Tag Archives: green real estate appraisal

Assessing Whether Solar Panels Make Sense for You

Posted on June 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

As reported in The Times, legions of companies will offer to install a system at no upfront cost and promise customers cheaper, cleaner electricity over the course of 20 years. Some are small and local, while others, including SolarCity, Sunrun, Sungevity and SunEdison, are larger, with national or even international reach. Some large manufacturers, like SolarWorld, even offer financing plans for home installations.

Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your solar value questions.

For residential customers, the deals can seem attractive. The company arranging the financing for the system usually owns and operates it, selling the electricity back at a rate generally lower than what the utility would charge. Depending on the company and the state, the details vary. In some cases a customer pays a preset rate for the electricity used, known as a power purchase agreement. In others, the customer leases a system, paying a set monthly charge for a guaranteed amount of power.

Part of the appeal here is that customers can not only reduce their energy costs but fix them for a long period of time, avoiding the unwelcome surprise of a suddenly high bill because, say, natural gas prices have shot up again. Customers also avoid having to figure out how to claim the various incentives and benefits for which they qualify as a renewable energy producer.

But there are some things to look out for. Going solar does not mean going off the grid. A typical roof array will not handle all of a home’s electricity needs since it produces power intermittently. So customers will still get a bill from the utility, though probably a much smaller one. Many contracts also have escalator clauses, with the payments increasing over time, so it is important to determine if your energy costs are likely to go up or down if you were to stick solely with the utility.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

Should You Get A Professional Appraisal Before Putting Your Home on the Market?

Posted on June 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

Pricing a listing is one of the hardest— and perhaps most important — tasks in residential real estate.

Sellers can get it wrong in either direction: If the asking price is too low, the sellers might end up leaving money on the table; if it’s too high, they won’t tap into the right target group, will lose a lot of time and may then end up selling for even less.

Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your listing price questions.

Sometimes, the seller and the agent might not agree on a price. And even if they do, the sellers might look for some “objective” method to corroborate their number. That’s why our listing clients frequently ask us if it’s a good idea to get an appraisal before they put the house on the market. But should you?

Well, it depends on your reasons.

Chris Connors is a Bethesda-based independent appraiser whom I met years ago when he was working with a large credit union, and he often gets hired by potential sellers. Usually, the owners come to him because they have talked to several different agents and got very different suggestions for a price from them, he said.

Just a couple of days ago, Connors said he finished an appraisal on a house where the seller had previously interviewed two realty agents. The first one suggested an asking price around $800,000, the second one was closer to $1.1 million.

“The seller was quite angry with me,” Connors said, “when my report supported the first estimate, and I told him the other guy just wanted to get the listing.”

In cases like that, just like in limited-service or for-sale-by-owner situations, a full professional appraisal might be an important reality check. The same might be true for buyers who are not represented by an agent and need to make sure they won’t overpay.

For information and entertainment purposes only

Solar Installers Offer Deals, Gaining Converts

Posted on June 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

HOLMDEL, N.J. — Jay Nuzzi, a New Jersey state trooper, had put off installing solar panels on his home here for years, deterred by the $70,000 it could cost. Then on a trip to Home Depot, he stumbled across a booth for Roof Diagnostics, which offered him a solar system at a price he couldn’t refuse: free.

Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for you value questions regarding solar.

California: CA homeowners are increasingly choosing to avoid the upfront costs. In California, the country’s largest market, more than 70 percent of residential customers putting in solar this year have opted to sign a lease or power purchase agreement with someone else owning the systems, according to PV Solar Report.

The structure of the deals varies by company and state, but the overall approach is generally the same: Customers agree to pay a fixed monthly charge or rate for all the solar power produced, and the companies that finance the systems pay for the installation and take the value of any tax breaks or renewable energy credits for which the customer would ordinarily be eligible. Some companies concentrate on financing and use local contractors for sales and installation, while others do everything themselves.

Story continued: Mr. Nuzzi had to sign a 20-year contract to buy electricity generated by the roof panels, which he would not own. But the rates were well below what he was paying to the local utility. “It’s no cost to the homeowner — how do you turn it down?” Mr. Nuzzi said on a recent overcast morning as a crew attached 41 shiny black modules to his roof. “It was a no-brainer.”

Similar deals are being struck with tens of thousands of homeowners and businesses across the country. Installers, often working through big-box chains like Home Depot or Lowe’s, are taking advantage of hefty tax breaks, creative financing techniques and a glut of cheap, Chinese-made panels to make solar power accessible to the mass market for the first time. The number of residential and commercial installations more than doubled over the last two years to 213,957, according to Greentech Media, a research firm.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/business/energy-environment/solar-installers-offer-homeowners-deals-gaining-converts.html?_r=1&ref=realestate