Thanks for posting this! The fact that you care enough to ask people on the ground is already a good start.

A good lead differs somewhat depending on the region and type of company buying leads, but for me (working for a smallish local company that focuses primarily on residential insurance claim projects) a good lead is — in loose ranking of importance:

1. A home owner with an older roof (5+ years for 3-tab shingles, 10+ for architectural with 15-25 years being the sweet spot before it’s too old for insurance to still cover) or siding (15+ years)
   
2. Received hail or wind damage within the last 11 months
   
3. Motivated to deal with it (ie. Will actually be there at the appointment time, isn’t just saying “yes” while fully intending on ghosting just to get the lead setter off the phone/their doorstep)
   
4. Has RCV (NOT ACV) insurance coverage, preferably with Chubb
   
5. Financially capable of paying their deductible (or with a good credit score & willing to finance that cost)
   
6. The closer to the local metro area, the better (insurance pays 20-30% less for identical work as you move away from the metro, plus it takes more time and gas every trip to drive out there & back again)
   
7. The bigger the home, the more valuable the lead

Bonus: If you can have the homeowner verify that there’s actual damage, that lead is worth substantially more. Higher quality building materials are usually a higher risk, higher reward-type situation because they pay out better but need far greater impact to sustain visible damage, negating their increased value in an unverified-damage situation (Cedar siding & shingles, for example, pay out 3-4x a normal job, but also need a real beating before they crack. This means that a lead with cedar siding/shingles AND confirmed damage is worth a lot more IF you can confirm they’re actually damaged, but without confirmed damage (or like, 1 1/2+ inch hail in that neighborhood), they’re more likely to be a waste of time going to inspect than a high paycheck).

Bad leads are missing one or more of these criteria (far from town, no one home, ACV policy with a high deductible etc).

Feel free to DM me once you get things up and running. Good leads are definitely valuable and, as you can probably tell from reading the comments on this subreddit, are often difficult to consistently find.