Playbook · General contractors & subcontractors
The GC & subcontractor playbook
Whether you’re a GC hunting your next build or a sub looking for the GCs who need your trade, permits are the public record of who’s building what — and the AZ ROC roster tells you who’s real. This is how to turn that into work, and how to vet before you sign. It’s the find-work half of the product: activity and relationships, without the team tooling.
Set up in a few minutes; save up to three searches on the $89 plan.
The daily loop
- 1
Set your trade and territory
Pick your trade and the cities you work, and save it. The $89 plan holds up to three saved searches — enough for “my trade in my territory,” “bid-range projects,” and “a competitor to watch.” Each can run as a daily email so new work finds you.
- 2
See what’s being built
Search the live activity: new construction, additions and remodels, or your trade’s permits — filtered by city, work class, and value. Every result is a real, dated, funded job, not a rumor.
Tip A sub should search the work that needs their trade (a framer searches new construction; an electrician searches electrical), then call the GC who pulled it.
- 3
Vet before you commit
Open any contractor to a full record: AZ ROC license number and status, classification, disciplinary history, and recent permit volume — each contractor link carrying a match-confidence badge. Know a GC is real, licensed, and clean before you sub for them, and know a sub can back their trade before you bring them on.
Tip The disciplinary and license-status view is your handshake insurance — a 30-second check that can save a job.
- 4
Find the relationship
The contractor leaderboards rank the busiest builders in your area. A sub uses them to find the GCs pulling the most permits in their trade — the ones most likely to need help. A GC uses a competitor’s profile to see exactly what they’re winning and where.
- 5
Get ahead of the pull
Applied-stage permits surface before they’re issued, with an estimated issue date. That’s the earliest legal moment to reach out — before the job is even fully permitted, let alone staffed.
Aim it right
Point your search at the work that needs your trade
A framer and a finish carpenter don’t chase the same permit. Point your saved search at the work that needs your trade — here’s the mapping, with a search you can paste straight in.
| If you run… | Chase the… |
|---|---|
| Framing / structural sub | New homes and additions at the framing stage“new construction over $400k in Scottsdale” |
| Electrical sub | New-construction rough-in, service upgrades“electrical permits in Mesa this month” |
| Plumbing / mechanical sub | New rough-in, repipes, HVAC changeouts“plumbing and mechanical permits over $10k” |
| Concrete / site sub | Foundations, slabs, flatwork“concrete and masonry permits over $25k” |
| Finish trades | Remodels and tenant improvements“remodels and additions over $100k in Tempe” |
| GC (new construction) | Custom homes and new SFR to benchmark and bid“new custom homes over $1M” |
Searches you can paste straight in
Type it in plain English — the search bar parses the trade, the ZIPs, the dollar floor, and the date window for you.
“new construction over $500k in Scottsdale”
Sizeable new builds in one city — the projects worth a sub’s call or a GC’s benchmark.
“electrical permits in Mesa this month”
This month’s electrical work in Mesa, matched to the contractor where the city names one.
“remodels and additions over $100k in Gilbert”
Higher-value remodel work. (Heads-up: Gilbert publishes no contractor field, so you’ll see the job and property, not who pulled it.)
“the busiest roofing contractors this year”
A leaderboard read on who’s winning the most work in a trade — your relationship and competitive map.
What to look for
The signals that separate a call from a waste of a call
- License status
- Active vs. expired, suspended, or revoked. Subbing for a GC whose license just lapsed — or hiring a sub who can’t legally do the work — is a risk you can rule out in one look.
- Disciplinary history
- A contractor with disciplinary actions on the ROC record is a name to think twice about attaching your work to. It’s public; use it.
- Classification
- The ROC class tells you whether a contractor is actually licensed for the work on the permit — not just licensed in general.
- Permit velocity
- A GC whose permit count is climbing is a GC who needs subs now. One that’s slowing may be a competitor you can take share from.
- Lifecycle stage
- An “applied” permit is the earliest signal — reach out before the job is pulled and staffed. “Issued” means it’s moving now.
Power moves
Once you’re past the basics
Spend your saved searches well: one for your trade in your territory, one for your bid range, one on a competitor’s name. Each can email you daily.
Make the contractor profile a habit — check license status and disciplinary history before you sign a sub agreement or take on a GC. Thirty seconds now beats a lien later.
The busiest GCs in your trade are your best targets as a sub; the ones you don’t work with yet are the calls to make first.
Look up a rival’s contractor profile to see the permits they’re pulling — what they’re winning, where, and at what value.
Applied permits surface before they’re issued. It’s the earliest window to introduce yourself, before the crew is set.
When you need owner and property intel (cash-buyer, absentee, mailing address), the daily plays feed, My Book, CSV export, the AI assistant, or team seats, Pro ($199) adds them. GC is the essentials; Pro is the workflow.
What you’ll see on every lead
Type, work class, lifecycle stage (applied → issued → in progress → finaled), and declared value — or a clearly-labeled estimate when the city doesn’t report one.
The AZ ROC license, status, classification, disciplinary flags, and recent permit volume — your vetting sheet, on a match-confidence badge.
What’s being built where, refreshed daily from each city’s feed, so a search reflects this week’s work — not last quarter’s.
Who’s most active in a trade and area, via the leaderboards — the map of who to call and who to watch.
Straight about the data
What we won’t oversell
- GC ($89) is the find-work half of the product: activity and relationships. Owner/property intel, the daily plays feed, My Book, CSV export, and the AI assistant are Pro ($199) — the guide above never leans on them.
- Some cities publish permits without a contractor field — Gilbert, Goodyear, Chandler, and Queen Creek name no contractor, so there you’ll see the job and property but not who pulled it, and the relationship view is thinner.
- A contractor is resolved on 42% of all permits and about 68% of the ones that name a contractor — every link shows its confidence, so you can tell a verified license from a likely match.
Ready to see your territory?
Start a 14-day trial — full product, no card up front. Your first list lands tomorrow morning.
$199/seat/mo after trial · cancel anytime