Updated August 4, 2026 · My Single Property Websites
Leases and PPAs are the most common cause of solar-related closing delays, because they surface late and involve a third party with its own timeline. Ask on day one. If the answer is a lease or PPA, request the contract and the transfer packet immediately.
Every solar system was sold on a projection. What matters is what it has actually produced. Ask for twelve months of monitoring data from the system's own portal and twelve months of utility bills, and put them side by side. That comparison shows real output, real consumption, and what the household is genuinely paying — and it quietly reveals shading, soiling, panel-level failures, or an inverter that has been offline for months.
What the utility pays for exported power drives the entire economic case, and those terms have been revised in many jurisdictions — generally toward lower compensation for newer customers. Two things to establish: what the current rate structure is for a new interconnection at that address, and whether the seller's existing, more favorable arrangement transfers with the home. Sometimes grandfathered terms follow the system; sometimes they follow the customer and end at closing. Ask the utility, not the seller.
Panels last decades; roofs do not. If the roof is fifteen years old and the array is three, someone will pay to remove and reinstall the panels when the roof is replaced — commonly a four-figure job on top of the roofing itself. Ask about the roof's age and whether the installer warrants the penetrations against leaks. Where the array is on a lease, check who is responsible for removal and reinstallation, because it is frequently the homeowner.
Owned systems can, and appraisers have a methodology for valuing them. Leased systems generally do not add appraised value — the panels are not yours — and the assumed payment counts against your debt-to-income ratio, which can reduce how much you qualify to borrow. This is the practical reason the ownership question comes first.
With an owned system you can have it removed, at your expense and with the roof repaired. With a lease or PPA, removal usually means buying out the contract, and buyout figures early in a term can be steep. Establish the number before you make an offer that depends on it.
Panels are typically warranted around 25 years with gradual output decline. Inverters are the shorter-lived component and are commonly replaced once during the system's life — string inverters sooner than microinverters. Ask what type is installed and when it was commissioned.
Same questions, same order: owned or financed, what the warranty covers, how old the equipment is, and what it has actually delivered. Geothermal adds one more — the condition and depth of the ground loop, which is expensive to diagnose after the fact.
"Solar owned outright, no lien, 2022 install, 11,400 kWh produced last year" removes the single largest source of hesitation about a solar home. "Solar!" creates it. Buyers and their agents now ask AI assistants whether a system is leased before they schedule a showing, and an unanswerable listing loses the appointment. A dedicated single-property website has room for the ownership status, the production numbers, and the warranty — and its AI assistant answers those questions from your listing's own facts rather than guessing.
Give it its own website with an AI sales agent answering buyers day and night.
Start free See live examples →Related: Buying new construction · Shops, outbuildings, and RV parking · What is a single property website? · All buyer guides