Hello everyone and welcome to another

episode of Selling Greenville your

favorite real estate podcast here in

Greenville, South Carolina, I'm your host

as always Stan McCune realtor right here in

the Greenville area, you can find all of

my contact information in the show notes

if you need to reach out to me for any

of your real estate needs here in the

Greenville area of South Carolina, I can

also refer you to agents outside of

the Greenville area all over the

country and even outside the country as

well so please let me know if you have

any real estate needs, and just a

reminder, as always please support the

show Even if you never use me as your

realtor if you're listening to this, I

would greatly appreciate if you can

subscribe to the show, hit the like

button download episodes leave a

rating leave a review, all of those good

things that is a great way to

support this show even if you don't

ever utilize me as your realtor so I

would appreciate that if you guys could

do
that today we're going to be talking

about solar now I've talked about solar

a few times on here before but this time

I actually personally have had

an experience with solar because I

purchased a house that I ultimately

flipped that had solar panels on it

and honestly I'm sure I know that there

has to be a few but I don't know of any

agents in Greenville that have ever

owned a home with solar on it now

like I said there's like 4,000 agents in

Greenville surely some of them have

at some point owned a homeless solar

but I'm just saying that I don't

personally know of any I think it's a

pretty small pool and so I feel like

I'm in a unique position here but we've

talked about solar a few times on here

and if you don't remember those

episodes or maybe you didn't listen or

watch those episodes, I'm just going to

summarize real quick, kind of big picture

thoughts on solar that we've talked

about before for starters solar is not

particularly popular in Greenville for

Residential Properties and a lot of

that is just because people aren't using

to seeing it they think it looks ugly

and there's just a lot of confusion

about how it works there's confusion

about how homeowners insurance

companies handle solar and I've even

learned that different insurance

carriers handle solar differently

that's my phone starts to go off here

different insurance carriers handle

hand handle solar differently and

there's confusion on that I've heard

that some require you to you know if you

have a roof claim you've got to to

remove the solar panels yourself all

sorts of different things like that

and those are the sorts of things

that you've got to work through if

you're buying a home with solar panels

on them or if you're planning to install

them yourself now this is a great segue

right here into in into something

with regard to insurance companies

specifically that Selling Greenville now

has a sponsor our second week of being

sponsored by Piper Insurance Group a

great insurance company that I've used

for multiple homes in the past and

auto they handle Home Auto and Umbrella

insurance policies they can help you

listen Steven Piper great guy with

with Piper Insurance Group he can

explain all the ins and outs of solar if

you have specific questions for that and

he can quote it with different carriers

right because Piper Insurance Group is

an independent insurance agency they can

quote from multiple different carriers

and find the best one for you and the

one that's the most solar friendly of

the group they can help with

investment properties as well so if you

got flips rentals ground up new

construction residential commercial

they can assist you with all of that and

they can assist you in South Carolina

North Carolina and Georgia I like I

said I would not have this company on

the show if I didn't recommend them

myself I have used Piper Insurance Group

and a lot of my clients have over the

years great company highly recommend

them so please look in the show notes to

get their contact information as well I

will be including them in the show notes

from here on as well and please reach

out to them give them some business all

right only my second week announcing a

sponsor but I'd say that was pretty

smooth right it just segwayed right into

the homeowners insurance the way they

handle solar and just straight into

Piper Insurance Group so I hope you guys

appreciate that and by the way I will

also be announcing a winner of an Amazon

gift card for those who attended my

open house that I had this past week

that was a little incentive that I

did just to just to have some fun

so stay tuned in the middle of

this episode I will be announcing the

winner for that as well that won't take

too long all

right back to solar so there's another

thing that we have discussed in the past

when I have discussed solar on the show

that is a a major major major part of

the solar discussion and that is the

price of solar solar panels are very

very expensive prohibitively expensive

in a lot of people's opinions right now

usually tens of thousands of dollars

depending on how many panels you get and

and all of that and most people don't

have the sort of money it takes in order

to just buy them outright and so they

end up having to purchase these panels

with a loan in order to be

able to afford them and the result

is you're paying this loan for who knows

how long I think in some cases they

make them like 30-year loans which is

crazy and so unless you stay in the

house for a really long period of time

it takes a while before you start to see

an actual return on your investment for

the solar panels right you won't see

yourself save money until you've

saved enough money to offset the costs

of the panels and of course that takes

less time if you pay it upfront versus

having to get a loan with high interest

and all of that I've heard some

people say probably the shortest I've

ever heard is is people say that it took

them about seven or eight years to to

break even on their solar panels I've

I've I've heard people say 20 years or

or longer again it depends on if you've

got a loan what your loan terms are and

all of that but a lot of people won't

stay in their home for seven years

and very few people will stay in their

home for 20 years or more and so for

just a lot of people it's not practical

oftentimes to to purchase solar

panels right unless you are very very

confident this is your forever home work

isn't going to take you elsewhere

children you know lifestyle is not going

to take you elsewhere that's that's

the point at which it can make sense to

purchase solar panels but I recently

purchased a home to flip I already

mentioned that already had solar right

and so I didn't have to install it I

wasn't taking on the loan and and all of

that it already had the solar already on

there and I've helped obviously

clients purchase homes with solar before

but this was my first personal

experience with it and I was a little

bit nervous right because I've seen so

many instances where solar hurt the

value of a home and you know I was

buying this home to flip and one thing

when you flip homes if you're a

house flipper, you're listening to this

you know this to be true you want to

eliminate all potential things that

could discourage a potential buyer so

you know in the ideal world you just

want a home that that is just clean that

doesn't have solar panels and pools and

and you know knob and tube electrical

you know like weird anomalies like that

you want to try to avoid those things if

at all possible and of course in this

case I didn't have that choice I either

wanted to get the home I my choices were

to either pass on the home or to get it

with solar panels and I felt like it

was worth the risk I wasn't as concerned

as I have been in some instances because

a they did have a loan on the solar

panels but that loan was going to be

paid off at closing and this is one of

the
things excuse me this is one of the

things that could be a major issue with

solar panels in general is that when

people take on these loans and then they

need to move sometimes they don't have

the money to pay the solar loans off at

closing because they don't have enough

equity in their home and so they're

hoping that the new owner is willing to

take on the loan for the solar assuming

that it's even transferable to begin

with but because solar isn't that

popular in Greenville right now a lot of

people aren't willing to pay extra for

solar panels right so they expect those

panels be paid off at closing and so the

seller needs to have enough equity in

their home to be able to afford that

and the solar companies usually end up

putting a lean on the house for the

loan that they have it's called a a UCC

filing we'll we'll discuss that here a

little bit later and so if the the

lean and the loan is not paid off at

closing you have that lean that is

essentially a title defect on the

property which is not good obviously

and again

that's not something people want they

don't want to lean on on a property that

they're buying they want it to have a

clean title no no leans outside of leans

that they are opening as a result of of

their own loans so having that solar

loan paid off at closing was obviously

very important to me and

additionally the other thing that you

hear people complain about most

frequently with solar I've already

alluded to this but it's how ugly they

are right they they don't look great

people are used to seeing a nice clean

roof line they don't want to see those

solar panels just sitting there and in

this case in with regard to this

house it was less of a concern because

the solar panels were on the back slope

of the roof and so unless you were in

the backyard you didn't even see the

panels and it's honestly really

hilarious how funny people are about

how little they care about how the back

of their house looks right all they care

about is how that how the front looks to

their neighbors I even one time

saw a property that had been resided but

only had been resided in the front and

the the siding in the back of the house

was awful it was a this awful

deteriorating wood siding and they had

done vinyl just on the front to to look

good to their neighbors and whatnot

so anyway all that I'm saying is the I

was less concerned about the complaint

about or the potential complaint about

the solar panels being ugly because they

were only going to be visible from the

backyard so I purchased the home again

the panels were paid off and all of that

when I purchased it but now I have to

have the the service for the panels

transferred into my

name and I don't know why but the panels

for some reason had been had been

disconnected by the previous owner so

they weren't even taking advantage of

the panels but but I wanted to try

them out otherwise how would I be able

to give you guys this fantastically

engaging content right I had to have

this experience if for no other

reason than to have more content to

give to you guys so I got a bunch of

info on the panels I took a gazillion

pictures of whatever the boxes that

connects to the panels I don't even know

the proper terminology and then I

called Duke Energy the electricity

provider and spoke to their Renewables

department now Duke Energy is not the

most well-run utility provider and I was

honestly dreading this call but I was

pleasantly surprised that the Renewables

Department had a a very helpful person

that was able to kind of guide me

through what I need to do she sent me an

email with specifics on what I need to

fill out to turn the solar on and my

name and all of that now when I first

got the paperwork it was admittedly a

bit confusing there's a lot of

specifics on you know what type of solar

panels I had and I don't know there's

just a lot of questions I was just like

wow I really don't know the answer to

this and I had to attempt the

paperwork a few different times before

getting it right but in the end I

actually realized that because Duke had

already had these solar panels in

their system, they actually knew exactly

what I needed to do it's kind of silly

that I even had to fill out the

paperwork, I get it, I understand you know

that they're already Duke Energy is

already very busy and so they don't

want to you know fill out the paperwork

for people on their behalf they want

you to fill it out to take the burden

off of them but I was able to get the

information I need in order to help me

fill out that paperwork just by calling

back the Renewables Department asking a

few questions they had every answer that

I needed right there on file so filled

that out signed the paperwork send it in

and then within not very much time

I got those solar panels turned on

it's very easy I didn't have to be there

I didn't have to be at the house I

didn't have to do anything special they

told me to make sure they were connected

I didn't even know if they were

connected or not so I just assumed that

they were and they were and and

all of this was able be done remotely I

didn't you know I could have done it all

from being completely out of town if I

wanted to so I was pleasantly surprised

by all of

that okay now we're about to I'm I'm

going to get into more D I've got a lot

more to say about the story but before

we get into that we are going to

announce a winner for a $50 Amazon gift

card these are people who came to my

open house over the weekend that I

had at a listing at 318 East Blue Ridge

Drive in Cherrydale very unique property

it's a standalone two-bedroom one bath

house with a full accessory dwelling

unit in the back that has a heated and

cooled apartment on the base level and

then upstairs has a has storage space

that could in theory be finished and

anyway great house check it out 318 East

Blue Ridge had a great open house

had had several people that attended a

lot of interest and and

we had some people that I told would be

entered into drawing and that would need

to listen to this episode to see who won

so if you're watching on YouTube I'm

actually going to spin a wheel with some

names and we're going to see who

actually won this $50 Amazon gift

card the winner

is Joel Mangin

Joel Mangin has won the

$50 Amazon gift card Joel if

you're listing the rules of the game are

that you need to text me from the phone

number that you had put on my signup

sheet all right thank you guys for

enjoying that Joel text me that you know

that you won and and then I'll send

you that that $50 gift card all right

back to

solar the big question in my mind was

you know after having gone through the

whole process right I you know I I

closed on this house the solar was paid

off at closing I now have gone

through the process of getting it

transferred into my name now the

question is of course what will be the

monthly savings you know like what kind

of impact can I actually expect from

these solar panels and this is a pretty

big house 2500 square ft very tall

ceilings the AC is running on

electricity and again this was there

there was plenty of hot days in fact

when I first bought the house at one

point there was something that I was

having an issue with that ended up just

being that my thermostat it the house

had two thermostats and the thermostat

was just set upstairs incorrectly it

didn't match downstairs but there was

at one point where the AC wasn't on

because the upstairs thermostat was set

to off and the house was hot so it

wasn't just you know we weren't in a

situation whereas you know the time of

year were not a whole lot of electricity

being used this was a time of year when

a lot of electricity was being used and

I own rental properties and I flip

houses I've got my own house and based

on what other homes that I own

were paying for electricity I would

have expected my bill for this specific

house to be you know kind of in the low

to mid 100s per month most likely just

based on based on usage what it cost to

cool it all that kind of stuff what did

my bills end up being $43 $37 $25 $33

and
$25 those were my five bills were all

$43 or less and three of them were

$33 or less now that to me is pretty

incredible right I was actually

paying more for my water bill than for

my energy bill even though I was using

almost no water right this was a a flip

house you don't use a whole lot of water

in a flip house but I was paying more

money for my water bill than my

electricity so it seems to me that the

cost savings was actually really

substantial at I would say at least $100

per month if not maybe 125 or more

per month like to be to have a 2500t

house with a

$25 Energy bill like that's no joke

and that wasn't my first bill that was

like right in the middle of it all so

that was that was pretty impressive

the solar panels definitely had a big

big impact I didn't have any issues with

insurance or anything like that

although granted I didn't have to make a

make a claim at all but there were no

problems in terms of getting insurance

on the property or anything of that

nature and I should mention as well that

I had to decide when pricing the home

right after I'd done the whole flip now

I have to decide and and I obviously

before I did the flip I was trying to

figure out how I was going to price the

home right that's not something that you

wait until the end to decide you have to

figure that out on the front end when

you're flipping a house and so I I

was trying to figure out how do these

solar panels impact the price I've

already said that they they can impact

the value negatively right if people

think they're ugly and they don't want

to deal with them they can really be

a problem and I've I've seen situations

where home sell for way less than what

they would have sold for had they not

had solar so I had to think about that

is there a possibility that these panels

could decrease the value of the house

and or on the flip side might they

actually increase the value of the house

in one way or another well I decided

that based on the fact that they were

not in you know that the loan on them

was paid off there's no loan on these

panels and they weren't in an ugly

prominent location on the house I

concluded that I didn't think that they

were going to decrease the value but

I didn't really think they were going to

increase the value of the house either

again this isn't California in

California would have been a would have

had an impact I think a positive impact

probably in some other states as well

but in South Carolina there's just not

enough people looking for solar panels

for it to be a boon on your property

value right it's got to be someone

looking for solar panels very small

portion of the market probably less than

5% of the market

and then they also have to be looking

in that specific neighborhood for that

specific type of home it's just hard to

find that buyer so what I ended up doing

is I ended up pricing the home as if it

didn't have solar right because if you

were looking at the home from almost

every angle you wouldn't see it it's

kind of an out of sight out of mind

thing and so my assumption was

basically it wouldn't be a big selling

point but it also wouldn't be a big

distraction and I ended up being

right when people were looking at the

house nobody left feedback that they

wanted solar so I didn't have anyone

that was like you know we were really

looking at this house specifically

because it has solar but the house

itself didn't work for us I didn't get

any of that on the flip side nobody

complained about the look of the solar

panels as they frequently do again

because it wasn't in the front of the

house it didn't affect the the homes

curb appeal now I did have someone an

agent that came through that left

feedback that said that their client

didn't want to mess with solar and

didn't want the house because of that

in in other words they they just they

didn't know what you know exactly what

owning a house with solar entailed and

it was just enough of an uncertainty for

them they just didn't want to mess with

it I think had they really loved the

house they would have made it work right

I just think this is a situation where

they probably didn't love the house and

the solar was just one of those things

that was just like yeah I'm definitely

not going to consider it because I I

don't I already don't love the house but

the solar is just kind of like yeah

I don't need one more thing to think

about so I don't think the solar was

exactly what scared off those people

it was just a factor but generally

speaking it was not a factor for most

people and in the end it didn't take

long at all for me to get this home

under contract granted it was a great

neighborhood not an old home it was

this was and the flip we did was

great it so everything in this house

was was really pristine it showed

really well

and and so yeah it we had got a buyer

that wasn't specifically looking for

solar but also wasn't turned off by the

panels they liked everything else about

the house and so having the solar was I

think just kind of a okay you know

whatever not a big deal one way or the

other and so that was great got

the home under contract had to

provide some information on solar to the

agent the buyer's agent but

otherwise it went pretty smoothly until

really right at the very end so right

at the the very end I get an email from

the closing attorney that Sunrun the

company the Solar Company that you

know was I guess the one that originally

provided the loan on the solar panels

they had put a lean on the house as i'

had already said but they hadn't

released their UCC filing that stands

for Uniform Commercial Code if you

really want to get in the weeds there

but long story short basically to the

buyer's attorney there was still the

possibility of a lean being on home

because they didn't have this UCC filing

released yet by Sunrun now when I had

purchased the home part of the deal for

me to get the home at the price that

I was purchasing it at you know a price

that allowed me to have some margin to

flip it was that I had to use these

sellers closing attorney so I wasn't

using you know when I purchased it

usually the buyer determines a closing

attorney in South Carolina in this case

I was not able to do that because part

of the condition of me getting the home

for the price I got it at was using the

sour closing attorney no big deal it

was a well-known closing attorney but

obviously when they issued the title

insurance to me and you know

stating that it was a clear title

they did that despite me not having that

UCC filing released yet and there

wasn't anything inherently wrong with

that not particularly uncommon but

then when the new buyer's attorney

requested it months later it was clear

that the attorney who was involved when

I purchased the home had not closed the

loop with Sunrun that was a little bit

annoying to me right it was like I

understood that they they didn't have

everything in place necessarily when I

purchased the home because the the

process with Sunrun is they needed to

see you know they need to actually

receive their payment which was

something that was done at closing in

order for them to to release the lean

but then the fact the closing attorney

didn't file up at some point for several

months in order to get that completed

that was a little bit annoying and that

caused a little bit of Sweat Right

right at the end of the transaction

because we were starting to get close to

the closing date and it wasn't clear to

me if we would actually get this UCC

released in time and I had never

dealt with Sunrun but I had owned

this house now for several months and so

it was kind of like well if it hasn't

been taken care of yet then are we going

to really pull this together in the last

few days of the transaction well

thankfully the answer was yes the

previous closing attorney realized the

urgency of the situation I communicated

the urgency of the situation and

they can you know a closing attorney can

can kind of get in trouble in situations

like this because I could make a title

insurance claim against them and that

would be something that then they would

have to deal with with the title company

that issued or the title insurance

company that issued the policy that

would come back on the closing attorney

and and kind of be a a black spot on

their Title Insurance record and

title insurance companies closing

attorneys in South Carolina they do not

want that now I never threatened that

or anything but for sure that was a

backpocket option if this never got

resolved thank we I've never had to do

that before I don't even know you know

what all is involved with that but

this is why the closing attorneys do

have a little bit of skin in the game to

ensure that these things get taken care

of
thankfully long story short though it

all got resolved I was able to sell it

it ended up not being a problem just

causing a a a little bit of extra sweat

a little bit of extra work at the end so

in the end it all worked out and and I

learned a lot so to summarize few

bullet points here setting up service

with solar is a little bit intimidating

I'll be honest but it's a lot easier

than you might think it was a lot easier

than I thought it was just the paperwork

the power company in the area you

know in this case Duke Energy they were

able to they they already had info on it

because these were not new solar panels

these were older solar panels that they

had already had past history with and

so they were able to help me with that

additionally big takeaway that I've

already mentioned but to summarize

people perceive solar panels and the way

they look much differently if they're on

the back of the house versus the front I

think this is really really important I

know that you know if you're installing

solar you don't necessarily have in a

lot of instances a choice of where to

install them because it's all about

where the sun is is getting the most

exposure to the roof but if you can

if you have the choice of front or back

back 100% of the time put them on the

back if that's an option obviously

you know we talked about these loans are

are a problem and you know even

paying them off and offering a

home that has solar panels free and

clear and that aren't in a a

prominent location you know they're

tucked away we can safely conclude

because again I had this happen that

people still avoid a house with solar

just because they don't understand it

and they're again there just aren't

enough people specifically looking for

solar in the upstate currently to

make it to where that's a selling point

and something that increases the

value another Point here again just in

review you get a home paid off with

solar panels with panels that are paid

off a clear title and everything there

may still be a lean or UCC filing that

needs to be removed post closing that

would require followup that was probably

my biggest takeaway was that in

hindsight I just thought that that

Sunrun thing was going to be taken care

of I needed to go back to my closing

attorney and and close the loop with

them to you know to let them know hey

I'm flipping this house I need this to

be taken care of

ASAP and lastly again I had no idea

what to expect but there are real cost

savings with solar now was did the

previous owner ever see cost savings I

don't think so I mean they weren't even

using the solar panels they had them

completely shut off but for me and

for the new owner if they opt to

transfer service into their name not

having had to pay for the solar panels

right just getting them essentially for

free so they were subsidized by the

previous owner now it's just pocketing

the savings and we're talking about

potentially I mean based on what I

experienced over $11,000 per year of

savings that's a sizable amount of

savings right now again if you paid

$25,000 for your solar panels and you're

only saving $1,000 a year it's going to

take you 25 years to recoup your

money but again in this case

that's the previous owner that's a

mistake that the previous owner made

they probably never broke even on that

purchase and that's why you've got to be

careful when you're looking at solar

so there you have it, my definitive

experience on

solar, I hope that that was helpful for

you guys to clarify some of the

ins and outs of actually owning solar

and if you want to discuss that more if

you have any further questions I'm happy

to answer those my contact information

is in the show notes Piper Insurance

Group is also in the show notes if

you need to reach out to them for any of

your homeowners' Auto Umbrella

insurance needs, please like rate review

subscribe all those good things to the

show and we will talk again next time