A Solar Rabbit Hole
I was chatting with a client/friend about the weirdness of real estate the other day, and I told her that I was doing a new blog called The Real Estate Rabbit Hole. She laughed, said it was fitting, and asked about the rabbit holes.
Solar.
Yep. Solar can create rabbit holes you’ve never thought of. Case in point:
Many years ago, when we were living in Tucson, we got a referral for a listing. Awesome stuff. We drove out to the house on 10 acres on the west side of town. As we pulled up, we noticed that the seller had a small solar field of about 20 panels. I made a mental note to ask about it as we went inside.
We got through the usual pleasantries and began to talk about improvements. He’d installed the solar field 5 years prior in a move to go completely off grid. He had hired a company who we’ll call Here Today, Gone Tomorrow Solar. For 30,000, they do what they needed to do, including signing the seller up for the payment plan. So he was set up to pay about $250 a month and he did for quite a while.
Then he noticed that, even though he was sending the payment online, it was never “picked up” by the company. He hadn’t gotten any notice that the loan was being serviced by any one else either. So he decided to call only to get that “the number you have dialed is no longer in service.” He called the tech…nothing. He drove to the business address to find nothing open.
Remember this is Arizona where you don’t have to pay off the loan. You can pass the loan onto a buyer, or pay it off at the closing table. But how do you pay off a loan if you can’t find the company?
Welcome to the Rabbit Hole. Who had the loan now? How behind was our seller even though, in good faith, he was attempting to make payments? He had no warranty now unless he went straight to the manufacturer.
It took about a month of emails, phone calls and waiting for return calls, searching corporation records and actual begging from yours truly to find out that a servicer who had the loan didn’t know they had the loan so they never sent out information to our seller. Thankfully, they realized it was their mistake and our dear seller didn’t get any penalties and was forgiven 4 months of payments. Weird, huh?
So all in all, yes we sold the home, the buyers were able to assume the loan and everyone went on with their life.
So my friends, here’s my advice to you:
1. If you ever get a door knock from someone selling solar, say thanks no thanks.
2. Get your roof inspected BEFORE you put solar on it.
3. If you’re interested in installing solar, make sure you contact a legit company - ask your neighbors. Look at online reviews. Interview as many companies as you can and try to stay local if possible.
4. If you think you’re going to add a bunch of value to your home by installing solar, stop. It’s not going to add as much as you think it will.
5. SAVE EVERYTHING you ever got from the installation and billing. EVERYTHING.
6. Plan to clean them up a couple of times a year, and get them inspected about every 2-3 years, especially after severe weather.
7. Keep track of your servicer. You can use Google Alerts so you can keep track of company news, including if they shut down.
I love the idea of solar, especially now when rates are insane. But, I love the idea of making sure you know who you’re dealing with, how to make payments, and keeping track of servicers even better.
Rabbit Hole - 0
Us - 1
