Dawna Davies and her assistant Jodi Blanchard did an exceptional job in helping us sell our home in San Luis Obispo. Dawna’s intelligence and knowledge of the business made the whole complex process easy for us to understand and navigate. What seemed like counter-intuitive advice at the start—that we should be extremely thorough in discovering any possible problems with the forty year old house and present them in advance—turned out to streamline the final transaction by building trust in potential buyers and removing the possibility of unpleasant surprises and uncertainty for us. Her contacts with a wide range of local business people who carried out many preparatory operations quickly and economically offered another unique benefit. Her tact and amiability made our numerous interactions pleasant rather than wary. And Jodi’s work in converting the box full of documents from our files into a coherent house-maintenance-history binder meticulous and creative. From start to finish our involvement with Davies Company was personally as well as financially rewarding.
- How is the contract secured? If a purchase with payments, is it reflected on your property tax bill? Or on the title to your property? Will your property lender allow for an additional lien on the property? If a lease, what is the series of payments and is it transferrable to a differnet property owner?
- Are the panels removable? Can I repair or change my roof after the installation, and can the panels be lifted and reinstalled? Can I take the panels with me to another property?
- What am I paying for? Confirm if you are getting paid to produce electricity or if you are paying for the use of the solar panels. These are very different programs.
- Is my property value higher with solar panels? What is the value of solar panels to a buyer of my property? This value will liekly be different if you have a lease or if you own the panels. Evaluate if you may get more income/rent as a landlord if you have solar panels on your property. If you can, this may impact proeprty value.
- Future costs for system buyout? If you sell your property, a buyer may request the panels be included and be purchased in escrow on their behalf. Before selling, antipcipate this cost and the impact to your proceeds from sale. Depending on the documents at he time of installation, the cost may be fixed/preset or could be based on an appraisal at time of property sale.