Where Should You Knock in Grand Rapids?
Most lead sources tell you who filled in a form. Roofbird tells you where the roofs are. Search a Grand Rapids neighborhood, a ZIP, or a single street, and Roofbird reads the blocks in view and ranks them by housing era, what share of roofs read as weathered, how many homes are actually there, whether hail has hit in the last 12 months, and how walkable the block is. Scattered acreage on long driveways is called out as poor canvassing even under a perfect storm, because a morning is measured in doors per hour.
Click a suggestion and Roofbird draws the area for you; you can drag the corners or draw your own polygon from scratch. When nothing in view clears the bar, it says so plainly rather than offering three neighborhoods you should skip. A national pay-per-lead marketplace cannot do this at all, because it does not know your territory. It just sells you whoever filled in a form, often to four other contractors at the same time.
- Ranks Grand Rapids blocks by housing era, visible roof wear, hail history, and walkability
- Counts homes from building footprints, not area estimates
- Flags scattered acreage as bad canvassing even after a storm
- Says nothing clears the bar when that is the truth
Kent County Storm History and What It Means for Roofs
NOAA records show 658 storm events in Michigan over the last 18 months, and Kent County sits in the middle of that activity. In the last 18 months, Kent County recorded wind events on 2025-08-13, 2026-04-15 (gusts to 61 mph), 2026-05-18, and 2026-06-11, plus hail to 100 mm on 2026-03-11. That is a real mix of wind and hail, and it matters because the two damage roofs differently. Wind lifts and creases shingles; hail bruises the mat and knocks granules loose. Both can shorten a roof's life without being obvious from the ground.
Roofbird reads each roof from two angles at once: a top-down overhead tile and a ground-level Street View of the façade. The Street View read catches side-visible wear a top-down tile cannot: granule loss, algae streaking, curling shingles, patched sections, rusted flashing. It also compares the roof against its immediate neighbors from a wider centered view. If the houses either side have visibly been re-roofed and this one has not, that is flagged, because a street where the neighbors have already gone new is the strongest social proof in the trade.
- Kent County wind events: 2025-08-13, 2026-04-15, 2026-05-18, 2026-06-11
- Kent County hail to 100 mm on 2026-03-11
- Two-angle read: overhead tile plus Street View façade
- Neighbor comparison flags streets where others have already re-roofed
Needs a Roof vs. Will Decide Now: Two Scores, Not One
Every Roofbird lead carries two numbers. NEED is how badly the roof needs replacing, based on condition and roof age read off the shingles, not the building's year built. NOW is whether anything is forcing a decision on this house: visible active damage such as a tarp, missing shingles, or exposed decking; hail damage on this specific roof; a purchase in the last 18 months; patching already attempted; or neighbors who have re-roofed. Alongside it is a one-line why-now in plain words.
Neighborhood hail deliberately does not raise the NOW score. Every home in the scan shares it, so it cannot separate one door from the next. It belongs in the pitch, not the ranking. This is the opposite of how storm-chasing lists work, and it is why the ranking is trustworthy. Most homes in a settled Grand Rapids neighborhood honestly have no trigger, and Roofbird says so rather than inventing urgency to look busy. Where a hail event is on record, Roofbird also shows roughly how long the homeowner has left to file an insurance claim, based on the typical notice deadline in Michigan. That is an estimate of the typical state notice deadline, not a legal deadline. Verify with the carrier.
- NEED score: condition and roof age only
- NOW score: active damage, hail on this roof, recent purchase, prior patching, neighbor re-roofs
- Neighborhood hail stays in the pitch, not the ranking
- Claim-window countdown is an estimate of the typical state notice deadline; verify with the carrier
The Homeowner Behind the Door
The full property record shows on every lead for free, as soon as it is scanned: owner name, whether they live there or it is an absentee or rental owner, estimated market value and confidence, year built, last sale date and price, beds and baths, living square footage, lot size, stories, garage, annual property tax, and mortgage lender. Roofbird also estimates the owner's equity, because equity is what decides whether someone can say yes. When the deed record cannot support an estimate, it says so instead of guessing.
Only the phone and email sit behind a one-click unlock. Every number is DNC-scrubbed and labeled: clear means it was checked against the federal Do Not Call registry and is safe for a manual sales call; DNC means do not call it; verify means the scrub could not confirm either way, so treat it as unknown. Manual dialing only, no texts or auto-dialer. A lookup that finds no contact never costs a credit. Roofbird surfaces the homeowner's contact details so reps can call or mail owners directly, and it never fabricates a name, number, or address.
- Owner name, occupancy, AVM value, year built, last sale, beds/baths, square footage, lot size, tax, lender
- Estimated owner equity, with an honest no-estimate when the deed record cannot support one
- Phone and email behind a one-click unlock, DNC-scrubbed and labeled clear, DNC, or verify
- Manual dialing only; a no-contact lookup never costs a credit
Work the List Like a CRM, Not a PDF
Roofbird gives you card view or a side-by-side table with sticky headers, frozen actions, zoomable imagery, and inline unlock. Filter on everything Roofbird knows: owner-occupied versus absentee, has a live trigger, active damage visible, insurance claim window still open, property record present, minimum need score, minimum roof age, minimum owner equity, and contact state, including callable, meaning at least one number confirmed off the DNC registry. Add your own tags. Export, or print door-hanger PDFs for the route.
Low-quality roofs are dropped before they reach your list and do not count against your monthly quota. You are charged for leads worth working, not for everything the scan looked at. A building anyone has already assessed is never re-assessed from scratch, so re-scanning a Grand Rapids area surfaces genuinely new homes instead of the same roofs again. Roofbird has already scanned homes in Michigan, including open scan reports for Saginaw and Genesee, so the imagery reads on Michigan housing stock are proven in the field.
- Card view or side-by-side table with sticky headers and frozen actions
- Filter on occupancy, live trigger, active damage, claim window, need score, roof age, equity, and callable contact state
- Custom tags, export, and printable door-hanger PDFs for the route
- Low-quality roofs dropped before they hit your list and do not count against quota
Pricing and How Roofbird Compares
Roofbird is self-serve: sign up, get told where to scan, get scored leads in minutes. The free trial includes 25 leads and 10 homeowner-contact unlocks, no credit card. Hunter is $199 per month for 500 leads and 50 unlocks. Hunter Pro is $499 per month for 2,000 leads and 150 unlocks, plus data export. Extra contact unlocks are $1 each. Unlimited service areas on paid plans. Flat monthly price, never per lead.
That flat price is the structural difference from Angi, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, Networx, and Modernize. Those marketplaces sell the same shared lead to four or more contractors, and they cannot tell you which Grand Rapids neighborhoods are worth your morning because they do not know your territory. Roofbird gives you exclusive, self-sourced leads no competitor has, ranks the neighborhoods before you scan, separates needs-a-roof from will-decide-now, and hands you the homeowner's own DNC-scrubbed contact details. Roofbird is not a roof-measurement tool, and it does not predict who will buy. Everything it reports is read from imagery and public property records.
- Free trial: 25 leads + 10 contact unlocks, no credit card
- Hunter $199/mo: 500 leads + 50 unlocks
- Hunter Pro $499/mo: 2,000 leads + 150 unlocks, plus data export
- Extra contact unlocks $1 each; unlimited service areas on paid plans
- Flat monthly price, never per lead; replaces shared pay-per-lead marketplaces