Solar panels can be a great addition to your home. They can save you money on energy bills and earn you tax credits. However, they’re affixed to your roof and aren’t portable, meaning that they can’t come with you when you move away. Should you still install solar panels on your home if you’re planning to sell?
Homeowners can benefit from solar panels, even if you only have them for a short time before you sell your home.
Do Solar Panels Increase Your Home’s Value?
Even if you’re not going to be able to enjoy the benefits of the solar panels for very long before you move, installing them can still be a good investment. This is because solar panels add a lot of value to your home. You can sell your home for a higher price than you could without the solar panels installed, which would make up for the costs of having them installed in the first place and help you to afford installing solar panels on your new home.
How Much Do Solar Panels Increase a Home’s Value?
How much more value solar panels add to your home does depend on where you live. In New Jersey, for example, installing solar panels to your house could increase in value more than $32,000.
On average, solar panels add $20 to your home’s value per $1 saved on utilities. If your energy bill is reduced by $600 per month, for example, then your home would increase in value by $12,000. This means that how much value is added to your home depends on how much utilities cost in your area. If you live somewhere with high energy costs, then you’ll get more value out of the solar panels and the potential value added to your home is also greater.
Is It Difficult to Sell a Home with Solar Panels?
While solar panels are increasing in popularity, they’re not yet a standard feature of homes everywhere. Therefore, homeowners looking to sell may have concerns that a home with solar panels might be more difficult to sell, especially since the value of the home increases. However, having solar panels typically means that your home actually sells more quickly than it would without them.
How Much Easier Is It to Sell a Home With Solar Panels?
If you have solar panels on your home, it won’t just sell for more, it will also sell faster. According to a study done by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, homes with solar panels installed can sell for up to 17% more, up to 20% faster than homes without solar panels. This means that not only can you get more money for your house, but you also can worry less about whether or not it will sell.
Can Solar Panels Save Homeowners Money?
Even if you’re planning to sell your home, you can still save money with solar panels. You may not have them long enough for them to completely pay for themselves via energy savings alone, but between tax credits and rebates, increased selling value, and reduced or eliminated energy bills, homeowners can enjoy financial benefits from solar panels even for a short time.
What Credits Are Available for Homeowners?
If you purchase green energy technology like solar panels, there’s typically a rebate or tax credit that you qualify for. What’s available depends on where you live and when you apply, so you’ll need to research at that time for your area.
Are the Solar Energy Savings Worth the Cost of the Solar Panels?
Many homeowners may wonder if solar panels are worth the cost if they can only save on energy costs for a short period of time. It can take years for the solar panels to pay for themselves. In cases where the intention is to sell soon, the major financial benefits come in the form of added value to the home. However, you can still save money on energy bills during the time in between the installation of the solar panels and selling of the house.
Homeowners can benefit even more if they install enough solar panels to produce excess electricity that they can sell back to the grid via net metering.