Solution · The roofs to stop chasing

A re-roof permit means the job is already gone. So we check before we charge you.

Most permit tools sell fresh permits as leads, the same list your competitors bought. The more useful read is the negative one: this house was re-roofed eighteen months ago, so nobody should knock it and you should not pay to find that out.

A building permit is a public record filed when a homeowner replaces or repairs a roof. It is the closest thing the trade has to proof: not a satellite estimate, but a filing that says work was authorised on this address on this date.

It is usually sold one way round: buy last week's permits, call the homeowners, chase the job. But a permit database sold to everyone produces a list everyone is working, the same problem shared leads have.

Roofbird uses it the other way. Every roof you open is checked against the permit record first, and a house that already pulled a re-roof permit costs you nothing: no credit, no contact purchase, off your list. Roofs that pass show their full permit history: the work, the date, the value and the contractor.

How permit data works inside Roofbird

1
You open a roof
Pick a house off your ranked list, or ask for one by address. Nothing has been charged yet.
2
We read the permit record first
Before any imagery, model call or owner lookup, the address is matched against the permit record on house number and street, not a radius, because a permit on the next lot is the neighbour's roof.
3
If the roof is already done, you keep the credit
You see the permit and choose. Skip it and nothing is spent. Open it anyway and you are charged normally, because permits get abandoned, re-roofs can be partial, and you may know the street better than the records.
4
The roofs you do open come with their history
Every roof-related permit we hold for the address: date, work, estimated value, and contractor of record where the city publishes it. Solar permits are included, because an array changes the job and the price.
5
Ask the assistant about it in plain words
“Skip anything already re-roofed.” “Are my areas covered?” Coverage is a fact we already hold, so asking costs nothing and is answered instantly rather than sold back to you.
6
Nothing is metered
The permit check runs on every roof you open, for everyone, whether or not it finds anything. There is no permit add-on, no per-lookup price, and no subscription.

Why the negative signal is worth more than the lead

Permit data sold as leads has a structural problem: last Tuesday's permit is visible to everyone paying for the same feed, so you compete on dial speed against the identical list. The negative read does not lose value when a competitor has it. Knowing 14 of the 60 doors on your route were re-roofed in the last three years changes your morning, not your script. It also saves money: a knock on a roof already done costs a drive and a slot a live prospect could have had. Finding out before you pay is the cheapest version of that discovery.

An issue date is not a completion date, and the copy should not pretend otherwise

A permit is issued when work is authorised, not when it is finished, and the gap is routinely months. Sometimes the work never happens. On one real address, a re-roof permit was issued on 16 February and our aerial photograph, dated the following March, showed heavy staining and degradation. Both were correct: the crew had not started. So the label says "re-roof permit" with its date, never "re-roofed". It sounds pedantic until you drive to a house on the wrong one.

What a matched permit means, and what an empty result does not

When the house number and the street both agree, the permit belongs to that roof and is treated as fact. It can remove a lead and reverse a charge. A permit inside a tight radius with no address to check is shown and labelled as nearby. On a terrace or duplex it is often next door, so it never removes a lead or reverses a charge. An empty result is the most over-read. Re-roofs go unpermitted, small repairs rarely get filed, and some cities publish far less. A blank is the absence of a record, not an opportunity, so the picture still decides.

Coverage, and how we say so out loud

The permit record is two sources: 5M+ building permits we hold from 300+ city and county portals refreshed daily (deepest in Texas, Florida, California and Colorado), plus a national permit feed covering 900+ jurisdictions in 48 states and DC. Coverage is uneven: some places publish nothing, and a street with no records gets no verdict. Cities also stop publishing without saying so, and a feed can quietly return nothing for months. When that happens the card says the data stops in March, so you never read silence as "no permits". Work a county we do not hold yet? Tell us which one. Coverage requests decide which jurisdictions come next.

The permit never overrules the picture

Roofbird is image-first. The comparative read of a roof against its neighbours is what it is good at, and the judgement we measure. An early version let a permit overwrite the model's reasoning whenever the filing post-dated the imagery. That was backwards: a records feed, mapped differently city to city, silently rewrote the judgement we trust most. So permits work in two places only: before the charge, where they can stop a spend, and on the card, as evidence. They never quietly edit your rankings.

FAQ

›Does Roofbird include roofing permit data?

Yes, for everyone, trial included, at no extra cost. Every roof you open is checked against the permit record before you are charged, and the roofs you do open show their full permit history: date, work type, estimated value and the contractor who pulled it. There is no permit add-on and no per-lookup fee.

›What happens if a house already has a re-roof permit?

You are shown the permit before anything is spent and given the choice. Skip it and no credit is used, no imagery is bought and no owner contact is purchased. Open it anyway and you are charged normally, because permits get pulled and abandoned and you may know the street better than the records do.

›How much permit data is there, and which states?

Two sources: 5M+ permits we hold ourselves from 300+ city and county open-data portals, refreshed daily and deepest in Texas, Florida, California and Colorado, plus a national feed covering 900+ jurisdictions in 48 states and DC, checked address by address on every house you open. Some places publish nothing, and where no record exists for your street the check simply has nothing to say.

›Is a permit proof that the roof was replaced?

No. A permit is issued when work is authorised, not when it is finished, and the gap runs to months. Some permits are pulled and never acted on. That is why the label reads 're-roof permit' with its date rather than 're-roofed', and why the satellite read still decides the ranking.

›Does no permit mean the roof has never been replaced?

No, and this is the more common misreading. Re-roofs go unpermitted regularly, minor repairs are rarely filed, and cities differ enormously in what they publish. An empty result is the absence of a record, not evidence of an old roof. The imagery remains the catch for an unpermitted replacement.

›Can I see which contractors are pulling permits on my streets?

Yes, where the city publishes the contractor of record. It comes with the permit history on any roof you open, so you can see which firms keep winning work in the areas you are canvassing.

›Do you sell permit data or permit leads?

Neither. Permit records are part of how Roofbird decides what to charge you for and what to show you about a house. We do not sell permit exports, and we do not sell the fresh filings on as leads, because a permit list sold to everyone produces the shared list that self-sourcing is supposed to replace.

›What if my county is not covered?

Tell us which county and we will tell you honestly what we hold for it. Requests are how new jurisdictions get prioritised. Where a city's feed has stopped publishing, the card says so rather than letting silence read as a clean street.

Stop paying to knock roofs that were sold last spring.

10 free credits to try it. No card. The permit check runs on every roof you open, and a roof it rules out never costs you one.

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