Case study · Commercial roofing · Houston, Texas How Texas Roof Magic found the owners behind Houston's commercial roofs and closed a $25k job 12 days after the reply
Texas Roof Magic restores commercial roofs in and around Houston. Eddy Russell knew a coating could save a building owner a tear-off. What he did not have was a way to reach the owners, because in Texas the owner of a commercial building is usually an LLC with no website, no phone listing and no one to call.
Verified in Smartlead and in Texas Roof Magic's own pipeline board. Figures cover 6 August to 21 October 2026; open deals as of 19 October.
A good offer for one hard-to-find person
Texas Roof Magic is an owner-run commercial roofing company in Houston and a certified EnKoat dealer. It repairs, coats and replaces commercial roofs.
The coating is the interesting part of the offer. For an owner facing a tear-off, a coating system can stop the leaks, keep the building open through the job and come with a 10 to 20 year warranty, for a fraction of a replacement. The problem was never the offer. It was getting it in front of the one person who decides.
The owner is an LLC
On a commercial building, the roof decision belongs to the owner, not the tenant and not the business on the sign. In Texas that owner is usually a holding LLC. It has no website and no LinkedIn page, and its registered address is often an accountant's office.
Contact databases mostly return the wrong person: the tenant, a leasing inbox, or a property manager three steps away from the decision. A roofing campaign built on those lists emails a lot of people who cannot say yes.
The usual sources bounced
The first campaigns in August used the usual sources. Bounces climbed high enough that campaigns paused themselves.
When we audited the owner file in September, 36,016 of the owners were individual people rather than companies, with no company website to find an email from. We stopped adding leads and rebuilt the list from the source.
A list of owners, built from the public record
Every lead on the rebuilt list is a named person who owns, or runs, a commercial building. Four steps got us there.
Ownership from the county, not a database
We requested the appraisal-roll exports for 23 counties within about two and a half hours of Houston, many of them by hand, county by county. Slower than a database pull, but it is the record of who owns the building.
The person behind the LLC
Texas franchise-tax filings name the officers and directors of every LLC. That gave us 40,909 owners with a named human attached: the person who signs off on the roof.
Emails found, then verified twice
We found emails for those officers, then verified every address in two passes: MillionVerifier first, BounceBan on everything it could not confirm. In a market this small, the catch-all addresses other teams throw away were half the list.
Five audiences, five campaigns
Asset owners, asset managers, businesses running out of commercial sites, facilities teams, and other contractors who come across roofs they do not coat themselves. Each got its own campaign and its own copy.
Name the building
Every first email named the prospect's own building in its first line. An email about your own property is not a generic pitch, and owners treated it that way.
The offer was honest about all three options. It told owners that repair, coating or replacement could each be the right answer, and that the roof should make the call. This is the email the first deal replied to, with the name and address left as placeholders:
Later versions were written in Eddy's own voice, and the heavily varied version won by a wide margin, at about 1.4% human replies. Eddy's P.S. on that version: “1-800-SCIENCE is the real number. I went for 1-800-MAGIC first. Taken.”
A 50-year-old roof and a nervous insurer
On 10 September the owner of a Houston event-equipment company replied to that email. He wrote back asking whether Texas Roof Magic really did roof coatings.
His roof was almost 50 years old. He had been patching it himself since 2012 and marking every leak with a flag. He planned to sell the land within a couple of years, so a $60k replacement made no sense, but a coating did.
Texas Roof Magic came out to look at the roof and quoted $25k. On 22 September the owner gave a verbal yes, and two days later Eddy collected a $13k deposit. The job was finished on 12 October. It was Texas Roof Magic's first EnKoat project.
What tipped it was not the heat or the leaks. His insurer was threatening to cancel his cover because of how the rusty roof looked.
“This is 100% a deal the email mkt system generated.”
Every reply reaches Eddy with what he needs
Every reply is read and a response drafted by our reply system, with a person approving before anything is sent. Anything about price, a site visit or Eddy's calendar is held for Eddy rather than guessed at.
Each lead then goes to Eddy in a shared Slack channel with the contact's phone, the property address and what they asked, with his main inbox copied on the thread. A weekly board shows him every open lead and the next step.
One job finished, 18 deals open
As of 19 October, Texas Roof Magic has one job finished and 18 open deals. They include a second job of about $25k whose owner says he intends to hire Eddy, an owner whose buildings are leased to the post office and who asked for pricing after a site visit, and two Houston contractors who want Eddy to coat roofs on their own commercial work.
The owner with the post-office buildings told Eddy he was “SHOCKED” we had found his email, and asked him to congratulate the team.
“Gadzooks. I'm gonna need a bigger boat. Lots of positive.”
From the shared Slack channel and our inboxes
Screenshots as they were sent. Names are blurred to the first letter and prospects' details are blurred out. Nothing is edited or retyped.
45 minutes after the email, asking for a bid on a second building.
“I have another building at [address] that needs to be replaced or repaired with your special coating system. We are commercial industrial builders, and I'm familiar with the replacement cost but would like you to give us a bid.”
Asked for a same-day call.
“Can you call me later today? [phone]”
A $24,000 verbal commitment, 12 days after we handed the lead over.
“FIRST BLOOD- we received a verbal last night from [prospect] at [company]. They want to start the first week of November. The driver on this deal was the threat of the insurance company cancelling their coverage due to the rusty appearance of the older roof. This is a $24,000 deal. This is our first ENKOTE project.”
Two days after the verbal yes, once the deposit was in.
“[company] is our newest CLIENT. This is 100% a deal the email mkt system generated.”
A building owner asked for pricing after a site visit, surprised we had found his email.
“Had a good conversation with [prospect], he will be a good customer. Not today, but soon. And [prospect] at [company] had us look at a building today . He was SHOCKED you could find his email and said congratulate your team for finding me , we looked at roof for him, he wants pricing next week / Hahah, nice to hear! We do our best and try to leave no stone unturned”
The same lead a week earlier, after the first site conversation.
“Talked to [prospect] yesterday. He has our quote of $25k. He has outgrown his building and is in the early stages of looking for new facility. If he doesn't find a new building to buy soon, i feel like he will strongly consider our coating. This was a great lead. He likes our coating, our price, everything.... If he stays i think he buys.”
The day after the first job was finished, with more deals coming in.
“Gadzooks. I'm gonna need a bigger boat. Lots of positive. Finished the $25k [company] project yesterday. Others look good too. Wow. Wow. Wow.”
Five lessons from commercial roofing
- 01
In commercial roofing the list is the campaign. Find the owner before you write a word.
- 02
Name the building. An owner reads an email about their own address.
- 03
Offer the honest answer, replacement included. Owners trust a coater who will tell them not to coat.
- 04
The reason a deal closes is often not your pitch. Here it was the insurer.
- 05
Other contractors are buyers too. Roofers and builders have roofs they want to sub out.
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