Houston is the fourth-largest city in the country and the only major US metro with no zoning code, which means the regulatory terrain looks nothing like Austin, Dallas, or any coastal market. If you're a GC working inside the City of Houston or the broader Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, and Brazoria County footprint, the rulebook is split across three places: Houston Permitting Center for building permits, trade permits, and floodplain compliance; the Houston Planning and Development Department for subdivision plats, historic overlays, and flood ordinance review; and the private deed restriction regime that substitutes for zoning in most established neighborhoods — River Oaks, West University Place, Bellaire, Memorial Villages, Tanglewood, and a hundred smaller subdivisions where the HOA or civic association enforces setbacks, height limits, and material rules that the city itself does not. Texas has no state-level GC license, so verification starts at Houston P&D permit history plus your certificate of insurance plus proof you can actually navigate deed restrictions without getting a homeowner sued by their own neighbors. Specialty trades run through TDLR for electrical and HVAC and through TSBPE for plumbing. That's the stack Baily verifies against before any match goes out.
Houston lead economics
If you've been buying Houston leads from the national aggregators, the math is familiar. An Angi shared lead in the Houston metro runs $30–$55 — lower than Austin's tech-premium but routed to three to five contractors inside of five minutes all the same. Close rate on a shared inbound sits at 12–20%, which puts your CAC in the $180–$350 range before you factor in any of the time spent re-qualifying a homeowner who already talked to four of your competitors. Thumbtack sits lower on cost per contact at $8–$25, but close rate drops with it, and all-in CAC lands at $50–$110. On a $90K Houston kitchen-and-bath combo — well inside normal for Memorial, the Heights, Bellaire, or Meyerland — that CAC is a manageable percentage of the job. The problem is front-loaded CAC you pay whether or not the homeowner closes with you, layered on top of a P&D backlog that stretches during hurricane season recovery and compresses again in Q1. For a shop running four to six active jobs at a time, it stacks up fast.
How AskBaily Houston matching differs
Baily is an AI intake that talks to the homeowner before any contractor sees the project. She asks Houston-specific questions: is the parcel inside the 100-year floodplain (Buffalo Bayou, Brays Bayou, White Oak, Sims, Greens — the whole drainage network Harvey redrew in 2017), does the project trigger Chapter 19 floodplain review and require elevation to 500-year base-flood-elevation plus two feet, is the parcel under a Montrose or Heights historic overlay, and — critically — what deed restrictions apply to this lot. If the homeowner is in West University, Southampton, Braeswood Place, or any of the hundreds of subdivisions still enforcing their original covenants, that matters more than anything the city does. Baily also asks about soil conditions (Houston's expansive clay is the reason foundation repair is one of the largest specialty markets in the metro) and Gulf Coast hurricane compliance — Houston isn't Miami-Dade HVHZ, but Windstorm Inspection is required in some Harris County jurisdictions and carriers treat it as non-negotiable. By the time a scope reaches you, it's already been filtered.
Matching is based on signal we can actually verify: five or more closed Houston P&D residential permits in the last two years (we pull this from the Houston Permitting Center eQuery system), current insurance, photos of deed-restricted-neighborhood projects if the homeowner's parcel is inside a covenant-enforcing subdivision, Chapter 19 floodplain permit history if the parcel is in a Special Flood Hazard Area, historic overlay submittal experience if it's in Montrose or the Heights, and TDLR or TSBPE credentials for specialty work when the scope needs it. No shared leads. The homeowner picks one contractor from a curated short list. You only see matches you're actually qualified to bid on — no post-Harvey restoration lead routed to a GC with zero FEMA substantial-improvement experience, no River Oaks addition routed to a contractor who's never pulled a permit inside a deed-restricted subdivision, no Heights historic remodel routed to a shop that's never sat in front of the Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission. It's narrower by design, and the matches you do see are ones you have a shot at winning.
Houston-specific partner requirements
Baseline for a Houston partner slot:
- Houston P&D permit history — five or more closed residential permits in the last two years, verifiable in Houston Permitting Center eQuery.
- $1M+ general liability. Texas doesn't mandate workers' comp statewide for non-public-work GCs, but we strongly recommend it in a market where roofers and framers are on hurricane repair sites half the year. We flag it to homeowners when it's absent.
- For Chapter 19 floodplain work — documented Floodplain Development Permit history with Houston P&D, including at least one project that triggered substantial improvement review.
- For post-Harvey and post-flood restoration scopes — prior experience with FEMA 50% substantial-damage rule interpretation, elevation certificates, and the insurance carrier's adjuster workflow. If you've never worked a FEMA substantial-improvement file, this category stays closed to you.
- For Montrose or Heights historic overlay work — documented photos of projects that cleared the Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission. If you've never done one, this is a category you can't apply into yet.
- For deed-restricted subdivisions (River Oaks, West University, Bellaire, Memorial Villages, Tanglewood, Southampton, Braeswood Place, and the rest) — documented prior work inside a covenant-enforcing neighborhood with signed civic association or HOA acknowledgment of completion.
- For foundation repair scopes — engineering letter relationships with a local structural engineer, since Houston's expansive clay soils make engineer-stamped plans standard rather than optional.
- For specialty trades inside your scope — TDLR electrical and TSBPE plumbing credentials as applicable, either held directly or through named subcontractors.
Everything above is checked during onboarding. We don't take your word for it.
Exclusivity
Houston is ramping. We're onboarding in five categories right now: post-flood and post-hurricane restoration (still a real volume driver eight years after Harvey — the metro floods regularly enough that this is a standing category, not a disaster cycle), foundation repair and structural leveling (the expansive-clay market is one of the deepest in the country), kitchen and bath remodels, whole-home renovations including deed-restricted-subdivision work, and ADU and garage apartment construction (Houston's no-zoning posture makes ADUs easier to permit here than almost anywhere else in the country, and the demand is there). Each category has a firm cap on partner count per ZIP cluster — and in Houston's case, per deed-restriction zone — so matches stay worth showing up for. When a category fills, it's closed until someone drops.
Take-rate
Standard tiered. We take a percentage of contracted project value at close — the rate drops as annual GMV with AskBaily climbs, and it caps on large jobs so a $350K whole-home doesn't carry a take-rate that distorts your own margin. No per-lead fees. No subscription. No pay-to-play visibility. You pay when the homeowner signs, not when Baily shows them your profile.
Apply
Start at askbaily.com/for-pros/apply. You'll need your Houston P&D permit history with permit numbers (five or more from the last two years), a current COI, photos and permit references from any deed-restricted-subdivision projects you've closed, photos and commission references from any Heights or Montrose historic overlay work, Chapter 19 floodplain permit references if applicable, FEMA substantial-improvement file experience if you're applying into post-flood restoration, your structural engineer of record for foundation work, and your TDLR and TSBPE numbers (or your named subs') for the specialty trades you handle. Onboarding is one video call plus document verification. Most partners are live within a week. If you're already queued in the Gulf Coast cohort, expect faster turnaround.
Why keep Angi
Keep Angi. Keep Thumbtack. Keep whatever referral sources are currently working. AskBaily is designed to sit alongside your existing pipeline, not replace it. Partners who do best treat us as the high-intent channel — pre-qualified scope, single-contractor match, no bidding war — and keep the shared-lead platforms running in the background for volume. The math works better when the funnels are additive. For background on our regulatory posture, see askbaily.com/regulatory/tx-tdlr.