip codes. Pulling weekly permits during storm season lets you target the exact neighborhoods filing insurance-driven roof replacements. See the solar installer guide for the same playbook applied to PV permits.

Related guides

• What Is the AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction)?
• What Is a Parcel Number? Definition and How to Find It
• Unpermitted Work: What Happens If You're Caught

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