Bought roofing leads and a list you build are different things
Most of what is sold as "roofing leads" is a person who filled in a quote form somewhere and is then passed to one or more contractors. That person has raised a hand, which counts for a lot. The catch is that a shared lead often goes to several roofers at once, so the fastest caller tends to win and the price per lead reflects that interest.
A list you build from homeowner records works the other way round. Nobody on it asked for a quote. You choose the streets, the age of the homes and the kind of owner, then decide who gets a call, a postcard or a knock. You are not paying for someone else's advertising, and the list stays in your account, but you do the selling from a cold start. Many roofing companies use both: bought leads for people shopping now, and a built list to stay known in the areas they want to own.
Locate Next does not sell leads and does not hand anyone a person who asked to be contacted. It gives you the owner of record and helps you look for that owner's phone and email.
Build the list by ZIP code
- Pick the area. Enter a ZIP code, city name or county in Find homeowners. Locate has no hail or storm data, so pick the area from your own storm reports, past jobs or service map.
- Read each home. Each row lists who owns the home on the county record, the street address of the house, where the owner gets mail, and year built plus value if the county recorded them.
- Keep the homes you want. Save every result as a list, or only the streets and houses that fit your work.
- Skip trace it. Send the saved list to skip tracing. Before it starts, you see the highest possible charge.
- Export it. Pick the layout your CRM expects: a Contacts CSV, your own sheet with contacts added, Phone 1 to 10 fields, or numbered phones plus DNC. CRM export shows each one.
The daily ceiling is 5,000 owners per ZIP code for each account. A dense ZIP code may take more than one day, or you can split the work by city.
Year built is a clue to roof age, not proof
Asphalt shingle roofs are commonly replaced after a few decades, so homes built long ago are a reasonable place to start. The county record tells you when the house went up. It does not tell you when the roof was last replaced. A 1985 house with a roof put on two years ago looks exactly like a 1985 house with the original roof.
Treat year built as a first cut. Your local permit office may publish reroof permits, and a drive down the street settles more than any record. Where the county left year built blank, Locate leaves it blank too rather than guessing.
Owners who live there and owners who don't
Compare the owner's mailing address with the property address. When they match, the owner most likely lives in the house, and a door knock or a call about their own roof makes sense. When the mailing address is in another town or state, the home is probably a rental or the owner has moved on. Knocking reaches a tenant who cannot approve a new roof, so a call or a letter to the mailing address is the better route.
Both groups are worth having. An owner who lives elsewhere may value a written quote with photos, since they cannot easily look at the roof themselves. The owner-occupied guide and the absentee owner list guide go deeper on reading the two addresses.
What each row holds
| Field | Where it comes from | How a roofer uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Owner of record | Parcel records | Greet the owner by name at the door or on the phone. |
| Property address | Parcel records | Plan routes for door knockers and estimators. |
| Owner mailing address | Parcel records, kept in its own field | Spot owners who live elsewhere and mail them instead. |
| Year built | Parcel record, when the county has it | Put older homes first. |
| Value | Parcel record, when the county has it | Match the job type to the house. |
| Phones and emails | Skip trace of the saved list | Call or email after you check the rules below. |
| Do Not Call result | Check run in Export | Decide which numbers stay off the call list. |
A skip trace result is a set of possible contacts for that owner, not proof that the number belongs to them. What a skip trace match proves covers how to read the results.
Already have addresses from canvassing or past jobs?
If you already have a spreadsheet of addresses, upload it as a CSV or .xlsx file of up to 25,000 rows. Locate lines up your columns, merges duplicate properties, keeps your record IDs and extra columns on each row, and shows the maximum cost before anything runs. You review who was found, then export. Bulk skip tracing walks through the upload.
Before you call or text a homeowner
A roofing company that calls a homeowner to offer a roof is usually selling a service, which puts the call squarely in the kind of outreach the federal Do Not Call rules were written for. Federal rules also limit telephone solicitation to between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the homeowner's local time, and autodialed or prerecorded calls and texts carry stricter consent rules. Many states add their own lists and hours, and some cities regulate door-to-door selling.
Read skip tracing and the law, the texting rules guide and calling hours rules before a campaign, and have a lawyer review your call scripts and texts. Nothing here is legal advice.
Locate Next runs the Do Not Call check when you export and stores a separate result for every number. A number with no current answer is marked "Not checked" and is never treated as clear, and "Not listed" does not mean the person agreed to be called. The check compares phone numbers with the dataset currently active on this site. It does not promise a live connection to government records, identify the owner of a number, or establish consent to contact someone. DNC checks are included at no extra charge.
Price
The plan is $49 a month. Each skip trace search that finds results takes $0.17 from your prepaid balance. No results, no charge. Get started at $49 a month. To estimate a list before you start, try the cost calculator.
If your office already works in an AI app, add Locate as a connector in Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex or Cursor using its MCP server, https://app.locatenext.com/mcp, then log in to Locate when asked. A request such as "owners of homes in 78701" or "what would tracing this list cost" works as written, and nothing that costs money runs until you say yes. Setup steps are in the Claude and ChatGPT guide.
Common questions
How can a roofing company get leads without paying for them?
Make your own list from homeowner records: pull the owners in the ZIP codes you work, keep the houses that fit your jobs, run a skip trace for phones and emails, then reach out by phone, mail or at the door. Locate Next charges $0.17 for each search that returns results.
Are roofing lead lists exclusive?
A list built from parcel records is yours, but the records are public, so another company can search the same streets. Bought shared leads are different: the same homeowner may be sent to several roofers.
Can I find homes with old roofs?
Not directly. The county records when the house was built, not when the roof was replaced. Use year built, where the county has it, as a first cut, then check permits or look at the roof.
Can I find homeowners in a storm area?
Yes, if you know the area. Locate has no storm or hail data, so pick the ZIP codes or city from your own storm reports and search those.
How do I tell if the owner lives in the house?
Compare the owner's mailing address with the property address. A match usually means the owner lives there. A different mailing address usually means a landlord or an owner who moved.
Does the list show which numbers are on Do Not Call?
Each number gets its own result when you export. The check compares phone numbers with the dataset currently active on this site. It does not promise a live connection to government records, identify the owner of a number, or establish consent to contact someone. DNC checks are included at no extra charge.
Sources
- 47 CFR 64.1200, FCC delivery restrictions. The 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. calling window and the consent requirements for autodialed or prerecorded calls. Read November 5, 2026.
- FTC, Q&A for telemarketers and sellers about the Do Not Call provisions. Which calls the Do Not Call rules cover. Read November 5, 2026.
- Locate Next, pricing page. The $49 monthly plan, the $0.17 charge and the top-up minimum. Read November 5, 2026.