Solar Panels

[Dscan]

Have a property to appraise with solar panels. Cannot find any sales to arrive at a contributory value in Schuylkill County. Wondering how others have handled this.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

carefully

 

[Tim The Enchanter]

Creative angles for photo taking? Photoshop?

J/K. Surprisingly the only ones I've seen on a subject were for a pool heater. No real extra value there. I've seen K&B has some new homes with solar power for the house as a standard feature. Haven't appraised one though. Sorry, not much help.

 

[Meandering]

There were some in Carbon County a year or two ago. If you have access to the MLS conglomeration, Use the CC MLS option and search for solar under details.

You probably won't get a comp for Schuylkill, because I'm thinking they were more in the eastern portion of Carbon. But you can use them to extract an adjustment.

.

 

[Meandering]

There was a recent bunch down Lancaster way if you get into the Keystone MLS

 

[Bill Streep]

Here's how I've done it. It takes some work:

Use an income approach to value it. You need to find out how much they will save (there are calculators that will tell you this), and amortize it over the life of the panels. They have an "expected life" of 20 years, but I use less - history has shown this - usually 15 years.

You can also use a contributory value via a depreciated cost. Remember that generally, over 50% of the cost of these units is rebated through various channels.

We have a home builder that includes them as a standard feature. As well, our local utility pays for excess electricity - at a pretty good rate.

 

[ARRE]

I have done these in the past with an income approach method. First, you have to get historical buyback rates from your utility provider. Then, you must figure the life expectancy of each of the units...I have found the above post is correct for the panels at 15 years, but the transformer to convert the DC power to feed back into the grid had only a 5-7 year life, and the reserve for replacement of this item was very high and took a bunch of the potential return to the owner away. Once I figured the potential back to the owner, just use a GRM for the property type to come back to an adjustment. You can also do a depreciation cost method, however, I think the income method would be better support as you are talking about a reduction (or elimination) of a monthly bill for typical SFR users...that is what is motivating them.

Also, dont forget about maintenance of the panels, as we get snow, and maybe (if it is in an agricultural area) the owner would have to get up to clean off the panels, so that must be accounted for as well...

Good luck, the process and verification took me an extra day alone...I hope you are being paid by the hour, or else you probably will lose $$ on this one...