I built a tool that shows you a house's hidden permit history before you buy : PermitPeek

A month ago I launched PermitPeek here, and the reaction taught me something I didn't expect, so I wanted to share it with this community.

What it does: PermitPeek pulls the full building-permit history for any home across 34 US cities, straight from official city records. Every renovation, addition, and the important part: every permit that expired or got left open. It flags what a buyer should pause over, in plain English, instead of a raw government portal.

The thing that surprised me: I built it for buyers vetting a house. But after launch, people kept running it on the home they already own and finding real problems. One person found a roof permit that was never closed out, which finally explained an insurance headache from the year before. Another found open permits their contractor left hanging after a kitchen reno. Stuff sitting on their record that they had no idea about.

Why it matters: home inspectors check the condition of a house, not its paperwork. So unpermitted or unfinished work stays invisible until it bites a failed sale, a forced tear-out, a five-figure bill to legalize after the fact.

There's also a free Chrome extension that shows the permit record right on Zillow and Redfin while you browse.

I'd genuinely love feedback from this community especially on the "check your own home" use case, which I'm now thinking might be bigger than the original idea. Try your own address and tell me if it finds something:

👉 citypermitpeek.com

What would make you actually check a property's record before buying or before selling your own?