Outside sales reps for lumber yards, window and door dealers, roofing suppliers, and drywall distributors mostly work the same territory the same way: drive past job sites, call the GCs they already know, and wait for the counter phone to ring. It works — but it means every rep sees the same jobs at the same time: when framing is already up.
Building permit data flips that. Every new build, addition, and major renovation in Toronto and New York City is filed as a permit before the first board is ordered — and that filing is public, published daily, with the address, the scope of work, and the declared construction cost.
A new-build permit with a $900K declared cost is going to buy framing lumber, sheathing, windows, roofing, drywall, insulation, and fasteners — from somebody. An interior gut in Manhattan is going to buy studs, board, and finishes — from somebody. The permit tells you the job exists, how big it is, and where it is, weeks before the material orders land.
Your competitors find out about a job when the delivery truck they didn't win drives past their yard. The permit feed tells you about it the week it's approved.
In NYC, every permit names the general contractor who pulled it — the exact person who decides where the material budget gets spent. In Toronto, the builder of record appears on most permits. That turns the feed into a prospecting list: GCs with active, funded projects in your delivery area, sorted by how recently the job was approved.
It's also a map of who's busy. A GC pulling five permits this quarter is growing — that's an account worth winning. The declared job cost tells you which accounts are worth a rep's visit versus a phone call.
Filter by work type. New buildings and additions are the volume-material jobs. Interior alterations skew drywall and finishes. Roofing permits are a shingle supplier's entire prospect list.
Filter by area. Limit the feed to boroughs, wards, or postal areas inside your delivery radius, so every lead is a job your trucks can actually reach.
Use the estimated value to prioritize. A $1.5M new build justifies an in-person visit with a quote package. A $40K renovation is a call from the inside desk.
Track accounts, not just jobs. Mark the GCs you've contacted and won. The permit feed keeps showing you their next projects — which is exactly when to be back in front of them.
Material budgets are typically 40–50% of construction cost. Winning even a slice of one mid-size new build — the windows, the roofing package, the drywall — dwarfs the cost of the data. And unlike ad spend, the same feed keeps producing prospects every morning.
Nova Essentials pulls building permit data from Toronto and New York City every day — with the contractor on record, work type, and estimated project value. Filter to your territory and start calling the jobs that are about to buy. 24-hour free trial, $9.99/month after.
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