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Old 04-23-2018, 03:25 PM
 
799 posts, read 704,018 times
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My brother is intent on installing solar on his home, and had a couple sales presentations, and invited me to listen in on one last week. Since it was a guy from Costco, I figured it would be informative and upfront, with a low key sales pitch, so I went, listened, asked questions, and even had him give me an estimate for my location, as some of it seems reasonable at first encounter.

But, I've had some time to noodle this, and do a little research. I did a search of threads in this forum , and that's led me to a few questions that maybe some of the knowledgeable people can help with.

First, the elephant in the room, cost. Part of Costco's pitch is a 10% "rebate" of the equipment on a Costco gift card. Which turns out to be about 1/3 of the total installed cost. And the guy says they can install the system in one day, which is great, but makes me question the multiple thousands of labor/profit in my price quote. Certainly the "rebate" and permitting is priced back into the last 2/3rds of the price, but my gut feeling is this has a ton of profit built in. For those who've had an "owned" system installed, does this seem typical?

Part of the financial pitch is the added home value, which they feel is about 85% of the total project cost. But when I read some of the threads on here, many are or would be, leery of buying a home with a solar system. So I wonder if there is any increase in home value or not with a home that has an owned system? And if so, any sort of ballpark idea of what that might look like? I'm trying to calculate real payback time, and that may, or may not be a significant figure. And I'd sure hate to do something to make selling our home if it was ever needed harder!

Thanks for any help on this or other things I should be looking at/for. As we escaped the skyrocketing costs in CA after they deregulated their power (to make it cheaper for the consumer...LOL), it seems like NV is going to experience the same failure, so I see this as a potential way to isolate us from that happening here.
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Old 04-23-2018, 04:16 PM
 
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I think the "would be leery of buying a home with a solar system" comes from the solar leasing industry. Then again, I think that risk accrues to the seller not the buyer.
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Old 04-23-2018, 06:15 PM
 
799 posts, read 704,018 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BBMW View Post
I think the "would be leery of buying a home with a solar system" comes from the solar leasing industry. Then again, I think that risk accrues to the seller not the buyer.
I am certainly hoping that the prevailing attitude is that buying a house with an owned system would be a positive, and that it would add some sort of value beyond a "bell and whistle" status since it seems like a nearly $30K upgrade. But in the threads that came up in my search there was certainly some negativity. While we have no plans to sell our current home, that day will come, and I try to keep that in mind with what we do with the place. As an example, I know i'll be lucky to get 50% of the pool cost back when we sell, and am wondering if there is a general rule of thumb on a solar system like that yet. Of course the sales pitch claims a large immediate value increase, but I'm hoping some of our real estate pro's can share what really happens..LOL
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Old 04-23-2018, 08:08 PM
 
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I'll leave it for a real estate pro if there are any stats on what the recovery percentage on solar might be. I can't see any downsides on an owned system. A leased system, definitely, but owned no.

I can only speak for myself. I would not "value" any home resale solar system beyond a 5-7 year repay period in any circumstances. Additionally, I pay on TOU rates and solar has a much longer recovery period under TOU rates so the value I would be willing to pay would be even lower to a person who is not already on TOU rates.

I would suggest anyone expecting any home value increase from solar should be well out of starter home territory as well so future buyers may have the means to spurge on purchasing a home with an extra such as solar.
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Old 04-23-2018, 08:38 PM
 
Location: Lone Mountain Las Vegas NV
18,058 posts, read 10,220,374 times
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Just took a look st Ardiente which should be a good check. Basically Ardiente initially sold their newer build- after 2010 with a 20 year paid up solar lease. Not quite owned but pretty close. Then they stopped. Or at least partially stopped. So I have 28 sales with solar and 8 without. There is no noticeable difference. In fact early in the year the non solar sold higher than the solar units.

Now note there are likely other variables and I am not going to put a lot of effort into validating the statistics. But it does indicate great caution in expecting value from solar. So lunless you expect to be there for a long time don't expect to get much in terms of price from solar.

I was surprised by the way. I thought basically free electric would have some significant value
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Old 04-23-2018, 08:45 PM
 
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Keep it simple and just calculate how many years it will take to break even using data from your past 12 months of electricity.

In my case I use time of use, 4000 sq ft house with 3 separate AC units. During the 3 summer months my bill is about $250, $50ish the rest of the year. 12 rolling months my total electricity cost was $1346. Subtract basic service cost, which you will still have to pay ($15*12) and you are left with $1166 per year. Now just divide that into the cost and see how long you have to live in the same house to break even. A quote for a system that wouldn't quite cover my usage in the hot months (1900 kWh) was just over $30k. 25 years 8 months to break even. Add in the cost of a new power inverter every 5-10 years.

That was a 4 year old quote, so maybe they are substantially cheaper now. I have been waiting for prices to make sense from a ROI, but will probably have to wait out for the current tariffs against Chinese solar panels to be retracted now.
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Old 04-24-2018, 04:16 AM
 
Location: Here and there, you decide.
12,908 posts, read 27,870,884 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BBMW View Post
I think the "would be leery of buying a home with a solar system" comes from the solar leasing industry. Then again, I think that risk accrues to the seller not the buyer.
The buyer has to qualify for a solar lease. I wouldn’t even consider a house with solar.
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Old 04-24-2018, 07:31 AM
 
799 posts, read 704,018 times
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As usual the great folks on this forum to the rescue! Thank you all. lvmensch, I am surprised that the market doesn't seem to value such a large feature, but it is what it is. Danknee, you sound like you have the twin to my house. And unfortunately, installed system prices don't seem to be coming down much, if at all. Which is surprising given that the panel price has really come down over the past few years.

I guess the last big question mark is what will happen to rates if/when this question 3 thing passes. If it's anything like our previous experience, those $250/mo summer bills will end up in the %600/mo range in short order. That certainly shortens the payback window, but we'd need a crystal ball to know for sure what's going to happen here, although nothing ever goes down...

Thank you all again!
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Old 04-24-2018, 10:10 AM
 
Location: Lone Mountain Las Vegas NV
18,058 posts, read 10,220,374 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by airics View Post
The buyer has to qualify for a solar lease. I wouldn’t even consider a house with solar.
Not in the case I cited. The 20 year lease was paid up by the developer.
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Old 04-24-2018, 11:47 AM
 
Location: Here and there, you decide.
12,908 posts, read 27,870,884 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lvmensch View Post
Not in the case I cited. The 20 year lease was paid up by the developer.
I wasn’t referring to your post (sorry bout that). Was referring to a neighbors home falling out of a purchase
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