Most canvassing maps treat every house the same. The property record disagrees: some homes just pulled a permit, some just changed hands, some have a solar system their bankrupt installer will never service, and some have a roof old enough to vote. Scout’s Lead Finder turns those differences into twenty-two curated opportunities across six groups — each one a list of homes with a stated, checkable reason to talk to you. Here is the full catalog, and the play for each.
Movers: catch the home-improvement mindset
- Recent move-ins — owner-occupied homes that changed hands in the last two years. New owners are in setup mode: projects queued, services unchosen.
- Out-of-state move-ins — the same signal, sharper: arrivals from another state have no local contractor loyalties and utility bills they haven’t normalized to. The most open doors on the map.
- First-time homeowners — move-ins with no prior ownership history. Everything about owning is new, including who to trust for the roof, the HVAC, and the electric bill.
- New builds — single-family homes built in the past five years. Warranty-fresh roofs, but prime solar and smart-home territory, and owners who just made the biggest purchase of their lives.
The play: movers respond to welcome framing, not pressure. “You just got here — here’s what homeowners on this street pay for power” opens more doors than any discount.
Home improvement: follow the money already spent
Recent renovators flags homes with a kitchen, bath, multi-room, or addition permit pulled after the current owner bought — proof this specific owner invests in this specific house. A homeowner who just spent on the kitchen has a working relationship with contractors and a demonstrated budget. Sequence them right after movers in any canvassing route.
Electricity: market mechanics as targeting
TX deregulated homes maps the Texas households served by participating deregulated utilities — the homes where a solar pitch competes against retail electricity rates the homeowner actually chose and can actually see. Niche, mechanical, and largely invisible to competitors working ZIP codes.
Solar: ten reads on one roof
The deepest group, because solar has the most ways to say yes:
- Solar orphans — solar permits from bankrupt installers. Proven intent, no incumbent. The full playbook is in our orphaned-solar guide.
- Abandoned solar — a permit was pulled, then AI verification against aerial imagery confirms no panels ever went up. They said yes once and never got the system.
- AI-verified solar panels — high-confidence confirmation of panels on the roof: the base layer for service, monitoring, and battery conversations.
- Solar owners without batteries — verified panels, no battery permit on record. The retrofit list, pre-built.
- Room for a second system — verified panels plus substantial verified-usable roof area remaining. Expansion pitches for households whose usage outgrew the original array.
- Recent move-ins to solar homes — a home with verified panels that changed hands in the past two years. New owner, inherited system, no service relationship: battery and monitoring territory.
- Solar panels hit by 1″+ hail — verified panels inside a mapped hail swath from the past year. Detach-and-reset and insurance-claim work with the urgency built in.
- Had a main panel upgrade — a completed electrical permit for a main panel upgrade means the expensive prerequisite for solar, batteries, and EV charging is already paid for.
- All-electric homes — electric heating fuel means the biggest possible bill offset and no gas-vs-electric objection.
- Recent solar permits — permits from the last 30 days show exactly where competitors are closing. Work the neighbors while the crane is still visible.
Roofing: age, evidence, and timing
- Aging roofs — the newest roof permit on file is 15+ years old. The core replacement-due list.
- Aging neighborhoods — single-family homes built 20–25 years ago: whole streets of original roofs reaching end of life together. Canvassing density at its best.
- Recent reroofs — roof permits within two years. Not a roofing lead — a solar lead: a fresh roof removes the biggest objection to panels.
- Recent roof permits — the last 30 days of roof permits show live demand and active competitors, street by street.
HVAC: the quiet giant
- Aging HVAC — the latest HVAC permit is 10+ years old. Systems at that age are living on borrowed time, and the owner usually knows it.
- Recent HVAC permits — 30 days of fresh HVAC activity, for reading demand and priming neighbors.
HVAC is the least-fished pond in this catalog — almost nobody in the trade targets on permit-age data. We wrote the dedicated playbook: how to get HVAC leads.
How to actually run the catalog
- Stack opportunities, don’t collect them. A home that is both an aging roof and a recent hail hit, or a solar orphan and a recent move-in, jumps the queue. Overlap is the ranking.
- Read the qualifier out loud at the door. Every card states its rule — “your roof permit is from 2008” is an opener no purchased list can give you.
- Scale winners into lists. When an opportunity converts on the doors, build it as an Atlas audience with owner-matched phones and run it through the dialer too.
Frequently asked questions
What is Lead Finder?
Lead Finder is the workflow inside Scout where a rep looks at any area of the map and surfaces the homes that match a curated opportunity — aging roofs, solar orphans, fresh move-ins, and nineteen others — or stacks their own filters with a live count. Click into a home and the full dossier is there, with owner contact a one-credit unlock away.
Which opportunity should a new team start with?
Pick the one that matches your offer’s urgency. Roofing teams start with aging roofs and recent storm overlap; solar teams start with solar orphans and abandoned solar (proven intent, no incumbent); HVAC teams start with aging HVAC. One opportunity worked consistently beats five sampled.
Where does the opportunity data come from?
Public permit records updated continuously (over a million new permits a week), ownership and transfer records, storm mapping, utility characteristics, and AI verification against fresh aerial imagery for the solar-specific reads. Each opportunity card states its qualifying rule right on it, so reps know exactly why a home is on the list.
Can I build lists from these opportunities instead of knocking them?
Yes — the same signals drive Atlas, where you build them into calling and mailing lists at campaign scale with owner-matched, DNC-scrubbed contact data attached.