Home improvement leads for sale: what you are buying

Agencies with a verified published price

How to buy home improvement leads without buying a problem

1. Get the definition of a lead in writing. A verified, scheduled appointment and a form fill with a phone number are both sold as leads at very different prices. Ask what qualification steps happen before delivery, what proof of those steps you receive, and what the credit policy is for a lead that fails them.
2. Establish exclusivity and how many times it is sold. Shared leads are cheaper because the homeowner is speaking to several contractors, often within minutes. If a seller will not state in the contract how many businesses receive the same lead, assume the answer is a number you would not accept.
3. Ask for the consent trail. Ask where the lead was generated, what the homeowner saw and agreed to, and whether you receive a record of that consent. A seller who cannot produce the origin page and the consent language is selling you contact details and keeping the risk on your side of the ledger.
4. Set your calling rules before the first batch. The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule treats calling before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. as abusive, requires Caller ID transmission, and requires sellers to access the National Do Not Call Registry for the area codes they call. Build those constraints into your process rather than into an apology.

What the price reflects

Cost per lead in home improvement tracks the value of the job behind it. Roofing, windows, siding and solar sit at the top because a closed job is worth thousands; smaller repair categories sit far below. Exclusivity multiplies the price, often several times over, and verification, meaning a human confirming the homeowner is real, in area and actually interested, multiplies it again. The most useful comparison is not cost per lead at all but cost per booked job, which requires you to track close rate by source for at least a quarter before you can judge any seller.

The index records which providers publish their prices and terms in public, with the page each figure came from and the date it was read. Providers who publish are usually selling shared or semi-exclusive volume to smaller contractors; the exclusive, verified end of the market is almost always quoted privately.

The compliance position you inherit

Buying a lead does not buy you permission to call it. Under the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule it is unlawful to call a number on the National Do Not Call Registry unless the seller has an established business relationship with that consumer or the consumer has given written agreement to be called, and the seller must have subscribed to and accessed the registry for the area codes it calls. The FTC's guidance explains that where a consumer makes an inquiry or submits an application to a company, that company may call for three months, and an established business relationship arising from a purchase, delivery or payment runs for up to 18 months, in both cases only until the consumer asks not to be called again.

That is why the origin of a lead matters more than its price. An enquiry the homeowner genuinely submitted to you carries an inquiry relationship; a name harvested elsewhere and resold does not, whatever the invoice calls it. The FTC has also challenged organisations whose actual role was generating leads for other firms, so the label on the seller is not the test either.

Questions people actually ask

How much do home improvement leads cost?

It varies by trade, exclusivity and verification, from a few dollars for a shared enquiry in a low-value category to hundreds for an exclusive, verified appointment in roofing or solar. Judge sellers on cost per booked job rather than cost per lead, which requires tracking close rate by source.

Are shared leads worth buying?

They can be, if your speed to first contact is genuinely fast and your close rate survives the competition. They are a poor fit for a business that returns calls at the end of the day. Price them against your own answered-call performance, not against the seller's claims.

Can I call every lead I purchase?

Not automatically. The Telemarketing Sales Rule restricts calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry unless there is an established business relationship or written agreement, restricts calling hours to between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m., and requires Caller ID transmission. Get the consent trail from the seller and keep your own suppression list.

What should a lead contract contain?

The definition of a qualified lead, the number of businesses each lead is sold to, the delivery method and speed, the credit or replacement policy with a stated dispute window, the origin of the traffic, and the consent record you receive. Anything missing from that list is a term the seller intends to decide later.

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