Reply to Would you buy a house with a solar lease?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This doesn't sound that bad. We were looking at a house that had a solar contract with Vivint that required the homeowner to buy electricity from the company. The rate was not awesome and it was a multi-decade committment. Replacing the roof seemed like a huge hassle with lots of complaints on BBB about how the company was not responsive when it came to taking the panels off.

However, I'm generally not [b]impressed[/b] with homeowners that enter into a contract or lease for such a long period and then leave after a few years and dump that contract onto the next owner.[/quote]

Such a strange word to use.  It's neither impressive nor unimpressive.  Many people don't like the hassle of making the decision to start, and the installation process.

It's like saying, I am "unimpressed" by someone that puts in a pool and then sells the house and "dumps" that pool onto the next buyer after several years.

Yes, you can just decide to buy another house.[/quote]

Always weird to have a sort of moral judgment on things like this!

But yes the Vivint example is why many posters are talking about being careful who you do one of these contracts with.  And entering into a Power Purchase Agreement is pretty onerous- frankly the homeowner there probably didn't understand that they should have gotten the electricity for free, or had less leverage in the negotiation.  Again, no reason to make some sort of moral judgment.  [/quote]

Whenever you buy a home, you take a big risk. The character of the owner matters. Did they paint over water damage? Are they selling because they became aware of a huge expense that's coming that they don't disclose? Usually, there's no way to know these things ahead of time. Signing a 20-30 year solar lease and then selling the house 5 years later is weird. Legal, yes. But also sketchy and irresponsible.[/quote]

There so many valid reasons why you would sell a house 5 years after signing a solar lease.  Got a great promotion in another city.  Parent at home died and moving back to take care of other one.  Kid needs some special services in a different part of the region.  One parent changing careers and downsizing, etc., etc.  "Weird", "Sketchy", "Irresponsible"?  Nobody is forcing you to buy!  Someone will assess the risk, value it appropriately, and the property will changes hands.  No reason to add on all these value judgments about something you know nothing about.[/quote]

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