How much do solar leads cost in Florida? Shared, exclusive, appointments and permit leads

Buying leads has always been the expensive part of residential solar. In 2026 it got worse: with the federal residential tax credit gone, each homeowner is harder to convince, so every lead has to work harder. Wood Mackenzie expects residential customer acquisition costs to rise about 40% in 2026, to roughly $0.84 per watt (Wood Mackenzie, March 2026). On an 8 kW system, that's about $6,700 to win one customer.

Here is what the main lead types cost, and what you actually get for the money.

Shared and exclusive marketplace leads

These are homeowners who filled out a form on a comparison or quote site. The marketplace sells the same form to several installers.

• Price: SolarReviews lists leads from about $25 to $300 each, sold to as many as four companies (SolarReviews).
• The catch: you're racing other installers to the same phone number, and you pay whether or not the homeowner answers.
• Benchmark: SolarReviews estimates US installers spend about $1,400 on leads for each residential job they close (SolarReviews).

Appointment setting

A vendor qualifies the homeowner and books the meeting. One lead-generation vendor puts 2026 prices at roughly $250–$450 per set appointment, against $20–$60 for shared leads and $40–$100+ for exclusive ones (vendor estimates, so treat them as a range, not a quote). You pay more per lead, but you're paying for a conversation instead of a form.

Permit leads

Permit leads come from public records instead of web forms: homeowners who just did something to their house that makes solar more likely, like a new roof, a panel upgrade, a battery or a pool.

• Price: a flat monthly subscription instead of per lead. General permit-lead services start around $149/month; data platforms built for analysts start around $599/month.
• The catch: they're not hand-raisers. Nobody asked for a quote, so you need a good reason to reach out, and the permit trigger is that reason.
• What to check: raw permit feeds include renters, condos and homes that already have solar. In our Miami-Dade and Orlando data, about 4 in 10 permits with a solar-relevant trigger fall into those groups.

How to compare them

Don't compare price per lead. Compare lead spend per closed job:

1. Add up a month of lead spend for one source.
2. Divide by the jobs that source closed that month (give it 60–90 days to close).
3. Compare that number across sources and against your margin per job.

A flat $99–$149 a month that produces one extra install a year already beats the $1,400-per-job benchmark. A $165 shared lead that four installers also bought has to close far more often to do the same.

The Florida angle

Florida still credits rooftop solar at retail rates under its net metering rule (utilities have pushed to change that), and it re-roofs at high volume, much of it driven by hurricane damage and insurance requirements. That makes trigger-based leads, reached by mail and a short door-knocking route, a strong fit for Florida installers who are tired of racing for shared forms.

Try PermitScoop free for 7 days: owner-occupied, solar-ready re-roof and panel-upgrade leads for Miami-Dade, Miami, Orlando, Hillsborough, Tampa, Cape Coral, Fort Lauderdale, Port St. Lucie, Manatee, every weekday at 7am.