Property managers hire commercial roofers off an approved vendor list, and getting on one means passing a credentialing check through a service such as RealPage or Yardi’s VendorCafe. General contractors (GCs) post their projects on online bid boards, some free within a local radius and some paid. Manufacturers such as Carlisle point building owners to the roofers they have certified.
The people who search “commercial roofing leads” are roofers. A click on that search cost advertisers $29.42 as of October 2026, so the advertisers are lead sellers and agencies bidding to reach you. Before you pay a lead seller, ask which managers or GCs its commercial leads came from. Roofing Lead Companies Compared: What Exclusive, Shared, Per-Appointment and Pay-per-Close Leads Cost covers what they charge.
Credentialing gets you on vendor lists, and some managers still hire their usual roofer
RealPage Vendor Credentialing checks a certificate of insurance at the required limits, general liability, workers’ comp and auto liability where it applies, plus your state trade licenses and a W-9. Each management company sets its own requirements, so ask for its list before you apply.
Yardi’s VendorCafe terms let a vendor use VendorShield credentialing for an annual compliance fee. The fee covers screening, document storage, ongoing monitoring and any background check, and it is non-refundable. The terms give no dollar figure, so ask before you sign up. Yardi also takes 3% when a client pays you by card and charges $25 for a chargeback or a rejected ACH payment. Ask each manager how they pay before you price the job.
A commercial rep on r/RoofingSales got his company into the vendor systems of most management companies in town, VendorCafe among them. Several firms used him only to make up their three bids and still gave the job to the same contractor each time. Some never told him about projects at all, including re-roofs of buildings his company had originally roofed. Keep a list of every commercial building you have roofed and who manages it now, and call that manager before the roof comes due.
Two owners got property-manager work from a $500 repair and a referral
On r/Roofing, an owner said his property manager came from a small $500 repair he did in his first months on his own. Another owner, on r/RoofingSales, gets almost all his commercial work by referral. A church roof came through a past residential customer’s family, and a cousin at a property management company tells him when one of their buildings needs a roof.
An owner on r/Roofing whose business later failed said commercial was where the big money was. Getting in with even one large property manager, he said, can nearly keep a crew busy all year. Take the small repair when a manager calls, and tell your residential customers you do commercial roofs as well.
Meet managers at your local BOMA, and expect to be managed once you’re hired
A project manager doing sales for a repair-and-maintenance roofer listed his sources on r/RoofingSales: cold outreach to property managers and HOAs, networking at BOMA, referrals, website inquiries and more.
BOMA, the Building Owners and Managers Association, has 85 local associations in the US. Its national associate membership is aimed at manufacturers, distributors and suppliers to commercial real estate, so a local roofer would most likely join the local association instead. Ask yours what membership costs.
A commercial roofing operator wrote in a Facebook group that property managers end up managing the roofer. A roofer who wants a better commercial service division, he said, should look at the process from the manager’s side. A residential owner on r/Roofing who took a commercial contract had to report to the client’s project manager every week, and the client paid net 30. Carrying the costs that long made his office manager push back a supplier payment.
Ask a manager you already work for what makes a roofer easy to manage. Before you sign a commercial contract, ask how often they want reports and when they pay, and make sure you can carry the job until the check arrives. Roof Maintenance Agreements: Building a Service Division covers how to set up the service side.
PlanHub shows nearby GC projects free, and wider coverage costs money
Bid board prices as of October 2026:
- PlanHub: projects within a local radius are free to subcontractors. A wider territory needs a paid plan, and Early Project Access starts at about $17 a month, billed annually.
- ConstructConnect: Starter costs $129 a month, billed monthly, and covers a single market and seat, so a roofer working several metros pays for each. It includes project details, key contacts and a bid board. Professional starts at $199 a month on an annual contract and adds plans, specs, addenda and planning-stage projects.
- BuildingConnected (Autodesk): an online plan room and bid board for subcontractors. Its Pro plans are priced only on request.
- Dodge Construction Network: publishes no standard price. A product specialist sets it by geography, number of users and contract terms.
For government bids, with their bonds, SAM.gov registration, set-asides and prevailing wages, see How Residential Roofers Win Commercial Roofing Work.
A commenter on r/Construction listed a new roofing company’s running costs. Beside the CRM, dialer, mailers and ad spend sat two portal subscriptions, one a vendor portal for apartments and multifamily, the other a public bidding portal. He said that stack bleeds a company slowly unless each subscription earns its keep. Start on PlanHub’s free radius, and pay for a wider territory or a second board only after the free one has turned bids into signed jobs.
GC bids can go unanswered, so send commercial references with every one
A commercial roofing estimator with 18 years in the trade wrote on r/GeneralContractor that he had bid close to 225 GC jobs and usually heard nothing back. He found GCs worse to work with than property management companies.
A Houston roofing owner with two light weeks on his schedule posted a Facebook video looking for GCs who need a reliable roofer. His pitch was eight years without one callback for a bad or improper install. A commenter on r/RoofingSales says commercial prospects ask for commercial references every day. Keep a list of commercial customers who will take a call, and send it with every bid.
Manufacturers recommend installers, and Carlisle lets building owners search its list
An owner on r/RoofingSales who does commercial work says commercial buyers mostly skip Google, Yelp and the BBB. A consultant, an architect or a corporate standard specifies the material, so to him a high spot on the specified manufacturer’s recommended-installer list matters more than search. “We got more recommendations from manufacturers than we ever got from Google,” he wrote. Once you buy about $250,000 a year of one manufacturer’s product, he says, most manufacturers start recommending you on big projects.
Carlisle SynTec requires its Certification Seminar before anyone can become a Carlisle Certified Applicator. Its website has a finder where building owners search by location and radius for an applicator. Pick the manufacturer whose products get specified on the jobs you want, and once you’re certified, run your commercial purchases through it so the volume builds in one place.
Google describes no way to take only commercial calls on Local Services Ads
An owner on r/PPC asked whether Google’s Local Services Ads bring commercial roofing leads or mostly residential ones. Google lists roofing under “Eligible home services,” and neither that page nor its help pages separate residential customers from commercial ones. You choose job types from a fixed list for roofing, and the ad can also show when someone searches a general term for the trade.
Google refuses credit when you listed a general service type but don’t offer the specific service the caller wanted. It also no longer credits leads marked “job type not serviced” or “geo not serviced.” A roofer who wants only commercial work therefore pays for whatever residential calls the ad brings in.
According to Google’s help page as read on October 3, 2026, Google is moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads as Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals, starting in August 2026 with selected US home service advertisers, roofing among them. Google’s page on the move draws no line between commercial and residential work either. If you want commercial jobs only, put that budget into vendor credentialing and bid boards instead.
Do these six things before you pay anyone for commercial leads
- Gather your certificate of insurance, state trade licenses and W-9, and ask each manager which credentialing service they use and when they pay.
- List every commercial building you have roofed and who manages it now, and call before each roof comes due.
- Turn on PlanHub’s free local radius before you pay for a wider territory or another board.
- Send a list of commercial references with every GC bid.
- Get certified with the manufacturer whose products get specified on the jobs you want.
- Ask any lead seller which managers or GCs its commercial leads came from.
To see where the map ends for you on a search like “commercial roofing,” run the free Google Maps heatmap. Pick your Google profile and the search, and in a few minutes you’ll see your rank at 49 points around your office.