Considering Solar Panels for Your Home? Weigh the Positives and Negatives

There is no shortage of newspaper and magazine articles that extol both the virtue and the value of solar panels for residences.

Curiously, there is a similar abundance of articles telling of buyer resistance to homes with solar panels and how the presence of solar panels has caused either price concessions or failed sales. (Try googling: solar lease scaring buyers.)

Actually, there is no contradiction here. We just have to read the fine print. In short, solar panels per se -- with no qualification regarding financing -- are generally perceived by buyers in a positive way. But, when the panels come along with a lease that may have 15-20 years to run, the reaction is somewhat different.

To date there have been no voluminous studies of the sales effect of leased solar panels. The evidence is only anecdotal. But stories have been surfacing all around the country, and have been reported in a variety of news outlets and internet posts.

The issue is that many buyers are resistant to assuming the solar panel lease, which might have 15 years or so left to run.

Some argue that the leases are too long (commonly twenty years at the outset) for an item that may be technologically obsolete well before the lease term is up. Others are concerned about the long-term viability of the companies that provide the panels. Will they be there to provide service for the life of the lease?

Even those who are ok with a lease have to face the fact that they will be taking on new debt at the same time they are trying to qualify for a mortgage. Most people who can qualify for a mortgage will meet the credit standards for assuming the lease. But, taking over the lease will, in many cases, lower the amount of mortgage for which the home buyer can qualify.

Of course there are many ways to skin this cat. The considerations involved in selling a home with leased solar panels are certainly not insurmountable. Sellers of such homes are well advised to do some homework in preparing to go to market. Find out about the lease-assumption process from the company doing the financing. Investigate buy-out provisions as well. Most of all do the math on the energy cost savings. Have records available.

You might even want to have some information on those studies that show the price premiums that panels can add.

courtesy of Bob Hunt/Realty Times

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