Why a solar list starts with the deed
A rep who knocks on a rented house or calls a tenant spends the visit on someone who cannot approve panels on that roof. Bought lead lists often mix renters, landlords and people who filled out a form months ago for a different company. Starting from county property records changes the question from "who might want solar" to "who owns this house and lives in it". That second question has an answer you can read off the record before anyone picks up the phone.
Three things on a homeowner row matter most to a solar team:
- The owner is a person. A house held by a trust, an estate or a company is a slower sale, and you may want it on a separate list.
- The owner likely lives there. When the mailing address on the tax record matches the property address, the owner probably gets mail at the house. When it points to another city or state, you are likely looking at a landlord.
- The house fits your offer. Year built and value, when the county record carries them, help you set aside homes outside the range you sell into.
From ZIP code to dialer file
- Search your territory. Type the ZIP code, city or county you install in on Find homeowners. Every row lists the owner-of-record name, the house address and, in a separate field, where the owner gets mail. One account is limited to 5,000 owners per ZIP per day, so a ZIP with more owners than that takes more than one day to pull in full.
- Narrow to households that can say yes. Put aside rows where the mailing address differs from the house, rows owned by a company or trust, and homes outside your year built or value range. The absentee owner checker marks out-of-state mail, PO boxes and company names in a file you already have.
- Save the list. Keep the households you chose as a saved list, so the trace and any later campaign work from the same rows.
- Skip trace it. Before the run starts, Locate shows the most it can cost. Each search with results is $0.17, taken from a prepaid balance, and a search that finds nothing is not charged.
- Review and export. Look at who was found for each house, keep the person whose name fits the owner, and export a file with Phone 1 to 10 fields and a Do Not Call result beside each number.
Telling owner-occupied homes from rentals
No public record has a field that says "the owner sleeps here". What you have is two addresses. Matching addresses suggest an owner who lives in the home. A different mailing address suggests a landlord, a second home, or an owner who moved and kept the house. Some states also record a homestead exemption, which is a stronger sign when your county publishes it. Treat each of these as a sorting signal, not proof. The guide on how to tell if a home is owner-occupied walks through the edge cases, such as a new buyer whose tax bill still goes to the old address.
What the records do not tell a solar team
Property records describe the parcel and its owner. They do not describe the roof. Locate Next has no roof direction, shade, roof age, utility, rate plan or energy use data, so you still need your own design tools for site fit. It does not run credit checks, and skip tracing results must not be used to decide anyone's credit, lending or eligibility. It also does not hand you appointments or warm inquiries. Every name on your list comes from a public record you chose to search, and every contact comes from a trace you approved.
Old inquiries and lists you already hold
Most installers sit on a file of cold leads: web inquiries that went quiet, names collected at a home show, addresses a canvasser logged on a tablet. You can upload a CSV or .xlsx file as it is, up to 25,000 rows, 20 MB and 500 columns. Locate lines up the columns, merges duplicate properties and keeps your own record IDs on every row, so the traced file still matches your CRM. See bulk skip tracing for the upload steps and CRM export for the file layouts.
An old inquiry is not automatically permission to call or text again, and a consent given to one company does not pass to another. Check what each person agreed to before you dial a recycled list.
Do Not Call and the calling rules
Solar teams place a lot of calls and texts, so the rules carry real weight. Locate Next checks numbers against Do Not Call at the export step, and every number carries a separate result. A number without a current answer stays "Not checked" and is never treated as clear, and a "Not listed" result is not consent. 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.
The FTC explains the National Do Not Call Registry and the sales calls it covers, and the FCC's rule at 47 CFR 64.1200 sets consent requirements for autodialed and prerecorded calls and covers texts. Several states add their own calling hours and registries. Our guides on DNC scrubbing, calling hours, texting and the laws around skip tracing cover the basics; have a lawyer review your own script and consent records before you launch. This page is not legal advice.
Building the list from Claude or ChatGPT
If your team already works in an AI app, you can connect Locate to Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex or Cursor through its MCP server at https://app.locatenext.com/mcp and sign in with your Locate account. Then ask in plain words for a homeowner list for a ZIP code, to check a list, or what tracing it would cost. Searches that cost money run only after you say yes, and the work happens on Locate's own servers. Several other skip tracing vendors offer AI connections as well. Setup is on the AI page.
Which kind of tool fits your solar team
| If you need | What fits |
|---|---|
| Owners of record in the ZIP codes you serve, traced and exported with your own columns | Locate Next: area search, skip tracing and a dialer file in one place |
| Roof shape, shading or solar potential for each house | A solar design or site analysis tool; property records do not carry this |
| People who have already asked for a quote | An inbound lead source or your own website forms, with consent captured on the form |
| Lists cut by many property and financial filters | A list platform with a deeper filter set; compare options in PropStream alternatives |
| A short list of addresses traced at the lowest per-record price | A pay-per-hit service; see pay per hit skip tracing |
Locate Next publishes no match rate. Trace a small batch of owners you already know before you run a whole territory, and count how many came back as the right person. Get started at $49 a month.
Common questions
How do I get solar leads without buying them?
Build them from property records. Search the ZIP codes you install in, keep owners who appear to live in the home, skip trace that list and check each number against Do Not Call before you call. In Locate Next that runs from one account at $49 a month plus $0.17 per search with results.
What is skip tracing for solar companies?
It is finding phone numbers and emails for the owners of homes in your service area, starting from the owner name and property address on the county record, so reps reach owners instead of tenants.
How do I keep renters off my solar lead list?
Put the house address next to the address where the tax bill goes. If the two are the same, the owner probably lives in the home. If not, set the row aside as a likely rental or second home. Use homestead flags too where your county publishes them.
Can I filter solar leads by roof or sun exposure?
Not in Locate Next. It returns the owner, addresses, year built and value where the county record has them. Roof direction, shade and energy use need a separate solar design tool.
Can I skip trace old solar leads I already have?
Yes. Upload the CSV or Excel file as it is and Locate adds owner contacts while keeping your columns and IDs. Check what each person agreed to first, since an old inquiry may not cover a new call or text.
Are the phone numbers checked against Do Not Call?
Yes, in Export, at no extra charge. Each number keeps its own result, and a number without a current answer stays "Not checked". 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.
Can I load the list into my dialer?
Export a CSV with Phone 1 to 10 fields and a Do Not Call result beside each number, or your own sheet with contacts added. Import a small test file into your dialer first to confirm the columns map the way you expect.
Sources
- FTC, Q&A for telemarketers and sellers about the Do Not Call provisions of the Telemarketing Sales Rule. How the National Do Not Call Registry applies to sales calls. Read November 5, 2026.
- 47 CFR 64.1200, delivery restrictions. Consent rules for autodialed and prerecorded calls, including texts. Read November 5, 2026.
- Locate Next, pricing. $49 a month, $0.17 per search with results. Read November 5, 2026.
This page is general information, not legal advice.