The system is secured via UCC lien. IOW the lien is only against the panels themselves and not the house.
Navigating purchasing an exisiting home with a solar loan
- Thread starter GON
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Depends. Appraisers have instructions on how the value the property based on the presence of panels and whether they're leased/financed. Keep in mind the value is never $1-to-$1. For example spending $20k on a bathroom remodel doesn't make the house worth $20k more.
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I have panels on my house and will be selling it soon for the divorce. My intentions are to pay off the solar loan at closing but yes the note can be assumed.
The bright side is that with solar panels, my electric bill is $112 per month and solar payment $230 something. THis house is 2700sf, pool, hot tub, A/S at 70 all day, etc.
The solar system lock in the price of your electric payment so that you never exceed the old pre panel average. Prior to the panels, my electric bill would hit $600 month in summer.
There are however insurance companies that will not cover your houses with panels, so check into that before anything else.
The bright side is that with solar panels, my electric bill is $112 per month and solar payment $230 something. THis house is 2700sf, pool, hot tub, A/S at 70 all day, etc.
The solar system lock in the price of your electric payment so that you never exceed the old pre panel average. Prior to the panels, my electric bill would hit $600 month in summer.
There are however insurance companies that will not cover your houses with panels, so check into that before anything else.
GON
$150 Site Donor 2025
Gents,
Thanks for taking the time to reply and provide feedback. I had zero idea the costs, possible risks, and that homeowners took out long term loans of five figures to pay for solar panels. Quite an eye opener for me.
Thanks for taking the time to reply and provide feedback. I had zero idea the costs, possible risks, and that homeowners took out long term loans of five figures to pay for solar panels. Quite an eye opener for me.
GON
$150 Site Donor 2025
That is good to know, really good to know at a time of skyrocketing homeowners insurance prices.
As others have posted, find out the details. Solar leases are the worst; many people got sucked in. For example, Sunrun from Costco will not sell you a lease.
The only issue is history tells us the Solar Company which installed the panels will not be in business a few years down the road. Therefore-warranties are useless.
GON
$150 Site Donor 2025
Earlier today I did some supplemental research on how the solar panel loan on this 2019 built home has a $47k USD balance with a interest rate of 1.9%.
Research suggests the system cost about 15k-20k USD. The company that sold the system added 25k-30k USD to the system cost, to "buy down" the interest rate from likely 10 percent +/- to 1.9 percent. No way to justify paying the loan off early.
Basic observation suggests if one wants solar for their home, likely best practice to pay in cash. More research suggest solar panels for single family homes are a high-risk endeavor.
Research suggests the system cost about 15k-20k USD. The company that sold the system added 25k-30k USD to the system cost, to "buy down" the interest rate from likely 10 percent +/- to 1.9 percent. No way to justify paying the loan off early.
Basic observation suggests if one wants solar for their home, likely best practice to pay in cash. More research suggest solar panels for single family homes are a high-risk endeavor.
Sheesh. The “greenest” thing about that deal was the money going into the pockets of the solar installers and the bank.
So how many years is the loan? After 15 years half the solar panels micro or central inverters will likely be dead, panels will be damaged from hail, cracked or discolored glass and the whole system won’t be producing nearly as much as the original install and the whole thing will need to be replaced.
Is this a McMansion or something with an otherwise $700 electric bill? I’m not seeing how this thing breaks even.
So how many years is the loan? After 15 years half the solar panels micro or central inverters will likely be dead, panels will be damaged from hail, cracked or discolored glass and the whole system won’t be producing nearly as much as the original install and the whole thing will need to be replaced.
Is this a McMansion or something with an otherwise $700 electric bill? I’m not seeing how this thing breaks even.
I don't know anything about the loan side, but wouldn't the first thing to do on any solar system be to figure out the ROI?
$212 a month sounds like a lot. My electricity bill on an annual basis is lower than that. I only cool - I heat with gas, but I do live in South Carolina. It was 95 today, with 60% humidity and heat index like 107. This is normal here for 3 or 4 months.
Possibly net metering fed back into the grid to offset night time use?
Is the solar actually saving any money at all, or just pretty looking?
$212 a month sounds like a lot. My electricity bill on an annual basis is lower than that. I only cool - I heat with gas, but I do live in South Carolina. It was 95 today, with 60% humidity and heat index like 107. This is normal here for 3 or 4 months.
Possibly net metering fed back into the grid to offset night time use?
Is the solar actually saving any money at all, or just pretty looking?
This sounds like someone buying a 15k-20k car with super low interest rate from a subprime dealer and then keep rolling the payment into the loan, and it ballon to a 47k loan.
What you should do if you are interest in this home, is to deduct 47k from it (maybe if you are generous deduct 42k instead of 47k). Sometimes debt can be a good tool to use if you are financially responsible, but not if it is to finance a bad deal or entertainment.
I once finance a car I paid cash for with a 1.5% credit union loan, and then use the money to pay off my 2.5% mortgage early. It works out very well.
Of course it depends on the deal, but I tend to agree. I paid cash for our solar project; I knew retirement was approaching so cash flow would change dramatically. My strategy has always been minimizing recurring costs. Paying cash for the solar project was a double win, especially on the energy cost side.
Output is warrantied
But by who? A company that went out of business? If the warranty is directly through the manufacturer that’s one thing but as far as I understand many warranties for things are done through wherever you bought it from, not the company that makes the product.
For example, if I buy a Standard brand sensor with a 5 year warranty from an auto parts store, and the auto parts store goes out of business 2 years later, too bad for me, because my agreement was with that auto parts store, not Standard.
Or if the battery in my Chevy Bolt goes bad, I can’t call up LG and have it replaced, no, I go to the Chevy dealer.
Right?
I haven't read a.contract in a couple of weeks but as with anything choosing a reputable company is important. It's not all that different from the car industry 100 yrs ago.
In any case the reality is that output doesn't decrease as much as people like to claim. Iirc the tables I've seen in these contracts suggest a drop of around 10 percent at 20 yrs. Real world testing of older panels supports this.
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If I knew then what I know now, I would have contracted with Sunrun. Good ol' hindsight.
I still love my solar.
There are multiple warranties. The installers is just one.
The installers value add is basically labor, as they will have absolutely zero spare parts and will lean on the gear vendor 100% for any RMA' or dead units.
The equipment also has warranty independent of the installer which is why its important to get a list of the gear on the roof and inverter.
Make sure the NEM contract is even transferable and you dont have a " renew" into a worse deal than whats signed up for now. In cal the contract stays with the house.
My position as the buyer would be the roof has to be paid for and part of the deal vs an assumed lease .
I would also expect to run a lien search against the installer to insure they have paid the vendor fully so you dont wake up one morning to a crew on your roof removing the equipment.
The installers value add is basically labor, as they will have absolutely zero spare parts and will lean on the gear vendor 100% for any RMA' or dead units.
The equipment also has warranty independent of the installer which is why its important to get a list of the gear on the roof and inverter.
Make sure the NEM contract is even transferable and you dont have a " renew" into a worse deal than whats signed up for now. In cal the contract stays with the house.
My position as the buyer would be the roof has to be paid for and part of the deal vs an assumed lease .
I would also expect to run a lien search against the installer to insure they have paid the vendor fully so you dont wake up one morning to a crew on your roof removing the equipment.
GON
$150 Site Donor 2025
Here is a article sent to me by a fellow BITOGer that is a helpful resource on this subject:
When a door-to-door salesman showed up at Christine Palmer’s door in 2022 telling her she could save money by going solar, she and her husband decided to make the investment.
Two years later, the panels have never been switched on and the company that installed them—Titan Solar—has abruptly gone out of business, leaving Palmer with a shiny but useless array on her roof.
Even if she could get someone to fix the panels, Titan installed them in a way that doesn’t pass inspection in her town of Lindenhurst, Ill., meaning someone would have to redo the whole installation before the panels could be turned on, she says.
Meanwhile, GoodLeap, the company that loaned her the money to buy the panels, is still calling constantly, trying to collect on the loan, she says. Titan was supposed to come out to try to fix the panels on a Friday after dozens of previous attempts, but on Thursday night she started seeing on Facebook that Titan was going out of business. Palmer confirmed that the company was kaput and her emails to representatives bounced back as undeliverable. “Our system has not worked for one hour,” she says. “Yet there’s no protection for us at all.”
Read More: Another Solar Company Goes Bust
Titan was the largest solar installer to close its doors when it shut down June 13, according to research firm Wood Mackenzie, but customers like Palmer are not alone in having nonworking panels on their homes and nowhere to turn. Thousands of customers from a company called Pink Energy were put in the same position when Pink filed for bankruptcy in October 2022. Dozens of other solar firms have failed this year as well, including Infinity Energy, Solcius, and Kayo Energy.
https://time.com/6991853/solar-panels-roof-companies-shut-down/
What Happens to Those Solar Panels When Solar Companies Shut Down
When a door-to-door salesman showed up at Christine Palmer’s door in 2022 telling her she could save money by going solar, she and her husband decided to make the investment.
Two years later, the panels have never been switched on and the company that installed them—Titan Solar—has abruptly gone out of business, leaving Palmer with a shiny but useless array on her roof.
Even if she could get someone to fix the panels, Titan installed them in a way that doesn’t pass inspection in her town of Lindenhurst, Ill., meaning someone would have to redo the whole installation before the panels could be turned on, she says.
Meanwhile, GoodLeap, the company that loaned her the money to buy the panels, is still calling constantly, trying to collect on the loan, she says. Titan was supposed to come out to try to fix the panels on a Friday after dozens of previous attempts, but on Thursday night she started seeing on Facebook that Titan was going out of business. Palmer confirmed that the company was kaput and her emails to representatives bounced back as undeliverable. “Our system has not worked for one hour,” she says. “Yet there’s no protection for us at all.”
Read More: Another Solar Company Goes Bust
Titan was the largest solar installer to close its doors when it shut down June 13, according to research firm Wood Mackenzie, but customers like Palmer are not alone in having nonworking panels on their homes and nowhere to turn. Thousands of customers from a company called Pink Energy were put in the same position when Pink filed for bankruptcy in October 2022. Dozens of other solar firms have failed this year as well, including Infinity Energy, Solcius, and Kayo Energy.
https://time.com/6991853/solar-panels-roof-companies-shut-down/
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