# US Building Permits — Construction Leads (Multi-City) (`prometheusagency/us-building-permits`) Actor

Fresh building permits from official city open-data APIs, normalized into one lead schema: work type, project cost, address and contacts (owner, contractors). Chicago, NYC, Austin, Seattle — more cities on request. Legal, no anti-bot.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/prometheusagency/us-building-permits.md
- **Developed by:** [Prometheus Agency](https://apify.com/prometheusagency) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Real estate, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $5.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

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

## US Building Permits — Construction Leads (Multi-City)

Fresh **building permits from official city open-data APIs**, normalized into one clean lead schema:
work type, project cost, address and **contacts (owner, general contractor, trade contractors)**.
Public records, 100% legal, **no anti-bot, no proxies, no login** — this data source can't break
the way scrapers of protected sites do.

### Cities covered

| City | Contacts included | Project cost |
|---|---|---|
| Chicago, IL | ✅ owner + all contractors (up to 15 contacts) | ✅ |
| New York City, NY | ✅ permittee + owner (with phone) | — |
| Austin, TX | ✅ contractor + applicant | ✅ |
| Seattle, WA | ✅ contractor | ✅ |

**Need another city?** Open an issue — we add cities on request (config-driven engine, fast turnaround).

### Who buys this data

- **Building material suppliers** — find projects the week they're permitted
- **Subcontractors** — see which GCs just won work near you
- **Insurance & finance** — new construction activity by area, cost and type
- **Solar / HVAC / roofing companies** — filter permits by keyword ("solar", "roof", "HVAC")
- **Market analysts & PropTech** — construction trends by city, cost and category

### Example output (one lead)

```json
{
  "type": "permit-lead",
  "city": "Chicago, IL",
  "permitNumber": "B200474785",
  "permitType": "PERMIT – EXPRESS PERMIT PROGRAM",
  "workType": "Small-Scale Solar PV System",
  "description": "INSTALL SOLAR PANELS ON ROOF...",
  "issuedDate": "2026-06-30T00:00:00.000",
  "address": "7333 S CALIFORNIA AVE",
  "estimatedCost": 3080,
  "contacts": [
    { "role": "OWNER", "name": "GONZALEZ ANNETTE", "city": "CHICAGO", "state": "IL", "zip": "60629" },
    { "role": "GENERAL CONTRACTOR", "name": "ION DEVELOPER LLC", "city": "OREM", "state": "UT", "zip": "84057" }
  ]
}
```

### Powerful filters

- **Days back** — only recently issued permits (perfect on a daily Schedule)
- **Keyword** — "solar", "demolition", "renovation", "electrical", "pool"…
- **Minimum project cost** — go after the big fish only
- **Only with contacts** — ready-to-call leads exclusively

### Set up a daily leads feed (2 minutes)

1. Pick your cities and filters
2. Save as a **Task** → add a **Schedule** (e.g. every morning)
3. Export JSON/CSV/Excel or pull via API into your CRM

Data comes from each city's official Socrata open-data portal — the same records the city
publishes for transparency, normalized so your team doesn't have to learn 4 different schemas.

# Actor input Schema

## `cities` (type: `array`):

Cities to pull fresh permits from. Need another city? Open an issue — we add cities on request.

## `daysBack` (type: `integer`):

How many days of recently issued permits to fetch.

## `keyword` (type: `string`):

Only permits whose type/work/description contains this text. Examples: solar, roof, electrical, demolition, renovation, HVAC, pool.

## `minEstimatedCost` (type: `integer`):

Only permits with reported/estimated cost at or above this value (where the city provides cost).

## `onlyWithContacts` (type: `boolean`):

Output only permits that include at least one contact (owner/contractor) — the ready-to-use leads.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of permit leads to output in this run.

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

Politeness delay between API requests.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "cities": [
    "chicago"
  ],
  "daysBack": 7,
  "minEstimatedCost": 0,
  "onlyWithContacts": false,
  "maxItems": 500,
  "requestDelayMs": 300
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "cities": [
        "chicago"
    ],
    "daysBack": 7,
    "maxItems": 500
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("prometheusagency/us-building-permits").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 = {
    "cities": ["chicago"],
    "daysBack": 7,
    "maxItems": 500,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("prometheusagency/us-building-permits").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "cities": [
    "chicago"
  ],
  "daysBack": 7,
  "maxItems": 500
}' |
apify call prometheusagency/us-building-permits --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=prometheusagency/us-building-permits",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/z5WTv3u2bliKkH1Jt/builds/OYLyvWHnP7wamhSGk/openapi.json