Do solar panels increase the value of your home?

Installing solar panels can hugely affect the value of your house. Whether it is an increase of value or a decrease of value depends on many factors. Just by a glance, we can say that the solar panel installation increases the value of your home or the property.

The reason is solar energy is green and free energy, so many tend to use solar energy. But if you want to resell your house, the effect of the solar panels’ installation can be questionable and mostly depend on the market’s requirements.

If the solar panels are installed properly and recently, they can increase the value of your property most of the time. But as we said before there are many factors to be considered.

Main factors that decide the value of your home after installing solar :

1. Age

The age of your solar system and the roof greatly affect the value of your house. If the solar system had installed recently and the roof has a good amount of lifetime left then your house can get a great market price.

The reason for the decrease in value with the age is that with the aging your roof requires a lot of repairs. For these repairs, you have to remove and reinstall the panels. This costs new owners a lot of money so the demand for your house will be less which leads to a decrease in market price.

Also, if your solar panels are 10 – 15 years old they may need lots of maintenance to work properly. So this will also decrease the demand and the value of your house.

2. Area

If the area you are living in gets a good amount of sunlight throughout the year, then installing solar panels can add value to your house. But if the area has not much sun throughout the year most of the time there is no point in installing a solar system

Also, if you are living in an area with lots of solar panels installed houses, it can increase the value and the demand of your house when compared with the house without solar panels in the same area.

3.Market

The requirements of the current real estate market of your area can affect the value of your house. The reason is all the buyers do not think the same. They have different requirements and also different opinions on things.

So even though some may think solar energy is a good investment some do not think like that. So according to the buyers in the market, the value of a house with solar panels varies from time to time.

4. Solar provider

Getting service from a good qualified solar provider is very important when installing a solar system. The reason is, if you had hired less qualified people to install your solar system they damage both your house and the solar system. This can decrease the value of your house.

Also, getting service from a qualified well-known service provider can help you to gain the trust of your new buyers. So as you see hiring a qualified, well-known solar provider can increase the value of your house.

How installing solar panels hurt the resale value of your home?

According to some research works, still installing solar panels increases the resell value up to 4.1%, but this can be changed in the future.

Installing solar panels gives you access to free, green, renewable solar energy. Many like to use this solar energy for the following reasons;

1. You do not have to worry about power outages during natural disasters. There are some records of power outages for a long time due to natural disasters. But if you use solar energy you do not have to worry about this as you do not rely on grid energy.
2. Decrease the electricity bills. Even though after start using solar some people prefer to be on-grid to get power during winter days. They can hugely reduce their electricity bills by using solar energy. Also, some states offer a net metering system, which will help users to profit more from their solar systems.

Even though you can get many advantages from installing a solar system, the installation process is not very much easy. Many people reluctant to go through all the hardships of installing solar, so if the buyers see a house with a solar system they tend to be attracted more to this house/ property rather than a house without a solar system.

So as you can see installing solar panels can increase the demand for your house.

Not just the reselling demand but solar panels also can increase the demand for your house when renting, as it helps the renters to decrease their utility bills a lot.

Also, let’s say you are selling a house in an area where there are lots of houses with solar systems. If your house’s solar system is fairly new then your house will attract more people than a house without a solar system. Also, the market price of your house increases according to the demand. But the price can be varying according to the area and the time.

Can installing solar panels decrease the value of your house?

Yes, it can.

Even though the general idea is that installing a solar panel can increase the value of your house, the following instances can decrease the value of your house after installing a roof solar.

• If your solar system is installed by an unqualified solar system provider.
• If your area does not get good sunlight throughout the year.
• Your house/ roof is old and had not done proper roof inspection before installing solar.

The reselling value of your house also decreases because of the above reasons and if there are no buyers in the market who like the solar panel system of your house.

They may not like the roof solar for different reasons;

• If they like to buy your house for renting purposes they may see the solar system as an extra cost as they have to maintain the solar system.
• Some think roof solar disturbs the house architecture and decreases the beauty of the house.
• Installing roof solar increases the cost if they want to do any alterations of the roof, as they have to remove and reinstall the solar panels.
• Most of the time there is no extra space on the roof to add more panels, so they have to be satisfied with the current capacity or they have to replace the whole system.

What are the costs that come with solar panels installations (are there any hidden costs)?

Installation cost :

At first, solar panel installation was a very expensive process but now the price has gone down a lot. Also, solar providers offer discounts and even easy payment methods to market their products.

Even some states established new rules and regulations to incentivize more people to use this green energy.

We cannot say how much you have to pay for the installation as the prices are different at the different solar panels’ providers. Mainly you have to pay for the solar panels, mounting system, inverter, battery (optional), and the other components of the solar system. Also, you have to pay for the workers.

Maintenance cost :

Solar panels do not need much maintenance. Most of the time solar systems only need regular checkups. But if you are living in a very snowy area or dusty area or if it is the winter season then you have to clean your panels more frequently. If you do not know how to do these checkups and cleaning then you have to pay for a professional to do them.

Legal fees :

Some solar panel installations do not need extra legal work. But for some installations like flat roof solar, ground solar, and commercial solar do need permits. For these legal works, you have to pay.

Is it good to install solar panels just to increase the value of your property?

No, it is not.

Even though installing solar can increase your house value, installing solar just to increase the resell value is not a good option. The reason is the increased resell value depends on many factors and varies from time to time.

Also, solar panel installation costs you a significant amount of money. Most of the time, you cannot cover all the expenses and also make a profit by the increased percentage of reselling value.

So do not install solar panels just to resell them.

Conclusion

As you see solar panel installation can affect the value of your house. Many factors decide this effect. Most of the time solar panel installation can increase the demand and the market price of your house when reselling it.

Any way installing solar panels, just to increase the resell value is not a wise decision. The reason is real estate market changes from time to time. Most of the time, your house’s value decides on the current requirement of the market. Even though at present solar panel installed houses have great market price it can be changed at any time. So if you are going to install solar do it if you are going to live in that house for a long time.