Mailing the neighbors of a permitted job: a contractor's guide

By Exterior Permits · October 18, 2026

When a house gets a building permit for a new roof or new windows, the homeowner has usually already picked a contractor. That job is gone. The houses around it are a different story.

Neighbors see the crew, the dumpster and the finished roof. On an older block, the houses next door may have roofs and windows just as old. This guide covers how to reach those neighbors by mail: who to pick, when to send, and what to say.

Do neighbors really follow?

We checked this with 12 months of Minneapolis residential permits (October 2025 to September 2026). For each roofing permit, we looked for other permits on different properties within about 500 feet (150 meters).

• 83% of roofing permits (1,917 of 2,322) had at least one other roofing permit within about 500 feet during the year.
• 36% (846 of 2,322) were followed by another roofing permit within about 500 feet in the next 90 days.
• 56% (1,306 of 2,322) were followed by some exterior permit (roofing, windows and doors, siding, solar or decks) within about 500 feet in the next 90 days.
• Windows and doors look similar: 922 of 1,740 window and door permits (53%) were followed by an exterior permit nearby within 90 days.
• The typical roofing permit had 4 other exterior permits within about 500 feet over the year.

Permits issued late in September had less time to be followed, so the 90-day shares lean a little low.

The data can't tell you why neighbors follow. It might be the same storm, houses of the same age, or neighbors talking. But the pattern is clear enough to act on: a new permit marks a block where more work is likely soon.

Who gets the neighbor's job?

Here's the part that matters for your marketing. Of the 846 roofing permits that were followed by another roof nearby within 90 days:

• In 767 of them (91%), the applicant on the first job pulled none of the nearby follow-up roofing permits.
• In only 79 (9%) did the same applicant pull at least one.

In other words, the contractor who did the first roof rarely picked up the one down the street. The next job is open to whoever shows up. If it's your job, mail your own neighbors. If it's someone else's, mail theirs.

Step 1: Pick the houses

Start with each new permit in your trade and choose the houses around it.

• Keep it tight. Our numbers use about 500 feet, a short walk from the job. You don't need to mail a whole ZIP.
• Mail the same kind of house. If the permit is a reroof on a 1920s bungalow, the bungalows next door are better bets than a new townhouse row.
• Skip houses with recent permits. If a neighbor already pulled a roofing permit this year, they're probably not shopping.

There are two ways to reach them:

1. Addressed postcards to the 10 to 20 houses closest to the job. You choose exactly who gets mail.
2. Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) to the whole carrier route around the job. It's cheaper per piece, but it goes to every address on the route and has a 200-piece minimum.

Our guide to direct mail to permit leads compares postage for both, with current USPS prices.

Step 2: Send it fast

The best time to reach neighbors is while the work is still visible: crew on the roof, dumpster in the driveway, new shingles that catch the eye. Within 90 days, more than a third of roofing permits already had another roof permitted nearby.

A simple timing plan:

• Week 1: a card to the closest houses as soon as you see the permit.
• Weeks 4 to 6: a second card to the same houses.
• Next season: one more if the area keeps pulling permits.

That's a suggested rhythm, not a tested formula. Track your own replies and adjust.

Step 3: Say the right thing

Neighbors don't want to feel watched. Keep the card friendly and useful.

Do: - Say you're working in the neighborhood: "We're working on a home on your block" or "We work in Waite Park." - Make one clear offer, such as a free roof check or a spring install date. - Show your business name, phone, website and Minnesota contractor license number. - Include a return address.

Don't: - Name the neighbor or their address. "Your neighbor at 1234 Elm St" crosses a line, even though permits are public. - Claim storm damage unless a public weather report backs it up. - Promise savings or results you can't support.

Building permits in Minnesota are public records (see are building permits public in Minnesota?), and mailed advertising doesn't need opt-in. Still, honor every request to stop mailing. If you also knock on doors, check the city's rules first: see Minneapolis exterior permit rules.

Step 4: Match the offer to the job

The permit tells you what kind of work is going on. Use it.

If you do more than one trade, the 56% figure above is the one to watch: more than half of roofing permits were followed by some exterior permit nearby, not just another roof.

Step 5: Track it

Give each mailing its own phone number, landing page or offer code, so you know which blocks answer. After a few months you'll know which kinds of permits are worth mailing around, and which aren't.

Where to find new permits each week

All of this depends on seeing new permits while they're fresh. Our monthly permit report shows where activity is by neighborhood and ZIP. The top Minneapolis neighborhoods for roofing permits shows which areas were busiest over the year.

For the weekly list, the free Monday email covers last week's new permits for one trade, with address, description, value and contractor. Get it free. Pro ($49 a month) covers 2 trades and adds owner names and mailing addresses for your mailers, plus CSV. Full Metro ($99) covers all five trades with daily weekday alerts. See pricing.

Data note: figures come from the City of Minneapolis CCS_Permits open data (residential permits issued 2025-10-01 to 2026-09-30, pulled 2026-10-15), sorted by trade with our classifier (method). "Within about 500 feet" means a straight-line distance of 150 meters or less between the permit locations in the data, on a different property. "Followed" means a permit issued 1 to 90 days after the first one. Postage details are in our direct mail guide.