Selling House with Solar PV

Mcfi5dhc

Hello - I'm new to the House Buying/selling forum, but not new to MSE forums - I wondered if you knowledgeable people could help me please.

I have a bog standard 3 bedroomed semi, but 2 years ago I installed Solar PV on the roof (the kind that generates electricity, not hot water). It was installed by professionals, and I have all the certifications for it.

If the tories get in, in May/June, it will get a guaranteed tax-free income for the next 25 years of approx £600 pa, but this is inflation linked, so will rise every year slightly. If any other party gets in, I'll get less, £130 a year (inflation linked again). This is called Feed-In-Tariff (FIT)

We would like to put up our house for sale later this year, but when we had valuations last year, they were very very different from estate agent to estate agent (£80k lowest, £90ish in the middle, and £120k highest, only had 3 valuations).

How do I go about selling the house for the best possible price with the solar PV on it? It was never my intention to sell the house with the solar on it, I was going to take it from house to house as I moved - however the govt have changed all the rules, and basically it has to stay with the house. All the equipment is absolute top notch, no expense spared. It cost me £5500 after grants 2 years ago, and the panels have 23 years of warranty left on them (the remaining electrics run out of warranty in July 2010).

Basically the estate agents I spoke to didn't have a scooby about solar.

The average price of the last 6 homes to be sold in my street (which were all similar to mine) is £111,000 - which I would be happy with if I didn't have the solar, but have no idea how much to expect with it. I live 5 miles out of Chester, in Ch5

Thanks for your time gurus

poppysarah

What benefits does having solar have?

Mcfi5dhc

poppysarah wrote: »

What benefits does having solar have?

No electricity bills

Guaranteed income every year

Clean, green electricty

poppysarah

So you don't pay anything for electric?
That's a pretty big selling point ...

What price would you be happy selling for?
Find an ea that'll put it on that and prepare some blurb about your solar system for them to use.

goldengirl28

how much did it cost to put it in?

could you add it onto the valuations the EA has given you?

Mcfi5dhc

poppysarah wrote: »

So you don't pay anything for electric?
That's a pretty big selling point ...

What price would you be happy selling for?
Find an ea that'll put it on that and prepare some blurb about your solar system for them to use.

Yes, provided tories get in, no electric bills (to be honest, it would wipe out the gas as well even in a bitter winter like this one) - if tories don't get in, a completely different matter (so guess who I'm voting for!). Also, for obvious reasons, house not going up for sale til after the election.

Price - well I really don't know. It looks like I've done a good thing, and bought early - as long as I sell for more than £6,000 more than a non-soalr house in my street, I've made a profit. However, I don't want to sell myself short, and I don't want to rip buyers off (or sit on it for 2 or 3 years up for sale)

The estate agent is the big problem - as I said earlier, none of them have a clue about it - are there eco-EA's out there? Or, any decent guaranteed buy schemes?

poppysarah

Find a good local EA. Educate them by giving them the solar blurb you want in your details. Make a feature of it... Or ring the local paper and tell them you're selling your eco house and want to make an appeal for an eco-estate agent... see if you can get them to cover it in the paper and then you might not need an EA.

If you can show people they are not having to pay electric bills then that's a good selling point ...

Mcfi5dhc

goldengirl28 wrote: »

how much did it cost to put it in?

could you add it onto the valuations the EA has given you?

Hello - it was just short of £6,000

The problem I had was the valuations were so wild last year (which were all including the solar) I didn't know what to do.

Its a fine balance between getting whats fair for it (and I don't want to rip people off at all), and getting it sold relatively quickly

Mcfi5dhc

poppysarah wrote: »

Find a good local EA. Educate them by giving them the solar blurb you want in your details. Make a feature of it... Or ring the local paper and tell them you're selling your eco house and want to make an appeal for an eco-estate agent... see if you can get them to cover it in the paper and then you might not need an EA.

If you can show people they are not having to pay electric bills then that's a good selling point ...

I like the paper idea - might give that a bash

SolarFiona

This is exactly my problem too. As my solar pv was installed before 15th July 09 it is now worth far less in financial benefit than anyone who installs now. So my house would not be valued at the same rate as my pv will not pay at 41.3p pkwh only 9p pkwh. I too am voting for the conservatives.

PasturesNew

The problem with solar is that people don't really understand it. We want it, but don't understand it. As a buyer I'd want to know:
- what are the maintenance issues with it, does it need servicing, who can fix that stuff?

The income is of no interest to me at all as that's all pie in the sky and airy fairy stuff.

I'd be interested in generating my own electricity ... but at what cost/complexity over a normal house.

I'd probably not be expecting to pay more for such a house than it cost to put the stuff in.... else I'd buy next door and have it fitted myself, with a system of my own choosing.