Solar Panels ???? (sale, leasing, mortgage)

[beez74]

Clueless.....can anyone give me the positives and negatives on solar panels??? Looking at homes and see some have panels and are leased or owned. whats the short story on them between leased and owned and is it good or bad to buy a home with them ?????

[rational1]

Positives- you should save money on electricity and you get points for being invironmintal.



Negatives- sale and purchase of a house with leased panels can get messy. Roof maintenance might be complicated.

[AZJoeD]

Positives? The Sun shines a lot in AZ. That means you can generate a lot of electricity for free.

Negatives? The cost of purchasing, leasing and maintaining solar will cut into your savings.

Some salespeople will tell you that they can put solar on your house for no cost. That is untrue. They will require a long-term lease, typically 20 years, to offset the cost. Most leases start out low and the cost goes up yearly. In addition, there will be connection charges and monthly fees from the power company.

If you purchase a house with leased panels you will have to qualify for the lease and the monthly charge may affect your mortgage qualification. The same is true when you sell the house. The buyer will have to qualify.

Read carefully any solar lease.

Can solar be a good thing? You bet. With the right deal, you could get a near-zero electric bill. You just have to look at the long-term costs and compare it to being energy efficient in other ways.

[beez74]

Thank you for the responses......I was looking at homes with the panels already installed and just the look alone of them on the roof looks intimidating. like I mentioned, some of the homes listed as leased and some owned but either way I may just steer clear of both for the reasons you guys mentioned as far as the extra stress of dealing with it being mixed into the mortgage and the potential to cause issues with qualifying.

[dpepsi]

Good to know! Thanks

[AZ Manager]

Nothing wrong with owned solar, I wouldn't pay more for the home because owned solar is there though unless the system is under 3 years old and installed before Dec 2017 (ensure it is grandfathered). If it was installed in 2018 or later then it isn't grandfathered and the major benefits will evaporate BUT it isn't bad enough to avoid the home just don't pay more for it. A 3 year old system the owner has gotten about half of his ROI out of the system so I'd only value it at about $600 - $800 per kW installed (ex: a 5.6 kW system = $3,360 - $4,480 added home value). You can save far more than that over the length of your residency if it is grandfathered.

My system is a 10.92 kW system and I'm saving about $2,555 a year on it compared to getting the electric from APS, installed last year went from $2,987 a year to APS down to $532 a year. At $800 per installed kW it takes you 3.4 years to equal out, not accounting for interest. My home is a new home so the roof should outlast the solar which is something else to keep in mind, especially for shingle roofs.

IMO, never buy into a lease. If you do I'd drop the home value by about 5%.

[MalteseJane]

You can buy a house with leased solar panels under the condition that the lease is PREPAID. You won't have monthly lease payments since the lease is already paid for and no need to qualify for the lease. Since it's a lease, if something goes wrong with the system, the leasing company is responsible for the repairs and maintenance (there really is no maintenance, and No, the leasing company is not paying for washing the panels).

[jimj]

Originally Posted by MalteseJane

You can buy a house with leased solar panels under the condition that the lease is PREPAID. You won't have monthly lease payments since the lease is already paid for and no need to qualify for the lease. Since it's a lease, if something goes wrong with the system, the leasing company is responsible for the repairs and maintenance (there really is no maintenance, and No, the leasing company is not paying for washing the panels).

This is the ONLY way it makes sense nowadays. As confirmed in my last conversation with APS, all you're doing is trading who you're paying when you go Solar under todays rules. Instead of paying the power company you're paying the Solar company AND in 10 years all repayments for excess power evaporate.
It's NOT about the consumer saving $$$ anymore, it's a lifestyle choice that's all.

We just bought a house with leased Solar and the ONLY reason we bought it was because we really liked the house and the lease was only $30 per month (stupidly small system that can't be enlarged due to new APS rules).
Had it been more I would've most likely passed on the deal...

[gbpakrfan]

Negative: Solar panels are ugly and detract from the appearance of the house.

[AzScorpion12]

Originally Posted by gbpakrfan

Negative: Solar panels are ugly and detract from the appearance of the house.

I use to feel the same but after having them installed I don't even notice them anymore. Plus I love my $18.00/month APS bills!