How FirstDig works: new building permits in your area, every morning

Every new pool, roof and remodel starts with a building permit, filed weeks before the work. Here is how FirstDig turns city permit records into a short list of jobs in your service area, every morning.

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Every job starts with a permit

Most US cities and counties require a building permit before a new pool, a new roof, an addition or a large remodel. The permit is filed before the work starts, often weeks before it is finished. That gap is your window: the owner or the builder is still choosing who does the next part of the job.

Permits are public records, and many cities publish them on an open-data portal. But every city uses its own format and its own update schedule, so checking them by hand across a service area takes hours a week.

One feed for about a hundred cities

FirstDig reads about a hundred city and county permit feeds, in 29 states and Washington, DC, about once an hour. Each permit is put in one common format, placed on the map and sorted into 18 trades by its type and description. The names of owners and applicants are removed before anything is stored.

The FirstDig permit feed: new permits with address, type of work, value and builder

Draw your service area

Draw the area you work in on a map, a few streets or a whole county, and pick the work you do: pools, roofing, HVAC, demolition, new construction and more. Every new permit inside it shows up in your feed with:

Drawing a service area on the map

The new ones, every morning

Every morning, the permits filed since the day before arrive by email, so you see them before anyone else knocks on that door. Many cities also record when a job passes its final inspection, and FirstDig can tell you when a job in your area is finished: often the best moment to offer what comes next.

The morning email with the new permits in a service area

Plan the visits

Pick the permits worth a visit, and FirstDig plans the fastest door-hanger route through them, starting from where you are. Always follow your city's rules on door-to-door visits and no-solicitation signs.

A door-hanger route through the new permits

See where the work is growing

Every covered city has a public page per trade, and a monthly report, so you can see which areas are getting busier before you decide where to spend your time. Start with the guides or a city page such as new pool permits in Miami.

Ask your own AI assistant

On Pro and Business, you can connect your own ChatGPT or Claude to your FirstDig account and just ask: which streets have the most new pools this week? Which builders filed the most permits near me? The answers come from your own service area and plan.

Asking ChatGPT or Claude about the new permits in a service area

Start free

Create an account at firstdig.net: you get 14 days of Pro, and no card is needed.

The numbers right now

In the 30 days to 2026-10-28, 112,910 permits were filed in the 98 cities and counties FirstDig covers.

Get the new permits in your service area by email: start free (14 days of Pro, no card needed).

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