Selling a House With Solar Panels: What Sellers Should Know For a Successful Sale

Do solar panels increase home value?

Solar panels can make a home more attractive to buyers because of the long-term cost savings.

“What my experience is, for a lot of our buyers, especially ones that are going to make this more than just a winter residence and a full-time residence here, is that having the solar can provide some predictability with energy costs,” says Dan Hamilton, a top-selling agent in Palm Desert, California.

Highlight the benefits of solar energy

When you’re selling a house with solar panels, you and your agent will want to hammer home the benefits of solar with potential buyers, including:

Environmental responsibility

Think Americans are a bunch of gas-guzzlers? You’d be surprised how many buyers will appreciate your solar panels for the sake of sustainability. “A lot of people say they want to be green,” says Hamilton. “They want to be environmentally friendly.”

So there’s an opportunity for you and your agent to be educators. Tell buyers about how the sun delivers more energy to the earth in one hour than the global population uses in an entire year. Explain that since the sun has a predicted 5 billion years of life remaining, solar power is the ultimate renewable resource.

In a state like Connecticut, using solar energy for a year is the environmental equivalent of planting 150 trees. Going solar helps promote air purity (especially in environmentally compromised urban areas) and has the potential to greatly reduce instances of respiratory and cardiovascular health issues.

Lower electric bills

Solar panels can reduce your monthly energy bills and prevent you from being at the mercy of your local electricity suppliers.

“Edison (the primary supplier for Southern California) has been increasing rates fairly rapidly, so it provides some protection against those rate increases,” says Hamilton. “We have about four months of the year where it’s over a hundred degrees. If you’re in a 2,500 square foot home, you can easily have $600-$650 a month electrical bills if you don’t have solar. With the solar system, that costs maybe $250-$300 a month.”

And the savings aren’t limited to sunny states. In Massachusetts, solar users enjoy an average 25-year savings of $95,292 despite the state’s long winters and coastal weather.

So put the potential savings into real numbers for buyers, especially if they express concerns over inheriting your monthly $50-$250 solar panel lease. Source data from your old electric bills (check your online utility account if you don’t have them handy). That way, you can work real numbers into your marketing materials by comparing data from before and after the installation of your solar panels.

To control for weather variances, use numbers from the same month, if possible. For example, compare data from the April before you installed your solar panels with data from the April after the installation took place.

Extra financial incentives

Net metering is a policy in most states that allows solar panel users to swap unused solar energy for credit toward their traditional electric bill. Since solar energy doesn’t 100% replace electricity in the home, this is a great way to keep electric bills even lower, since you may be eligible to receive discounts and utility credit based on the amount of unused solar energy your panels were able to generate.

Promote the reputation of your solar installer

If you had your solar panels installed by a reputable company in the area with a recognizable consumer brand, highlight that in your marketing materials. This will allay any concerns buyers might have about the quality of your solar panel installation.

According to Forbes, the top solar panel installers nationally include:

• SunPower
• ADT Solar (previously Sunpro Solar)
• Blue Raven Solar
• Green Home Systems
• Elevation Solar
• Momentum Solar
• Palmetto Solar
• Tesla
• Trinity Solar

Help reduce buyer concerns over maintenance

Solar panels aren’t like pools or elaborate gardens, which require constant tending to, so make sure buyers don’t view them as an extra maintenance hassle.

“There’s no moving parts; they’re easy to maintain,” says Hamilton. “All you need to do is have someone clean them every two to three months, keep them so they’re clear and can access the sun, and there’s not a lot of maintenance to them. Maintenance is really a non-issue.”

DIY-minded solar owners can give their panels the occasional scrub with water and a coarse cloth to rid them of any dirt and debris. Otherwise, any reputable solar installer should be able to handle regular cleaning of your solar panels.

Buyout your lease if you can

Owning your panels makes it easier to sell your home because you don’t have to worry about any liens against the property.

If you do lease your panels, you’ll need to do one of the following:

1. Buy your lease out

If you’re in a position to do so, buying out the remainder of your lease prior to the sale of your home is the most straightforward way to handle the situation if you’ve got a set of rented panels on your roof.

The bad news is that with the typical cost of solar system installation averaging around $20,000, you could be on the hook to shore up a good chunk of change, depending on how far along you are in the lease payments.

2. Transfer the lease

Can’t afford to pay off your solar lease? It is possible to transfer the lease over the buyers, but it creates a few complications. The buyers will need to meet the solar company’s minimum credit standards to qualify for the lease, and some buyers won’t want to tack on that extra monthly expense to their overall housing costs.

Depending on your market and how in-demand solar panels are, it could take longer to sell your home, and you might have to reduce your list price to find a buyer willing to take on the lease.

Work with an agent who has experience selling a house with solar panels

An agent who’s sold homes with solar panels will know how to address your solar system in the MLS remarks, make all the proper disclosures about the lease (if you have one), and ensure you’re released of liability from the panels after closing. Plus, they’ll have experience talking to buyers about the benefits of solar and promoting solar in your marketing plan.

“I always want to use sign riders in front of my listings, and in all of my marketing materials talk about the solar,” says Hamilton. “I get the necessary information from my seller, so I can speak intelligently to the buyer about the solar.”

As far as how you can help your agent?

“You need to get a copy of your solar agreement for your agent,” Hamilton adds. “If buyers ask about the solar panels, I need to know the terms of the contract.”

Capitalize on solar energy to boost your home sale

Selling a house with solar panels offers a unique selling proposition for potential buyers. By highlighting the benefits of solar energy, showcasing the credentials of your solar installer, and addressing buyer concerns about maintenance, you can set your property apart from the competition.

By working with an experienced real estate agent who is familiar with selling homes with solar panels, you can effectively market your property and find the right buyer for your home.

Header Image Source: (Diyana Dimitrova/ Shutterstock)