How KnockPortal works
KnockPortal at a glance
KnockPortal helps contractors decide where to send direct mail. It uses public permit records for your trade to show where recent permitted work is concentrated, filters out homes with prior permits for the same kind of work, and builds postcard mailings to nearby homes based on the areas you choose. Autopilot is the main way to use KnockPortal: you set a mailing rule and a spending cap per run, then authorize automatic sending under those settings. Sending depends on the required checks and payment, and you can pause or stop the rule. You can also build, approve and pay for a one-off mailing yourself. It shows where permit activity is happening; it does not predict who will hire you.
Available in San Francisco · Roofing: Autopilot (Neighbors of new permits) and one-off mailings.
San Francisco · Roofing snapshot: Oct 17, 2026, 13:30 UTC. It covers the last 30 days of permits: 442 permits, 230 of them in 52 groups.
Subscription for San Francisco · Roofing: $99.00 a month. Postcards: $0.89 each, printing and postage included.
One job covers a month of the subscription and 100 postcards if at least $188.00 is left from it after the job's direct costs, such as materials and crew. This is arithmetic, not a forecast.
Permit records show where permitted work is concentrated, not where work is under way or which homes need it. A home with no permit on record may still have had the work done.
More about KnockPortal: About · Pricing · How it works
The hard part of direct mail is deciding where to send it. This page follows one permit to a postcard and back, shows the method behind each step, and gives the arithmetic so you can check it against your own numbers.
From a permit to a postcard
- A building permit is issued and appears in the city's public records. KnockPortal reads them every day and publishes a dated snapshot.
- Permits issued close together form a group: recent permitted work concentrated on a few blocks.
- Around each new permit, the homes nearby are taken from the city's address registry. The permit's own home is left out, and so is every home with a permit for the same kind of work in the years of history set for the trade (eight for roofing).
- Your exclusions, your repeat window and the 30-day rule leave out more addresses. The run report lists them by reason.
- An autopilot does this on its schedule — every Monday for the kind available today. A one-off mailing does it once, for the homes you pick on the map.
- Every postcard passes the required checks — sender, addresses, approved text and logo — and is paid for before it prints.
- Each address gets a delivery report: the latest postal scan or status.
- Upload your inspections and jobs, and matches show where they meet your mailings. Your mailing history keeps an address out until your repeat window ends.
Why a permit is a signal, not a lead
A permit is a public record that the city issued it — not proof that the job was sold, started, or done, or by whom. KnockPortal does not mail the home with the permit. The permit tells you about the block around it. For roofing, homes there are often of the same age; for every trade, the neighbors may see the work. That is a reason to send a postcard nearby — not a promise that anyone on the block will hire you.
Two layers of data
Recent permits show where work is happening now. The years of permit history set for the trade — eight for roofing — show which homes already had the same kind of work on record, so they can be left out. A mailing uses both: the active area, minus the homes already covered.
The arithmetic
Let S be the subscription for one month, P the price of one postcard, and N the number of postcards you send that month. Your cost for the month is C = S + N × P.
One job covers that month if what is left from it after the job's direct costs — materials, crew — is at least C. This is arithmetic, not a forecast.
Today, for San Francisco · Roofing: S = $99.00 a month, P = $0.89. With N = 100, C = $99.00 + 100 × $0.89 = $188.00. With N = 300, C = $366.00.
Prices as of Oct 17, 2026. Put in your own N.
What you cannot conclude from this
- A permit does not mean that work is under way, or that a neighbor needs the same work.
- A home with no permit on record may still have had the work done.
- A delivery report is the latest postal scan, not proof that the postcard was received or read.
- A match between your mailings and your jobs does not prove that a postcard brought the job.
- KnockPortal does not forecast replies. The arithmetic tells you what one job has to cover, not how many jobs you will get.