People Are Regretting Putting Solar Panels On Their Houses!

Did you know that a lot of people are regretting their decision to put solar panels on their home? You know, this was promised to be one of the next best things since electricity was invented, the idea that you could put solar panels on your property or your home and never have to pay an electric bill again. However, the truth is very far from that, and I want to go over some of the pros and cons of putting solar panels on your roof or on your property and give you an idea of what other people who have already done it have to say about it, and even how some of the new laws that are coming down from our government could influence people putting solar panels on their homes in the future. So let's start with the good stuff, because a lot of people say we don't have enough good news on this channel. So let's talk about the good stuff. Number one, lower electricity bills. It doesn't mean no electricity bill, it means lower electricity bill, at least in most cases. When you put solar panels on your property, usually you will still have a small electric bill, but essentially you are selling most of the electricity that you are producing back to the power company and kind of getting like a credit each month towards your bill. And a lot of times you don't produce more than you actually use, and that's why people still have an electricity bill, even if they have solar panels. But it is possible to have no electric bill if you actually make more electricity than you consume. And why you still have to be connected to the electric grid when you have solar panels has always been beyond me. I don't have an answer for that. I think it's ridiculous. I think if you have solar panels, you should be allowed to just work completely independently off the grid, even if you're in the middle of a city or a town, whatever, and just use your own electricity. The second pro of solar panels is the fact that it is renewable and sustainable energy. As long as we have the sunshine, then we will have solar energy. That's pretty much self-explanatory. The third pro is the potential tax credits and incentives, which we'll get to later in this video. The federal government and many local governments offer tax credits, rebates and other incentives that significantly reduce your upfront costs for putting solar panels on your property. They even have a program like this in Florida as well, where the Florida government will partially pay for you to put solar panels on your property. Another pro, or at least it's what's supposed to be a pro of getting solar panels, is it's supposed to protect you from rising energy costs because the electric bill is one of those bills that hardly ever goes down in life. The idea is if you have solar panels, especially if you live in a place like California where the electric bill is through the roof, then you're supposed to hedge yourself against getting higher electric bills in the future because now you're producing most of your own energy. Another pro is that in some places you can even sell your excess electricity back to the grid, generating a credit or even an income, but you need to really produce quite a bit more than you actually use in order to actually have this work, but it is possible for some people. Another pro, especially for people who do this, who live off grid and in those types of situations, is it gives them energy dependence where they actually don't have to rely on any electricity company because there isn't one within miles of where they live. There are no power lines, so this is their only way to actually produce electricity for their property and it gives them 100% independence and reliance on themselves. A lot of people who do this really do like that. Now let's get into the cons, which I think there are a lot more cons than there are pros to putting on the solar panels. Unfortunately, the number one thing is the high upfront costs. The purchase and installation of these solar panels can be tens of thousands of dollars. I've even heard of people paying upwards of $90,000 depending on how many panels you need, the company, the area, and the installation. It can get very nuts. Another downside is that the savings really depend on where you live and how high the electric bills are to begin with. If you live in an area where it's cloudy half the year or you got six months of winter, like where I grew up in Illinois and it's just overcast a lot of days, you're not going to be producing a whole lot of solar energy or if you live in an area where the electric bill just isn't that expensive in general, like say in most of Washington state where it's so much cheaper than here in California, it might not even be worth the hassle or make sense to even have solar energy. The third downside is there is a very long payback period. It can take several years, anywhere between six to 12 years or even beyond to recoup the initial investment through energy savings. Another downside is just the aesthetic concerns is that they're just kind of an eyesore, especially when they're on the roof of the house. They don't necessarily look that great and can be a detractor and maybe even a turnoff for some potential homebuyers, which is another situation we'll get into a little bit later on. And if you live in an HOA community, you might need to get approval from the HOA or even your local governments, or even if you don't live in an HOA, you have to get permits and permission to be able to install these, whether it's on your roof or in your yard or whatever. This is a big downside as well, is that if you sell your home, transferring a solar lease or a loan can complicate the sale process of the house. And in this market, it's already very difficult to sell a property now. And the last thing that any home seller needs is another obstacle to getting the house sold. And unfortunately, solar panels can be exactly that. And one of the main problems with solar panels is when people get them, they go into debt in order to get them. People finance solar panels that result in long-term loans that can really strain your budget. And in a lot of cases, they underperform, meaning that they're not getting as much of a benefit as they initially hoped for. And now they have this extra payment that they're stuck with on their home. Here's a house for sale that I just ran into that was last sold in 2006 for about $6.5 million. And then they actually listed it for sale back in 2021 and have been trying to sell this house ever since. They listed it for about $11.5 million back then, and have been steadily lowering the price throughout the years until fast forward to today, where the price of the home is $9.5 million. And it is still not sold. After $2 million price reduction and four years on the market, here is a house that is not selling. Looks a lot like Florida over here in parts of Northern California. And there's even a house for sale right across the street as well. Other problems with hitting the solar panels are things like a low return on investment. You know, the reduction in your electric bill just might not be enough to justify the cost of the system. And then you have a lot of unexpected costs that can come along with it. The panels often increase monthly expenses instead of reducing them due to the financing charges, or if there's any repairs that are not covered under a warranty, or if there's damage, something like that. And to make matters even worse, your homeowner's insurance could even drop you or significantly raise your premiums if you install these solar panels on the roof of your home. Something you really need to look into before doing that. Now let's talk about some of the problems that come up when you're trying to sell your house that has solar panels on it. You have second lien complications. You know, like I said earlier, the solar panels are usually financed and that lien is attached to the home and complicates the resale of the property. And unfortunately, a lot of buyers don't want to assume solar panel debt. So you as a seller might have to cough up the dough from the sale of the property and just pay off those solar panels before even selling the house. Kind of like a condo owner who owes a special assessment in order to satisfy the buyer. And another thing that's required a lot lately by insurance companies is getting a new roof on the house, especially in Florida, before you can get homeowner's insurance. And one thing that's happening is sometimes when you have these solar panels installed on the roof of the property, it can actually void the roof warranty, which further affects the resale value of the property. And if you have any problems with the roof afterwards, well guess who's going to be paying for that? Not the roofing company. Now let's talk about some of the installation and maintenance issues. You can face permit delays. You know, sometimes these installations take a year or more to be fully operational due to local regulations. You also are going to have roof damage if you install them on the roof. You can also face some unexpected expenses when your roof needs to be replaced. Because let's say your roof is 20 years old, you put solar panels on and now your roof needs to be replaced. Well, a lot of times you have to foot the bill for that. You have to foot the bill for not only the roofing, the new roof, but those panels must now be removed and reinstalled at your expense, the homeowner's expense. Check out the view from up here. I'm up here on Belvedere Island today and this is the view facing south towards Sausalito. About 68 degrees today and sunny. People ask why I come to California in the summertime. When was the last time we had a 68 and sunny degree day in Florida? Just think about that for a little bit. Probably January. Now here's a big problem when it comes to the installation of these solar panels is that a lot of these companies can be very fly by night and can go out of business or rebrand themselves, making it hard to enforce warranties down the road. I mean, if it goes out of business, you're pretty much screwed. And if they say, well, we were bought out by another company and we're not honoring those warranties, you're also screwed. What are you going to do? Sue? Real estate agents also typically advise against getting solar panels due to the deal complications that they induce and can also lead to lower appraisals in some cases. Because homes with solar loans often appraise lower than the loan balance, leaving sellers underwater. So say, for example, your house is worth $400,000 and you owe $300,000 on it. You have $100,000 in equity, but then you borrow $70,000 to put solar panels on. The value of your home just dropped $50,000 because the housing market's coming down. Well, now you're essentially underwater on that property, which is not a place you want to find yourself if you are selling your home. Another thing that a lot of people don't talk about is the fire hazard risk that solar panels can potentially present. Because poorly installed systems can pose fire risk, especially if there's any lithium batteries involved, which usually they are if you want to store some of that power that you're generating.