Tacoma residents can now access information online for every remodeling and construction project that has taken place over the past ten years through BuildZoom’s Permit Mapping project.
BuildZoom announced the release of its building permit map in Tacoma – the first application of its kind to provide homeowners with details on every home improvement project in their neighborhood, including a summary of the work, how much it cost and who did the work.
The interactive map can be accessed online:
www.buildzoom.com/map/tacoma-wa
Users can type in an address to see the details of what’s happening to homes and businesses in their neighborhood. Additional features allow users to filter by project type (for example, electrical, solar) and cost. Through the map, users can also learn about the contractors who have worked in their neighborhoods.
The Permit Mapping project is part of BuildZoom’s broader initiative, to improve the consumer experience in the remodeling and construction industry.
The BuildZoom permit map provides access to information on over 85 million permitted improvements throughout the United States.
The information is collected from over 600 building permit departments (500 cities and 100 counties).
Permits are matched to a database of over 3.5 million licensed contractors.
Currently, 1 million visitors come to BuildZoom each month for information on contractors and remodeling projects.
BuildZoom’s mission is to bring transparency and accountability to the remodeling and construction industry. Using the world’s largest collection of construction data, which includes information on over 3.5 million licensed contractors and 80 million construction projects nationwide, they provide both homeowners and contractors with unique and new ways of looking at the industry. Based out of San Francisco, BuildZoom’s investors include Formation 8 and Y Combinator.
BuildZoom was founded by David Petersen and Jiyan Wei, who grew up as friends in Bethesda, Maryland and bring over 20 years of combined experience, building and managing data-driven companies to the table.
In 2011, Petersen and Wei built the initial version of BuildZoom to solve personal challenges they both experienced with finding reliable home improvement contractors. They made their offering available to the public and before long, saw demand for their service increase dramatically.
In 2013, they moved to San Francisco and participated in Y Combinator Winter 2013 class. Shortly thereafter, they raised an additional round of seed funding led by 8VC’s Joe Lonsdale.
Today, BuildZoom is headquartered in San Francisco, working around the clock to achieve its consumer-driven mission of bringing greater transparency, reliability and trust to the remodeling and construction industry.
– BuildZoom
