Leaving Angi or Thumbtack: How Trades Replace Shared Leads With Builder Work
Trades leave Angi and Thumbtack for the same reason: paying for leads other pros also receive, for one-off jobs. The replacement is not another marketplace; it is builders. A builder with 20 starts a year needs your trade 20 times. In Austin the ten busiest builders filed 22.5% of new-build permits in the last year, in Nashville 23.2%. Builtie finds them from the permit record and names who buys your trade.
The same four steps, whether the buyer is a builder, a designer, an owner or a company you want to acquire.
A 30-day plan
- Week 1: keep the marketplace running; start a Builtie trial on your city and trade.
- Week 2: pick the ten builders with the most projects in your window and message the owner or purchasing lead.
- Week 3: follow up once with something useful: crew availability, a similar job nearby, lead times.
- Week 4: compare what each channel produced, then cut the marketplace spend that did not pay.
Who the builders are
Rankings from the permit record: Austin, Nashville, Miami-Dade. How to sell to the big ones: How to sell to production home builders.
Plans and coverage
Builtie's Starter plan is $79 per seat per month (CAD) for 20 projects; Growth is $99 for 50 projects and adds the LinkedIn and email outreach you run yourself. Opening a project spends one credit, and the decision makers, emails, phones and AI call script inside it are included. Your monthly credits reset at each renewal, and extra credit packs are valid for 30 days. The free trial runs 7 days with 10 projects. Custom, where Builtie's team runs the outreach for you, starts from CAD $1,500 a month on top of a Growth seat.
Builtie covers North America, with its deepest permit and contact data in the Greater Toronto Area, where it started. How much a city yields depends on what that municipality publishes, so ask for live sample projects in your own city before you buy.
Frequently asked questions
How do I stop relying on Angi or Thumbtack?
Build a second channel before you cut the first: builders and GCs found from building permits, who hire your trade on every project. Run both for a month and keep what pays.
Is builder work better than homeowner leads?
For most trades it is steadier: one builder relationship produces repeat work across many projects, without paying per lead.
How much does Builtie cost?
Starter is $79 per seat per month (CAD) for 20 projects; Growth is $99 for 50 projects plus LinkedIn and email outreach; 7-day free trial with 10 projects. Billed monthly.