November 11, 2024 • 46 mins
Ever wondered how solar panels can impact your real estate transactions? Join us as we uncover the intersection of real estate and solar power with our insightful guest, Michael Wiley. He's not just a seasoned real estate expert but also a former solar salesperson, bringing a unique blend of knowledge to the table. Michael shares the nuances and complexities of navigating homes equipped with solar systems. Learn about the crucial role solar energy plays in the buying and selling process. Gain a deeper understanding of the financial landscape of solar systems in real estate deals. urging listeners to work with knowledgeable agents who can effectively communicate the benefits, inspect the systems, and manage existing agreements. This enlightening conversation promises to equip you with the expertise needed when navigating solar energy's evolving landscape in real estate.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to another edition of the Harmon Solar
Podcast.
I'm Ralph Romano, vp of Salesand Marketing at Harmon Solar,
alongside my partner BenWohlschlager.
He's well you kind of know himas Mr Everything.
I've kind of reduced him toproject manager on our screen
because he's not really doingeverything anymore.
He's kind of pulled back alittle bit, so he's taken the
title away from him.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Mr Somethings, mr Somethings.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, and today a little bit, so he's taking the
title away from him, mrsomethings.
Mr mr somethings, yeah, andtoday we're gonna talk with a
real estate expert.
Yep, we've never done thisbefore best time to learn now
just do it.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
We've wanted to do it , we've talked about it, yeah,
so because we have buying a homewith solar or selling a home
with solar.
It's very important to knowwhat's going on, and we got a
guy we always have a guy.
We both know this.
You don't have your shirt on,though.
I mean you're, I got a guyshirt oh yeah, is my no hair.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
No, no, you gotta wear you.
I got a shirt on, you're good.
Scared me a second there.
I was like, okay, I can forget,today is black shirt thursday.
So our guest today is michaelwiley of uh homesmart realty and
the michael wiley team, and Ithink you're based out of
Goodyear right.
Yes, sir, right.
So you're all over the internet.
People see you, I see you doingyour stuff all the time.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Oh yeah, we do a lot of marketing, a lot of social
media stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I know you're involved with some different
schools and some differentthings.
I've seen you doing that.
So Michael's an expert.
An expert.
He's been in the industry forhow many years?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I've been in the industry 17 years real estate
and, as you know, I also soldsolar, so I have a perspective
on both sides.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
So that's what makes him unique and why we brought
him into this, because he cangive us the reality of what's
really going on on the realestate side of all this?
Yeah, because I know a lot ofreal estate agents.
They don't know a whole lotabout solar, so why not have a
guy that knows solar and knowsreal estate right for our
podcast?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
probably the biggest negative of bringing michael on
is he's a bills fan yeah, butyou know that's a different
podcast.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
We've learned to deal with that.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I mean it's okay, they lost four in a row, so
that's what it is hey, I was ata lot of those games those
playoff games that was tough andyou're still alive and he
decided to move to arizona toget as far away from as possible
so tell us about so you work atHomeSmart, tell us about your
role there, your team, what doyou, you know, just kind of give
us an idea, give us a littlefeel for Michael Wiley.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Yeah.
So just going back, I was ateacher for a long time high
school teacher coach and I gotinto real estate, which it was a
great transition.
So basically I'm a team leader,I run my own team.
Been there, my own team, beenthere 18 years, all going on 18
years and um, seeing thedifferent markets.
(02:49):
I came into the market whenthere was a the largest crash in
real estate history.
the economy went and you stuckaround yeah, and I remember when
I was coming in I was like,what are you doing, getting into
real estate?
And I was like, well, if nobodywants to come in, now's the
time to do it yeah, right.
And then you know, as I wentthrough real estate and started
to grow, my team and my business, solar came around.
So, um, I I got into solar andgreat story about that how I ran
(03:13):
, how I got connected with youguys.
Um, so a good friend of mine,um, somebody door knocked on his
house from solar city, right,and he was listening what he had
to say, and so he said you needto talk to my buddy, my buddy's
in real estate.
So I'm always I'm followingenergy right, cause it affects
real estate.
So I connected with this guy,met with him at the time he was
(03:34):
a manager for solar city, he wasrunning a sales team and so I
joined on board with solar cityat that time and they had great
training.
Like, just talking about offsetthe slope of the roof, you had
to draw your own systems.
Like there was so much thatwent into solar at that time
that I didn't understand, but Ihad to learn it and their
(03:55):
training was really good.
So I went out and did that.
And then as I got to see andnothing against solar city, but
as I got to see kind of what wasout there, and I got to see
what was out there through realestate.
So as I was selling and buyinghomes, I was seeing different
solar products right and therewas one product that kept coming
up and it was Harman and youguys were so much lower than the
(04:19):
rest At that time.
It was fixed rate leases, whichI totally believed in and, um,
you guys were putting.
I remember seeing one of thefirst deals.
It was like eight and a halfcents a kilowatt, fixed for 20
years, and I said, wow, that'sincredible Like.
So I ended up reaching out toyou guys and then learn more
about your business and I'm bigon because my reputation and my
(04:43):
name is everything in realestate and I would never put
anything on anybody's roof thatyou wouldn't call me to sell
your home Right, because I makea lot more money in real estate
than I did selling solar.
But I saw a benefit there and Iwanted to get the word out to
my clients, which I did.
I put solar on a lot ofpeople's houses back then and
then everything changed in 2017.
(05:03):
But you guys always did a greatjob, from your process to the
install and you know, clientsalways felt good about it and
there were never any issues.
And there were a lot of issueswith other solar companies, so
that was really important to meto put my name behind something.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Plus, you had great pricing right, yeah, to give
perspective, when he says thatfixed leasing at eight and a
half cents that's like getting agas card that's guaranteed at,
let's say, $0.99 a gallon forthe next 20 years Right, that's
kind of the territory that wouldbe in.
That's just crazy.
Right, it's crazy.
And that's kind of like what Ihave in my house.
I have an $0.08 leaseguaranteed for 20 years.
I mean it.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
APS for 99 cents a gallon For 20 years.
For 20 years.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
And I use the analogy when I would sit down with my
clients.
I would say guys, okay, here'swhat this is.
This is a fixed rate mortgageat 2.5%, 3%, or do you want a
variable rate mortgage with APSat 5%?
Right?
And when I explained it to themthat way, they were like oh
yeah, that makes sense.
And so it was yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Never that way they were like oh yeah, that makes
sense, and so it was yeah, let'sdo it.
Yeah, Never thought of it thatway.
That's actually pretty smart,would you like?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
to sell solar again.
So real estate's interestingfor us in solar because there's
a lot of real estate agents thatdon't have a clue about solar.
They just don't Right.
I mean, I'm I'm sure you've runinto that in your in your
business, where you know peoplethat just know nothing about it.
I don't know how your team isif they're educated on it, but
there's a lot of real estateagents that just don't know.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, that's the problem in the industry, I feel
like agents don't.
There's kind of a negativeconnotation, which I hate that,
because then it kind of givessolar a bad vibe, and I love
solar, you know.
I think there's a lot ofbenefits to solar and I think
it's just a matter of agentsbeing educated on solar.
That's probably the biggestproblem.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, and I would say , when they're not educated
which a lot of them are not, Iwould say a high percentage,
it's instantly solar is lookedat as a negative, no matter what
.
Yeah, we'll talk about the factthat some solar is a negative.
Sure, there's no doubt.
We talk about that all the time, even just without.
We'll be transparent with you.
Yeah, yeah, so you know how weare guys.
Yeah, we're going to tell you,but there are situations and
we'll get into that that Mike'swritten into where it's very
(07:09):
negative, but there aresituations where it's very
positive.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, and we get customers that call into us that
you know they'll say, hey, I'mgoing to be selling my house,
how solar, can you tell me aboutit?
And we're like we're solarexperts but we're not real
estate experts, right, so youneed to talk to your real estate
agent.
We'll give you all informationabout the solar system itself,
but as far as, like, the valueof it or how to sell it or how
(07:33):
to buy it, we can't go into that.
So you need to talk to yourreal estate agent about that.
So that's why we have someonehere to kind of give you that
information and he's a hybrid,because he knows it's a hybrid
he knows both, yeah whichthere's very few of out there.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I know of one other one.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
That's it oh yeah probably just one other guy that
I know there's two in arizona.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, his real estate company is focused on just that
, so we're homeless.
But yeah, he's only two guysthat I know about.
That's interesting.
So you get a client and wantsto sell their, that wants to buy
a house um, no, forget that,let's you give account.
Wants to sell a house and theyhave solar on their house.
How does that change in the wayyou're going to market the
house and the things you'regoing to do with that client
versus somebody that doesn'thave solar?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Sure.
So the first thing is I need tolook at their solar agreement
and see all the numbers, thebenefits.
I want to see their energybills because I need to paint a
picture.
I need to be able to educateagents who are bringing buyers
to this property on the solarsystem, be able to sell the
solar system Because, honestly,you can't really sell the house
(08:30):
without being able to sell thesolar system.
So what I like to do is I liketo get all those numbers and
I'll actually create like asheet that shows the benefits of
the solar, the savings, whatthe costs are, what your future
costs are if you continue withAPS, so how you can save money
in the future with the solar,and then I think, once you have
(08:52):
that transparent and people cansee it and you can explain it to
them, then they are definitelymore open to the solar and they
actually like the idea of solar.
Okay, yeah.
Yeah, as long as it's a gooddeal, right it's?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
good, it's not like.
It's not like when people put apool in their house and you go
out there like, oh yeah, there'sa pool and it's going to add
value to my house.
It's pretty easy to sell likeit's.
Solar is very intricate as youif you've been watching our
podcast.
It's very case, specific toyour home and your needs and
things like that.
So someone that's buying orselling a home with solar, you
need to know what those detailsare.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
That's a really good point because we've talked about
.
It's not cookie cutter, right?
So if your habits are differentthan the guy you're buying
from's habits, it's going to bea different situation, right?
If that guy works at home allday and he's constantly home and
using his power that way andyou're somebody that's never
home, different scenarios foryou yeah, I know I've walked
into some homes that would youknow.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
They're trying to sell the home and they have
they're just just their billslaid out and like, oh, this
person has solar and look at,they don't pay anything for
electricity, and I'm like it's alittle misleading, because they
didn't pay anything forelectricity, that doesn't
necessarily mean I'm not goingto pay anything for electricity.
It's how they use power versushow I use power.
So you you have to kind of gointo more details of, okay, what
is the system, how big is thesystem, how much does it produce
(10:04):
?
You know, how old is it?
All the different details youcan't just, you know as an agent
, just show here are their billsRight and you should expect the
same.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Yeah, and if I could touch on that, one more thing,
you brought up a good pointbecause, also, the rate plan
that you're on Exactly, andthat's a huge factor, because if
you're grandfathered in under arate plan before 2017, that
transfers over to the new buyerand it's very important that the
buyer's agent knows that andtells their client that, and you
(10:36):
need to be able to show thosebenefits.
So, yeah, I think it's just amatter of really being able to
educate the buyer agent andtheir clients beforehand.
And it's key to be proactiveand do it upfront, because what
happens in a lot of solartransit or real estate
transactions is agents don'tknow, they don't show the
benefits, they don't know how toarticulate it, and then a buyer
(10:57):
gets under contract and thedeal can fall out in the
inspection Once they do find outand have to do the the transfer
of the solar lease.
So you don't want that kind ofheadache.
And that's where it gets a badand negative connotation, I feel
, because some of these stepsaren't done up front.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah.
So if I'm a buyer looking for ahouse that has solar on it, I
like your approach.
You're saying, basically you'recreating this whole spreadsheet
or whatever it is.
It sounds like you obviouslyhey With your spreadsheets, but
you're creating this wholedocument to be able to show and
educate people on how thebenefit of this, of the solar in
this house, how it works andwhat it means You're you're
(11:33):
having those conversationscorrect All up front.
Yeah, up front.
So if I walk into a house andI'm getting basically, hey,
there's my bills and the agent'snot talking about it, it's
probably instant red flag, couldbe it could be.
It could be, I mean, it dependsIf he doesn't understand solar,
then he doesn't know how tomarket it, that's right.
So that could be that or, likewe talked about before we did
this podcast, there was there'sa lot of deals out there from
(11:54):
back 2017 and prior, especially,but that was when we were least
heavy in Phoenix.
Yes, a lot of sunrun leases, alot of solar city leases, and
they're not good.
They have what's called anescalator, where they go up 2.9%
the payment does every year for20 years, so you got to start
factoring that in and then a lotof them were sold at a very
high price because some of thesesolar people were trying to
(12:16):
make a lot of money.
We talk about that all the time, right?
So you get the combination oftrying to make a lot of money
putting that escalator on it.
Now these are bad leases wherethey're not going to be
beneficial to anybody that walksinto this house.
I've had friends of mine kindof mean say I bought this house,
take a look at this lease andI'm looking at it going yikes,
this is not good for you.
Maybe you should have talked tome beforehand?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Did you already buy the house?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, there's not a whole lot.
You can do about it at thatpoint yeah, you're kind of.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
I think it's important for that real estate
agent to be educated too, and inthe solar system, because
they're already educated in justthe market, the house and all
that you know.
If you have a buyer, let's say,coming from out of state, so
they move to a new neighborhoodand they have no idea what it's
like living in arizona, you knowthey're brand new, so they
don't know anything.
Right, I'm sure they're askingyou questions like how are the
schools here?
What's the crime rate in thisneighborhood?
All this stuff.
So if you start asking whatutility company is this?
(13:07):
How am I getting it built?
What is my solar system goingto do, and you as a real estate
agent, you're like I don't know,it's not a good look on you.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Well, one thing I'd like to touch on.
I don't think a lot of peopleknow about this, talking about
solar, but real estate ingeneral, 95% of the business is
done by 5% of the agents.
Wow.
So I get it all the time Like,oh, so-and-so is a realtor, so
you?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
don't do anything, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Well, he's a realtor but, he did three deals Right
and the industry is set up thatway.
It's kind of an easy entry,which the reason I bring that up
is because if you're not doingthis stuff day in and day out,
you're not seeing thesedifferent solar deals, you're
not a professional.
It's kind of hard to helpsomebody, not just on the real
estate side, but now you'readding solar to it.
That's why I feel like there'sa lot of uneducated agents not
(13:55):
able to help their clients.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Do you service the entire Valley?
Yes, so good to know.
Yeah, because this is what I'mhearing from you and obviously I
already know you, so I'm alittle biased.
But just hearing the thingsyou're saying, if I'm a
homeowner and I want to buy ahome that has solar on it, or if
I'm going to sell a home thathas solar on it, I need to talk
to you and your team 100%.
I'm not going to talk toanybody else because of all the
things we're starting to put outhere.
That's just bad.
Sure, that's really bad.
So you need to.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
In this market because we've touched on many,
many times.
There are shady companies outthere.
You know putting things on yourroof that shouldn't be there,
whether it's unpermitted or not,or you know, or whatever, or
it's a bad deal.
You know, having someoneeducated take a look at it
before you buy or sell it.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
You need to have someone in this market.
It's important, right?
It's an extra step.
So you deal, I'm sure, a lotwith appraisers.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Yes, appraisers in solar.
It's challenging because thelender orders the appraiser
Right and so I don't have a lotof access to them.
Okay, Right before, and I couldsend them a recommendation, and
sometimes we do have to do that, especially if it's an owned
solar system, but I don't have alot of access to appraisers in
general.
(15:06):
Okay, all right, so I won't godown that road.
But I have something to talkabout.
When you're buying solar,that's very important.
Here's another thing thathappens when I sit down with a
client and we get them preparedto go out and look at homes, we
want to see what they couldafford or what they're
comfortable in their payment,right.
And so now if we're looking athomes with solar and it has like
(15:27):
a graduated lease on it, theynow have to count that payment
against their debt to incomeratio, which lowers their buying
power.
And I've actually had agents goout and they're showing, say, a
listing like mine that might bea $500,000 listing and that
client can't even qualify forthat home.
If my house has a graduatedsolar lease on it, meaning it's
(15:48):
an escalator and goes up Right.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah, I was going to say explain what a graduated
solar lease is.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yes, so you need to prep your client.
You need to know thatinformation.
Don't waste their time drivingthem around looking at something
that they can't even look at,right, right.
So what I always do is I'lllook at the house ahead of time,
right.
So what I always do is I'lllook at the house ahead of time.
Ben, you know this.
I pull the solar agreement, getall the information from the
agent.
Even if they don't have ituploaded, I'll get it.
Then I'll send it to my client.
We'll talk to the lender.
(16:13):
Is this going to affect theirpayment?
Yes, it is OK.
So what could they qualify?
So, if you like this house, nowit changed.
And here's the thing about it.
It's not that it's the worstthing, guys.
Okay.
And the reason I say that itstill might be cheaper than APS,
right, right.
Long term, you're controllingyour cost.
It is affecting your realestate, but you'd have an energy
(16:35):
bill anyways, right.
The difference is they don'tcount your SRP or APS bill
against you and your debt toincome ratio.
But if you have a great, that'sright, and you need to
understand that formula.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, in that scenario, could you make it a
condition where the homeownerhas to pay off the lease as part
of the sale?
Speaker 3 (16:51):
I actually had that happen.
Yeah, pay off a lease on abuyout, negotiate the lease Uh,
these are things that I've donepersonally and seen happen.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, it's going to be something that I don't know,
if we were going to get into itlater, but you know what happens
when you do buy a house thathas a solar system, that is
financed or leased, or you knowit's an escalating lease.
Can you know, does thehomeowner have to buy this off
or pay it off before it sells,or can they transfer to the new
owner, or they can theynegotiate the price down to
assume it?
And you know what are theoptions that they have.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
And it's kind of like in real estate.
On the resale market we have astandard contract through the
Arizona Association of Realtorsand I can tell you verbatim what
that is.
When we're dealing withbuilders, they all have their
own contracts.
It's kind of the same thing insolar.
When I see a house that hassolar, I have to pull the
contract.
I have to read through thatcontract because they're all
(17:44):
different.
So it just depends on a case bycase scenario.
But let's say there is anexample of a house that has a
solar lease or some type ofsolar on it.
There is the ability to buy itout and sometimes that does get
negotiated up front.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, that's what I was going to do.
If I sell my house, I'm justgoing to pay it off and just
sell, and just sell it, as it'sjust a benefit of sitting here
saving your money, you're notgoing to cost you anything, that
to me is a very positive.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Yeah, I agree, right, yeah, it's like a prepaid lease
.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
It's like a prepaid lease Right.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
But if you're like, oh, I have five thousand dollars
left on my loan for my solarsystem, I don't have the cash to
you know, roll it into the saleof the home, or drop my price
by five grand to kind of make upthat you know, and it'll be
paid off once the home closesthat deal.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
And great point and it also the real estate market
matters factors into that rightwhen the real estate market's
hot, when COVID hit and themarket went up, yeah, I mean
they had leverage.
So with solar that you're goingto buy that house and do the
graduate lease or whatever thatis.
But now that the market'ssofter, it's a buyer's market
it's hard enough to sell thehome.
(18:49):
If there's solar and you'retrying to negotiate value, it
does make it tougher.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
So it all does depend on the market conditions, 100%,
all right.
So I mean, we're not I'm goingto clarify here.
We're not sitting here sayingsolar is a bad thing, right?
You don't want to have it onyour home or you don't want to
buy a house with solar.
It's just a lot of.
Again, there's a ton ofvariables.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
The common theme with all our podcasts, everything we
talk about, there's alwaysvariables.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
There's going to be times where it's going to be
tougher because of marketconditions, and right now market
conditions are kind of soft.
Yeah, that's about to change, Iwould assume, after the
election.
I think things are going to getbetter next year.
It's funny.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
since election I've already had a listing that was
sitting with no showings.
I've had two showings in thelast two days.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Right, Because now people are instantly feeling
good about things and thinking,hey, the economy is going to
rebound, solar and you're like,but I'm only going to be in my
home for another, like five orsix years.
Okay, take that intoconsideration.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
You know, with your system size and you know, talk
to your real estate agent Like,hey, I'm, I'm here in the home
now.
I want to add solar, but I'monly going to be here about five
or six years and that's even abigger reason why you have to
make sure the company you'retalking to about solar knows
what they're doing and is nottrying to take advantage of you,
(20:09):
because if they take advantageof you.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
You might be sitting on a brick.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah, that's one of the questions I asked to you
know, when I'm talking withcustomers, I always tell them
how long do you plan on being inthe home?
Design a system that's going tobe for you to be there forever.
If it's going to be, you know,just kind of a general system
for whoever takes over the homenext, then we'll make it, make
it work that way and it makesyou make a decision on what.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
if you want to lease, right, you want to finance it,
you want to pay cash for it.
We always say cash is king, andit's always going to be the
best scenario where you get yourun into a home that's got a bot
and so it's a bot system that'spaid for.
That's even easier for you tosell.
Oh, it's huge.
Yeah, it's a huge benefit,right?
So I guess I just want to makethose points.
Is it all matters?
The variables are all there,right?
If the system's owned and paidfor, yeah, that's a value to
(20:54):
that home.
People are going to want that.
If it's a lease and you can payit off within the transaction,
or every, there's a value there.
If it's finance, you can evenpay it off in the transaction as
well if it's financed.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Another thing to touch on that that's important
that I see, is the tax credit.
So here's what happens If I seea solar system on a house, say
I represent a buyer and thatseller did not take the tax
credit and pay down theprincipal, then that might not
be a good solar deal for thatnext buyer.
But if they took the tax credit, they applied it to the
(21:26):
principal.
I would say majority.
Most times that ends up being apretty good solar situation,
right.
So there's a lot of things thatgo into it.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So we've talked about that before.
Just to clarify and that's areally good point actually when
you, when you get a system andyou finance it those first 18
months we talked about whereyour payment's here right, it's
a lower payment, it's a goodpayment for you.
If that person doesn't take thetax credit that they're getting
off of buying that system andput it back into that loan, it
re-amortizes and when itre-amortizes it typically goes
up quite a bit.
(21:57):
It goes up that 30% that youdidn't pay back and now your
payment goes from.
Know, let's say you were 120 amonth.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
now you might be 200 a month yeah, and that's
something you're now payingright because the homeowner
didn't take the tax credits.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
You're now paying for that so it might be a good idea
to kind of, when you, when youlook at the when paperwork and
say, okay, what's the payment onthis, on this, uh, solar system
, what's it producing?
And kind of try to put thattogether and I'm sure that's
probably what you do to figureout what they're paying per
kilowatt hour, because you knowwhat is APS average right now is
what?
16 cents, 16 and a half centson average Sure.
If you have a solar system whereyou're paying that or more
(22:33):
probably not a really good idea,you know, but if you're paying
less than that, you're savingmoney, okay.
Well then you can count that.
Hey, over the next period ofyears I have to buy this house.
I'm going to save money onelectricity because of xyz.
So you need a.
You need someone that knowswhat they're doing.
It's the more I'm thinkingabout it.
Man, it's just so important tohave a guy like michael and his
team, because you could reallyget in a bad way real quick yeah
(22:55):
, no, it's.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
It's good having all that knowledge, because I know
there's times where you know Iwas shopping for a home with
mike and I would say, hey, Ilike this home, let's take a
look at those.
You know it has a solar system.
Send me all their theirinformation.
I take a look and I go, I nolonger like the home.
Yeah, because it was just a baddeal and I don't want to, I
don't want to assume that baddeal.
But then there was other timeswhere like, okay, I like this
home, let send me theinformation on their solar
(23:16):
system.
I look at it.
Okay, this was actually a gooddeal.
This, everything looks legit.
Okay, we're now.
This home still is a good deal.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
And guys.
Something else to talk aboutwhat's out there and we know
this because we put a lot ofthem on myself those fixed
leases from before 2017, fixedrate leases.
If you get into one of thoseright now at the $0.08, $0.09,
$0.10 range, you're saving what?
Almost 50% on your energy bill.
That's nice savings in today'smarket, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And there's a lot of those out there.
So the the things to look for,just to clarify, is if you have
a pre, if you find somebody hasa prepaid lease, basically they
don't pay anything anymore.
They paid it all up front.
It's like a cash purchase rightit's like a cash purchase and
you're just sitting theregetting the benefit of the power
for 20 years, however manyyears are left.
Um, if you have a fixed ratelease where, like I do, I have
an eight cent a kilowatt hourlease, it doesn't change for 20
(24:06):
years.
It's eight cents.
It's that gas card at 99 cents.
That's just nothing but abenefit.
So you have to look at the kindof lease somebody's in or the
kind of situation purchase wisethat they're in, to determine if
it's good or bad for you,because it's going to be good
and it's going to be bad,depending on all these variables
again, that we always talkabout.
So a lot of people out there,when I say real estate agents
aren't educated, a lot of themaren't and they're just gonna
(24:27):
poopoo solar the minute theyhear you know what.
They don't want to deal with it, because they have to do all
the stuff that Mike's talkingabout to really understand the
situation.
Right, you might get somebodythat wants to sell their house
and you might look at this andgo.
This is not a good thing,that's right.
It happens all the time then yougot to either put a plan
together to figure out how tomake it a good thing, or maybe
you have to even walk away fromit.
I don't know if you have, butit becomes a tough sell.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Well, I've had to negotiate out of it because I
haven't been able to sell thehouse.
So that's another thing.
If somebody's in a bad solardeal, we have options and with
my knowledge and background insolar, I've been able to
negotiate out of those deals inorder to sell the house, or else
they can't sell their house.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Do you actually contact the lenders or the lease
companies?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Both yeah, depending.
Yeah, depending on the deal.
Wow, how do they respond?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I know that Sunrun was big back in 2017, them and
SolarCity and I know there'speople sold a ton of leases back
in 2017 and 16.
And a lot of them did thosegraduated leases where they're
going up every year and theywere at 2.9% and I know Sunrun
actually had to come in and makethem zero escalated leases
because they were so bad forpeople because of how high these
(25:30):
dirty people sold them for, andso they did their part.
I give them credit for that.
They actually helped out to tryto help the customers out so
they can sell the homes and bein better situations.
So, yeah, there's so much tolook at when you're buying a
home with solar.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
And another thing, too, guys, is and this is what I
love about your company is,when I sell a house or I
represent a buyer and it hassolar, you guys do the
inspections.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Right and you've been around.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
That's another big deal of getting your solar
system inspected before you'regoing to make this purchase.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, so just like they do home inspections, we do
the solar inspections, right?
So real estate agents will giveus a call and we'll go out
there.
Um, for a fee, we'll go outthere and we provide a complete
report of what we found with thesystem.
Is it working?
Is it not working things thatit might need?
I don't know if you've donesome of them with us.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Yeah, you guys have done some for me, In fact.
Uh, you guys did one.
Um, it was the Phoenix Mercurycoach.
The coach before you did herhouse.
She had a beautiful home, shehad a really big solar system
and you guys came out, did agreat job inspecting it.
There were a few things thatneeded to be fixed or adjusted
and the seller was able to takecare of it and everything worked
(26:39):
out great.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yeah, if you're a buyer and you're buying a house
in solar and you don't get itinspected, that's not a good
idea.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
You're getting everything else inspected.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
As is.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Get it inspected, because you'd be surprised at
things that we find sometimesand it's very important to know
that up front.
And it's such a minimal fee,just like a home inspection,
just like everything else you doat home.
You should be doing thisautomatically.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Speaking of those home, do you find that there are
home inspectors now addinglooking at solar to their tool
belt, or they just kind of saynot my wheelhouse, I'm not gonna
do it?
Speaker 3 (27:11):
my inspector is very good about that.
He does look at it, just itlike very minimal and he'll
always recommend getting aprofessional company like
yourself to do a thoroughinspection.
Okay, but he'll give you kindof like an overview.
I didn't see anything from theoutside.
No panels are broken.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
No loose wires that type of thing, but very, very
minimal okay right, becausewe're going to get in there and
we're going to actually runtesting tests.
We're going to make sure all theinverters are working.
We're going to make sure thepanels are still producing,
right.
There's a lot of things youcan't see just by doing a visual
inspection.
So you can see that stuff, butthere's so much more.
That's one product that Ireally think we finally got in
2017.
We were talking about that andwe finally put it out.
(27:48):
It took us a few years to getthere, but it's such a great
product.
I mean, I know, when I sell myhouse as a seller, I would want
to have that report done and Iwould want to have that on the
table and say here's our solarsystem and here's the report we
did on it.
I don't know if I'm going to do.
I'm going to hire you, soyou're just going to do it.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
I've recommended that to some clients and, um, we
haven't had a situation.
Because the other thing you gotto remember too, guys, when
you're on leases and maybe youguys could talk more on this or
teach me.
This is something that I don'ta hundred percent know but with
these leases, they're fullywarranted by these companies.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, they have a production guarantee now.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
So the key is that um they're still in business,
right?
Speaker 2 (28:26):
as long as they're still around.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
That's a big problem.
So as long as they're stillaround there's an issue, they
have to come out and fix itbecause of the guaranteed
production in the lease.
I understand that piece um, sogetting an inspection at that
time, I don't know if that'snecessarily.
You have to on that type ofsolar right, a lease per se,
because it's warranted,guaranteed, they need to come
(28:48):
fix anyway.
So if it's not producing, youlet them know they'll come fix
it.
But on any purchases oranything like that or warrant
right, like I think it's hugebecause no one's monitoring it
exactly, or even if they aremonitoring it.
there might be something wrongwith it, that is about to go out
or whatever that is, and itmight.
The inverters might not be inwarranty.
Is that still the case?
(29:08):
Inverters are a big expense,yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Well, yeah, if they're under warranty, you know
they're obviously taken care of, but yeah, it is.
It is one of the most popularthings to go out of your system,
your inverter.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
It will go out.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, it will go out.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
The difference is now you have so you have the string
inverters from back when youwere really doing it in the 2017
.
Micro inverters, the ones thatare on the panels, have gotten
more popular.
Yeah, those have a 25 yearwarranty on them.
So those are.
You know, they're going to goout because they're out there in
the sun on the roof.
I mean they're going to go outand, uh, the string inverters
(29:41):
will go out about every 10 to 12years.
That's what they do.
So if you have a lease, that'sa valid point.
If you have a lease, you'reokay.
As long as it transfers to you,you're good to go.
It's covered.
Remember, it's not your system,it belongs to the leasing
company.
You're just buying the power.
So they're going to make sureto maintain that system that
it's working, because, for youneed to protect yourself and
(30:01):
make sure this thing's workingbecause the cost comes back to
you, yep.
So, and if you know, if it's anown system too, I mean the
warranty might cover the part,but it won't cover the labor.
So a lot of them will cover thelabor for the first five years
and they won't cover laboranymore.
So an inverter goes out.
They'll put a new inverter upthere, but you're paying to
actually do the job.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
They're just going to pay for the part so you got to
look at all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
It's very important most people don't think about
that.
They think, oh, it's covered.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
No, the parts, it's bumper to bumper yeah, and
that's exactly how they sell it.
They sell it as a bumper tobumper, but it's not because the
labor is only one to five years.
Don't have bumpers in arizona.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
You only have to do I think it's a one or two year
labor warranty on anything youdo.
Yeah, so, just so you know thatwe do, we have a workmanship
warranty now that's 25 years.
I mean, our warranties havegone through the roof, right,
right.
So we have penetration for 30,workmanship for 25.
Nobody does that, but we're soconfident in what we're doing
and how we do it that we coulddo that.
Yeah, so that's what makesHarmon different.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
And correct me if I'm wrong.
You guys are a roofingelectrical company too that does
solar.
So those are all importantpieces of the process.
What happens, curious, when thelease is over?
So let's say, for example, likeI got a 20 year prepaid lease
on my roof and that 20 years isup, what's going to happen to my
system?
How does that work?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
I got to be real careful of my answer here.
The correct answer is look atyour contract, because on every
lease it has what happens at theend of the contract and you
have to kind of go by those,those terms.
So your options, usually on onall your leases, are at the end
of the contract.
You can either renew it on likea year by year basis.
You can buy the system out atfair market value.
So they'll, you know, come outappraising, oh, if this system
is worth this, you can pay forit.
Or the leasing company willremove it from your roof, um, at
(31:45):
no cost to you.
So those are pretty much your,your options.
That's spelled out on thepaperwork yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
So just a couple points of that.
When they remove it, they haveto put the roof back to
condition correct, so they haveto seal the hole.
They can't just say, okay, see,I'm ripping this thing off so
so think, think about that.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
they have to roll trucks out right, pull that
stuff off your roof, all thewires, seal your roof, put it
all back together.
That's not something that'sdone for free.
They have to pay for that, so acompany has to come out and do
that and pay for it.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
This is where fair market value comes in.
Do you think that a solarcompany or a leasing company
wants to pay for that?
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Probably not, and then what are they going to do
with those 40 modules that?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
are 20 years old.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
I always tell people it's not like leasing a car.
When you lease a car, at theend of your two or three-year
lease, that company can stillsell that used car.
It still has a value.
Ralph, are we selling20-year-old panels at Harman
Every day?
So you have a 20-year-oldsystem that was specifically
(32:45):
designed for you and your home.
20 year old system.
20 year old inverters, 20 yearold wiring, 20 year old,
everything right.
Who's gonna buy it?
There's no value.
So they spent all that moneytaking it off your roof and now
the company's stuck with this 20year old system.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Let's clarify there's no value to the next person to
sell that to right there isvalue to the home it sits on.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yeah, because when I rip it off, that rail is wasted
I don't need that rail anymore,because that was designed for
your house, right those panelsare now.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
You know they've derated 20 years down, so
they're not producing what theywere producing 20 years ago,
still valuable to that home, butnot to sell.
Yeah, it just doesn't make anysense.
So, with all that said, fairmarket value is probably a
dollar, probably a dollar.
Seriously, it's probably goingto be somewhere they're going to
say here's a dollar sign, this,we're done yeah, I I don't see
them doing anything else with itexactly.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
I think at the end of those leasing terms, the
leasing company is going to go.
You know what?
We take a look at this and payus a buck and we'll call it a
day, it's, it's yours and Ithink we're probably about we're
getting close seven, eightyears away, six years well,
leasing started around 2005-2006.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
So those 20 year leases are coming up soon.
It's next year and the yearafter.
We're just hitting it for thefirst time.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
We're going to find out what they're actually going
to do.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
And I think what we're going to see is saying hey
, keep it, Send me a buck.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Everyone's happy.
We've already made our money.
You made your savings.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
And if you don't want it, on my house they have to
yeah.
There's no way around it.
Definitely what I would tellyou to do against.
Don't sign a one-year re-up,yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I wouldn't do that.
Do not do that.
They want it.
They want you to do thatbecause it's extra money for
them.
Don't do that.
But the most important thing isread your contract.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
And every leasing contract it has those clauses of
what's happened at the end ofyour lease.
That's a very good point.
Okay, answer your question.
Yes, no, it totally answered myquestion.
So the fair market thing Ithink I like, because I was like
they're not going to come takethis thing off my roof so no,
why would they?
Speaker 1 (34:32):
yeah, why would they?
Speaker 2 (34:33):
right, and then someone mentioned roofs.
What were we talking about?
Speaker 1 (34:36):
yeah, we're talking about roofs, tax credit roof.
So you're buying a home, it'san older home, got's got an
older roof, it has a solarsystem, or I'm thinking about
getting a solar system.
Should I replace the roof now,before, like when I buy my home,
when I'm adding the solar?
What's, what's the process,what's the order?
Should I buy the home, add theroof, then the solar, or should
(34:57):
I try to wrap it all in once?
What do I do well, what's thebest way to do?
Speaker 2 (35:01):
it the best way to do it in the city of phoenix,
where it's 100 billion degreesevery year and everything gets
worn down outside, so your roofshere don't last very long,
probably.
What?
Speaker 1 (35:10):
10 years max before it has to.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
I think the new home developers will give 5-10 years
on roofs it's 10-year roofwarranty typically, I think the
underlayment usually is 20 to 25years yeah, typically yeah, the
underlayment, the shinglesforget it, they ain't gonna
laugh shingles different.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
So everyone's tiled now right.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
So when you've had a roof and the average, average
house that we probably see thatwants solar is typically 20
years old on tip, that's typical, right, I mean, they're 20 year
old.
A lot of them haven't beenre-roofed, sure, yeah, and the
customer is always like you know, I want to put solar on this
and we inspect the roofs.
We always inspect the roofbecause we have to put a 30 year
penetration on it.
We want to make sure it's notgoing to leak.
So if we don't, if we see that,hey, this thing it's brittle
(35:50):
and we're not messing with it.
But I would highly recommendthat if you're, if you're in a
house 15, 20 years and you wantsolar, should probably do the
re-roof right there and thenroll it into the whole
transaction.
Because I think, according towhat the IRS code is and again,
I'm not a tax expert, I'm notgiving you tax advice.
I thought you were Ben'sdefinitely not a tax expert, but
(36:11):
he'll still give you tax advice, but you need to talk to your
accountants.
But my understanding is what Ibelieve is that you can then get
the 30% tax credit on thatre-roof.
You can roll it in because itis part of the installation of
the solar system.
Again, I'm not saying that's100.
You need to talk to your taxguy or talk to ben um, I'm gonna
(36:31):
keep putting it there to flashmy phone number but that makes a
re-roof 30 cheaper.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
That's right, if you were just smart if you were just
go out and re-roof itself, youwouldn't get that.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
But if you're adding solar to it now, you get that,
because remember now part of thepackage if you add solar to a
bad roof and three years fromnow it's raining which it barely
rains here, but when it doesget the monsoons and rains, and
all of a sudden it's dripping inyour house.
Now you got a re-roof, yeah, doyou think maybe there's an
added expense to removing thosepanels while you're doing the
roof?
Speaker 1 (36:56):
yes, there is.
We just talked about that wedon't remove panels for.
Right, it's not free, it'squite expensive and that adds
value to the home.
Like, hey, I have a solarsystem and a new roof, but when
I got my solar system, I've gotthe new roof.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
There's value there no-transcript is preventing the
(37:30):
heat from going in.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
You know the way it used the panels are taking all
the damage to me yeah, thepanels are taking the damage.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
I would think that's true.
So, yeah, these are basicallyroof covers.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Yeah, yeah roof savers can I have a shade canopy
over my modules as well toprotect those Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Because the ultraviolet rays will still come
true.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
You know, some we didn't talk about guys.
I think is important is thepigeon, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
That's a really good point, because I'm sure that you
come up against that sometimesAll the time.
Yeah, all the time.
So we all know that pigeonslove to nest and they like to
nest under panels.
I found that out right awaywhen I put my solar up.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
This is a pigeon neighborhood, yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
And as soon as I put it up, I didn't have the.
It took them a few weeks to getthe stuff around it.
And man, it was a zoo downthere.
You just start hearing it.
There were pigeons everywhereand then right over my bedroom.
I just wanted to go up thereand start shooting.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
It was kind of sort making a mess over the side of
the house and everything andthey could get into the wires,
you know, because they're gonnabe nesting and you know there's,
there's those home runs and thewires under there that you know
pigeons right.
So what we?
Speaker 2 (38:28):
do is we go.
We go to your system and we putnetting it's.
It's a plastic mesh or a steelmesh, I think it's more steel.
Um, it goes completely aroundthe arrays that we put on your
roof and this way the pigeonscan't get underneath there.
Funny, funny story is I.
I remember somebody that didthat one time when there was a
pigeon under there and theyforgot about him and they
covered him up and they left.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
They left him in there.
Now you have a pet trapped.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
We didn't do it but, eventually they had to go up and
get him.
So he was totally a nice littlepet but like I'm sure you run
into homes and neighborhoodswhere you see that there's
pigeon, you know stuff.
I was gonna say the wrong word.
Yes there's all over the floor,the side of the house they're
eating up the wires, are doingand they're just everywhere on
that house all the time.
Yeah, and that's just bad.
You have to know it.
You know if you're in a pigeonneighborhood, right, you just
(39:11):
know it.
If you, if you've been there atleast a month, you know it.
I know I am it's, I hate it.
So you have to protect thesystem against it's just another
thing and also a lot of thesystems we do today.
It just seems like more andmore they're getting the actual
electrical panel upgrades.
So when you're getting a new, anew solar system, a new roof, a
new electrical panel upgrade,it's all value yeah.
(39:31):
And you're getting it done forcheaper by doing it with the
solar system than you are doingit separately.
Yeah, you know, can you get atax credit on that?
Again, talk to your taxprofessional, it's part of the
transaction.
So yeah, I mean technically,but I didn't say that Right.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
Ralph does my taxes, by the way, that's why you're in
jail.
I get audited every other month.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
So I think the point of this podcast, and number one,
is to talk about the realestate perspective and what
people think um on that side ofthe business, and I think it's
important to understand that ifyou're not educated on something
, no matter who you are, um you,you tend to probably just poo
it and say, yeah, I don't reallyknow much about it, so I don't
deal with that.
That or you get taken advantageof.
That was my next point.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Okay you can go ahead and make it.
No, you're doing it.
I don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
All right.
So either you're gonna turnyour back from it because you
don't want to deal with it,because you don't understand it
and you don't want to take timeto learn about it, or someone's
going to take advantage of you,right?
So you need, if you're going todo this, if you're going to, if
you're going to buy a home withsolar, if you're going to sell
a home with solar, you have tohave somebody that knows the
industry, that understands solar, and Make sure your cousin
knows what they're doing.
Well, and it speaks to that.
(40:45):
You just said this a few minutesback and I was on the podcast,
but you said that what 90%?
Speaker 3 (40:50):
95% of the business is done by 5% of the agents.
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
But that's, it.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
I saw a stat I don't have the research on this
currently, but there wassomething like 22% of business
in Phoenix is done by three realestate teams, and I won't
mention those names.
I'm not one of those teams butthey're big call centers is what
they are.
Right You're not gettingnecessarily that same attention,
but the point is is it's reallyimportant to have somebody
(41:18):
that's a professional and isdoing transactions day in and
day out on a regular basis,especially when you're seeing
solar and the different types ofsolar?
How many solar companies arethere in the Valley Just over
the years?
A couple hundred, come and goright.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Yeah, especially lately, they've come and gone a
lot.
We've seen a lot of and we'regoing to actually do a podcast
that's going to touch on thatwhere we're going to talk about
how a lot of these installersand companies have moved out of
the market or have gone bankruptor whatever, um, and what that
means to the market and whatthat means to you if you have
solar.
But yeah, there's a ton of them.
They're going out every everyyear.
You know we'll have two, 300 ofthem and all of a sudden you're
, they're just gone.
(41:53):
They just come in here Biggestoffender in this state where
Arizona, we have a high powerusage people coming in from
other states doing a cash grab,selling as much as they can,
then leaving the state and theydon't care what they put on your
roof, right, they partner withan installer, they just put what
they can put on and they're outand they make their money.
Worst scenario for any customerto go through, and those are the
ones that you're going to seethat there's bad deals, bad
(42:15):
deals, yeah, bad deals.
So there's good solar systemsales, there's bad solar system
sales and it impacts you downthe road whether or not you want
to sell this house, so youreally need to be smart about
who you're having put solar onyour house.
We do get that at Harmon, whichis why we have these
conversations and we put thisout there.
We want to arm you guys withthis, and you have to have a
(42:35):
real estate agent or a team thatunderstands these things as
well, or you're going to be introuble.
I wouldn't want to go into thiswithout someone like you.
I mean, I just, I just wouldn't.
I want you to do all the thingsthat you know that you need to
do to protect me and um and andto help the bring the right
people in that want to buy thishouse for the right reasons.
I don't want to screw anybodyeither, right?
So no, no, you do it well.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
I just know a lot of people out there have solar and
they just don't understand it.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Yeah, they just don't I mean, like I said, friends of
mine buying a house with solarand not talking to me about it.
That's just not smart, right?
You know who you are, like youlike you know what I do for a
living right, I mean you've gotto ask the questions, you got to
leverage the experts, andthat's why harman's around, and
(43:20):
that's why michael wiley and histeam are around.
Those are the experts, right?
So we brought in a real estateexpert to kind of show are we
missing anything?
is there anything we want totouch on?
I think we've talked about alot.
Yeah, it's a lot of stuff.
Go back, rewind, keep watching,not like a tape rewind, but you
know what I'm saying, you cango, we're going to have this
contact information.
Speaker 3 (43:37):
Yeah, okay, mike.
Yeah, thank you guys,appreciate it, we're gonna.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
We're gonna put up Mike's name and his contact
information.
You can say it.
They'll go ahead and say it.
If someone wants to reach youor your team, what do they do?
Speaker 3 (43:47):
They can contact us.
They can go to my website atmichaelwileyteamcom.
There's a contact there.
My number is 480-343-4534.
Or email me at mwiley athsmovedcom.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
And that's all on the bottom of the screen.
Right now you see thatinformation.
I would highly recommend thatyou contact Michael if you're
looking to buy a home that hassolar, if you're looking to sell
a home that has solar, or ifyou're just looking to buy or
sell a home, it doesn't matterif it has solar or not, but I
mean definitely if it has thesolar stuff.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
So there's nobody else that I would call yeah, and
if you want solar, we find youa know, find the right deal and
package it up so it all workstoo.
So that's one last question.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
We're not done yet, folks.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
If someone comes to you and says, hey, I want a home
, you know getting a lot ofpeople that come out of state.
They come in here and they go Iwant to buy a home, I want
solar on my home.
What do you do?
What would you ask?
What questions do you ask?
What's your process?
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Yeah, and that that.
So my process is first thing, Ieducate them on solar and
different options.
Now I tell them I am not asolar professional.
I used to sell solar.
I know enough to be dangerous,but I also have the resources,
the people that I can connectyou with right, which is where I
would lean on you guys.
But you know, we'll talk aboutthe benefits of solar, what that
(45:01):
looks like house Because yougot to look at orientation of
the roof, right.
I mean, if you've got asouth-facing roof that has a lot
of space, that's a good housefor solar.
Yep, right, right.
So there's a lot of differentthings that go into it, but I
just try to educate them as muchas I can and then let them make
informed decisions, yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Pretty easy that way.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Yeah, I think so.
I mean, there could be asituation where, hey, maybe we
can't find what you need withsolar on it, but we'll get it
put on there, or we'll get itput on there, you can help them
with that too.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
That's exactly how I approach it.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
So there you go, you got all.
This is the guy.
This is the guy.
I told you, I got a guy.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
That's the guy.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
You guys need to reach out to him and his team if
you're looking to buy or sell ahome that has solar or just you
know, in real estate in general.
We brought him on here for areason.
You know us.
We only talk to the top tierpeople in the industries that we
trust, and so Harmon can put astamp of approval on his
forehead and say this is a realestate guy that we trust.
So think about that.
We'll be back next time.
We've got some really goodtopics to get into.
We're going to talk about themarket and what's changed in the
(46:01):
solar market, a couple otherthings.
So we'll be back, but hey,thanks for watching and we'll
talk to you again.
Thank you, thanks, guys.
Welcome to another edition of the Harmon Solar
Podcast.
I'm Ralph Romano, vp of Salesand Marketing at Harmon Solar,
alongside my partner BenWohlschlager.
He's well you kind of know himas Mr Everything.
I've kind of reduced him toproject manager on our screen
because he's not really doingeverything anymore.
He's kind of pulled back alittle bit, so he's taken the
title away from him.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Mr Somethings, mr Somethings.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, and today a little bit, so he's taking the
title away from him, mrsomethings.
Mr mr somethings, yeah, andtoday we're gonna talk with a
real estate expert.
Yep, we've never done thisbefore best time to learn now
just do it.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
We've wanted to do it , we've talked about it, yeah,
so because we have buying a homewith solar or selling a home
with solar.
It's very important to knowwhat's going on, and we got a
guy we always have a guy.
We both know this.
You don't have your shirt on,though.
I mean you're, I got a guyshirt oh yeah, is my no hair.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
No, no, you gotta wear you.
I got a shirt on, you're good.
Scared me a second there.
I was like, okay, I can forget,today is black shirt thursday.
So our guest today is michaelwiley of uh homesmart realty and
the michael wiley team, and Ithink you're based out of
Goodyear right.
Yes, sir, right.
So you're all over the internet.
People see you, I see you doingyour stuff all the time.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Oh yeah, we do a lot of marketing, a lot of social
media stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I know you're involved with some different
schools and some differentthings.
I've seen you doing that.
So Michael's an expert.
An expert.
He's been in the industry forhow many years?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I've been in the industry 17 years real estate
and, as you know, I also soldsolar, so I have a perspective
on both sides.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
So that's what makes him unique and why we brought
him into this, because he cangive us the reality of what's
really going on on the realestate side of all this?
Yeah, because I know a lot ofreal estate agents.
They don't know a whole lotabout solar, so why not have a
guy that knows solar and knowsreal estate right for our
podcast?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
probably the biggest negative of bringing michael on
is he's a bills fan yeah, butyou know that's a different
podcast.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
We've learned to deal with that.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I mean it's okay, they lost four in a row, so
that's what it is hey, I was ata lot of those games those
playoff games that was tough andyou're still alive and he
decided to move to arizona toget as far away from as possible
so tell us about so you work atHomeSmart, tell us about your
role there, your team, what doyou, you know, just kind of give
us an idea, give us a littlefeel for Michael Wiley.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Yeah.
So just going back, I was ateacher for a long time high
school teacher coach and I gotinto real estate, which it was a
great transition.
So basically I'm a team leader,I run my own team.
Been there, my own team, beenthere 18 years, all going on 18
years and um, seeing thedifferent markets.
(02:49):
I came into the market whenthere was a the largest crash in
real estate history.
the economy went and you stuckaround yeah, and I remember when
I was coming in I was like,what are you doing, getting into
real estate?
And I was like, well, if nobodywants to come in, now's the
time to do it yeah, right.
And then you know, as I wentthrough real estate and started
to grow, my team and my business, solar came around.
So, um, I I got into solar andgreat story about that how I ran
(03:13):
, how I got connected with youguys.
Um, so a good friend of mine,um, somebody door knocked on his
house from solar city, right,and he was listening what he had
to say, and so he said you needto talk to my buddy, my buddy's
in real estate.
So I'm always I'm followingenergy right, cause it affects
real estate.
So I connected with this guy,met with him at the time he was
(03:34):
a manager for solar city, he wasrunning a sales team and so I
joined on board with solar cityat that time and they had great
training.
Like, just talking about offsetthe slope of the roof, you had
to draw your own systems.
Like there was so much thatwent into solar at that time
that I didn't understand, but Ihad to learn it and their
(03:55):
training was really good.
So I went out and did that.
And then as I got to see andnothing against solar city, but
as I got to see kind of what wasout there, and I got to see
what was out there through realestate.
So as I was selling and buyinghomes, I was seeing different
solar products right and therewas one product that kept coming
up and it was Harman and youguys were so much lower than the
(04:19):
rest At that time.
It was fixed rate leases, whichI totally believed in and, um,
you guys were putting.
I remember seeing one of thefirst deals.
It was like eight and a halfcents a kilowatt, fixed for 20
years, and I said, wow, that'sincredible Like.
So I ended up reaching out toyou guys and then learn more
about your business and I'm bigon because my reputation and my
(04:43):
name is everything in realestate and I would never put
anything on anybody's roof thatyou wouldn't call me to sell
your home Right, because I makea lot more money in real estate
than I did selling solar.
But I saw a benefit there and Iwanted to get the word out to
my clients, which I did.
I put solar on a lot ofpeople's houses back then and
then everything changed in 2017.
(05:03):
But you guys always did a greatjob, from your process to the
install and you know, clientsalways felt good about it and
there were never any issues.
And there were a lot of issueswith other solar companies, so
that was really important to meto put my name behind something.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Plus, you had great pricing right, yeah, to give
perspective, when he says thatfixed leasing at eight and a
half cents that's like getting agas card that's guaranteed at,
let's say, $0.99 a gallon forthe next 20 years Right, that's
kind of the territory that wouldbe in.
That's just crazy.
Right, it's crazy.
And that's kind of like what Ihave in my house.
I have an $0.08 leaseguaranteed for 20 years.
I mean it.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
APS for 99 cents a gallon For 20 years.
For 20 years.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
And I use the analogy when I would sit down with my
clients.
I would say guys, okay, here'swhat this is.
This is a fixed rate mortgageat 2.5%, 3%, or do you want a
variable rate mortgage with APSat 5%?
Right?
And when I explained it to themthat way, they were like oh
yeah, that makes sense.
And so it was yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Never that way they were like oh yeah, that makes
sense, and so it was yeah, let'sdo it.
Yeah, Never thought of it thatway.
That's actually pretty smart,would you like?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
to sell solar again.
So real estate's interestingfor us in solar because there's
a lot of real estate agents thatdon't have a clue about solar.
They just don't Right.
I mean, I'm I'm sure you've runinto that in your in your
business, where you know peoplethat just know nothing about it.
I don't know how your team isif they're educated on it, but
there's a lot of real estateagents that just don't know.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, that's the problem in the industry, I feel
like agents don't.
There's kind of a negativeconnotation, which I hate that,
because then it kind of givessolar a bad vibe, and I love
solar, you know.
I think there's a lot ofbenefits to solar and I think
it's just a matter of agentsbeing educated on solar.
That's probably the biggestproblem.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, and I would say , when they're not educated
which a lot of them are not, Iwould say a high percentage,
it's instantly solar is lookedat as a negative, no matter what
.
Yeah, we'll talk about the factthat some solar is a negative.
Sure, there's no doubt.
We talk about that all the time, even just without.
We'll be transparent with you.
Yeah, yeah, so you know how weare guys.
Yeah, we're going to tell you,but there are situations and
we'll get into that that Mike'swritten into where it's very
(07:09):
negative, but there aresituations where it's very
positive.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, and we get customers that call into us that
you know they'll say, hey, I'mgoing to be selling my house,
how solar, can you tell me aboutit?
And we're like we're solarexperts but we're not real
estate experts, right, so youneed to talk to your real estate
agent.
We'll give you all informationabout the solar system itself,
but as far as, like, the valueof it or how to sell it or how
(07:33):
to buy it, we can't go into that.
So you need to talk to yourreal estate agent about that.
So that's why we have someonehere to kind of give you that
information and he's a hybrid,because he knows it's a hybrid
he knows both, yeah whichthere's very few of out there.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I know of one other one.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
That's it oh yeah probably just one other guy that
I know there's two in arizona.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, his real estate company is focused on just that
, so we're homeless.
But yeah, he's only two guysthat I know about.
That's interesting.
So you get a client and wantsto sell their, that wants to buy
a house um, no, forget that,let's you give account.
Wants to sell a house and theyhave solar on their house.
How does that change in the wayyou're going to market the
house and the things you'regoing to do with that client
versus somebody that doesn'thave solar?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Sure.
So the first thing is I need tolook at their solar agreement
and see all the numbers, thebenefits.
I want to see their energybills because I need to paint a
picture.
I need to be able to educateagents who are bringing buyers
to this property on the solarsystem, be able to sell the
solar system Because, honestly,you can't really sell the house
(08:30):
without being able to sell thesolar system.
So what I like to do is I liketo get all those numbers and
I'll actually create like asheet that shows the benefits of
the solar, the savings, whatthe costs are, what your future
costs are if you continue withAPS, so how you can save money
in the future with the solar,and then I think, once you have
(08:52):
that transparent and people cansee it and you can explain it to
them, then they are definitelymore open to the solar and they
actually like the idea of solar.
Okay, yeah.
Yeah, as long as it's a gooddeal, right it's?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
good, it's not like.
It's not like when people put apool in their house and you go
out there like, oh yeah, there'sa pool and it's going to add
value to my house.
It's pretty easy to sell likeit's.
Solar is very intricate as youif you've been watching our
podcast.
It's very case, specific toyour home and your needs and
things like that.
So someone that's buying orselling a home with solar, you
need to know what those detailsare.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
That's a really good point because we've talked about
.
It's not cookie cutter, right?
So if your habits are differentthan the guy you're buying
from's habits, it's going to bea different situation, right?
If that guy works at home allday and he's constantly home and
using his power that way andyou're somebody that's never
home, different scenarios foryou yeah, I know I've walked
into some homes that would youknow.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
They're trying to sell the home and they have
they're just just their billslaid out and like, oh, this
person has solar and look at,they don't pay anything for
electricity, and I'm like it's alittle misleading, because they
didn't pay anything forelectricity, that doesn't
necessarily mean I'm not goingto pay anything for electricity.
It's how they use power versushow I use power.
So you you have to kind of gointo more details of, okay, what
is the system, how big is thesystem, how much does it produce
(10:04):
?
You know, how old is it?
All the different details youcan't just, you know as an agent
, just show here are their billsRight and you should expect the
same.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Yeah, and if I could touch on that, one more thing,
you brought up a good pointbecause, also, the rate plan
that you're on Exactly, andthat's a huge factor, because if
you're grandfathered in under arate plan before 2017, that
transfers over to the new buyerand it's very important that the
buyer's agent knows that andtells their client that, and you
(10:36):
need to be able to show thosebenefits.
So, yeah, I think it's just amatter of really being able to
educate the buyer agent andtheir clients beforehand.
And it's key to be proactiveand do it upfront, because what
happens in a lot of solartransit or real estate
transactions is agents don'tknow, they don't show the
benefits, they don't know how toarticulate it, and then a buyer
(10:57):
gets under contract and thedeal can fall out in the
inspection Once they do find outand have to do the the transfer
of the solar lease.
So you don't want that kind ofheadache.
And that's where it gets a badand negative connotation, I feel
, because some of these stepsaren't done up front.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah.
So if I'm a buyer looking for ahouse that has solar on it, I
like your approach.
You're saying, basically you'recreating this whole spreadsheet
or whatever it is.
It sounds like you obviouslyhey With your spreadsheets, but
you're creating this wholedocument to be able to show and
educate people on how thebenefit of this, of the solar in
this house, how it works andwhat it means You're you're
(11:33):
having those conversationscorrect All up front.
Yeah, up front.
So if I walk into a house andI'm getting basically, hey,
there's my bills and the agent'snot talking about it, it's
probably instant red flag, couldbe it could be.
It could be, I mean, it dependsIf he doesn't understand solar,
then he doesn't know how tomarket it, that's right.
So that could be that or, likewe talked about before we did
this podcast, there was there'sa lot of deals out there from
(11:54):
back 2017 and prior, especially,but that was when we were least
heavy in Phoenix.
Yes, a lot of sunrun leases, alot of solar city leases, and
they're not good.
They have what's called anescalator, where they go up 2.9%
the payment does every year for20 years, so you got to start
factoring that in and then a lotof them were sold at a very
high price because some of thesesolar people were trying to
(12:16):
make a lot of money.
We talk about that all the time, right?
So you get the combination oftrying to make a lot of money
putting that escalator on it.
Now these are bad leases wherethey're not going to be
beneficial to anybody that walksinto this house.
I've had friends of mine kindof mean say I bought this house,
take a look at this lease andI'm looking at it going yikes,
this is not good for you.
Maybe you should have talked tome beforehand?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Did you already buy the house?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, there's not a whole lot.
You can do about it at thatpoint yeah, you're kind of.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
I think it's important for that real estate
agent to be educated too, and inthe solar system, because
they're already educated in justthe market, the house and all
that you know.
If you have a buyer, let's say,coming from out of state, so
they move to a new neighborhoodand they have no idea what it's
like living in arizona, you knowthey're brand new, so they
don't know anything.
Right, I'm sure they're askingyou questions like how are the
schools here?
What's the crime rate in thisneighborhood?
All this stuff.
So if you start asking whatutility company is this?
(13:07):
How am I getting it built?
What is my solar system goingto do, and you as a real estate
agent, you're like I don't know,it's not a good look on you.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Well, one thing I'd like to touch on.
I don't think a lot of peopleknow about this, talking about
solar, but real estate ingeneral, 95% of the business is
done by 5% of the agents.
Wow.
So I get it all the time Like,oh, so-and-so is a realtor, so
you?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
don't do anything, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Well, he's a realtor but, he did three deals Right
and the industry is set up thatway.
It's kind of an easy entry,which the reason I bring that up
is because if you're not doingthis stuff day in and day out,
you're not seeing thesedifferent solar deals, you're
not a professional.
It's kind of hard to helpsomebody, not just on the real
estate side, but now you'readding solar to it.
That's why I feel like there'sa lot of uneducated agents not
(13:55):
able to help their clients.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Do you service the entire Valley?
Yes, so good to know.
Yeah, because this is what I'mhearing from you and obviously I
already know you, so I'm alittle biased.
But just hearing the thingsyou're saying, if I'm a
homeowner and I want to buy ahome that has solar on it, or if
I'm going to sell a home thathas solar on it, I need to talk
to you and your team 100%.
I'm not going to talk toanybody else because of all the
things we're starting to put outhere.
That's just bad.
Sure, that's really bad.
So you need to.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
In this market because we've touched on many,
many times.
There are shady companies outthere.
You know putting things on yourroof that shouldn't be there,
whether it's unpermitted or not,or you know, or whatever, or
it's a bad deal.
You know, having someoneeducated take a look at it
before you buy or sell it.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
You need to have someone in this market.
It's important, right?
It's an extra step.
So you deal, I'm sure, a lotwith appraisers.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Yes, appraisers in solar.
It's challenging because thelender orders the appraiser
Right and so I don't have a lotof access to them.
Okay, Right before, and I couldsend them a recommendation, and
sometimes we do have to do that, especially if it's an owned
solar system, but I don't have alot of access to appraisers in
general.
(15:06):
Okay, all right, so I won't godown that road.
But I have something to talkabout.
When you're buying solar,that's very important.
Here's another thing thathappens when I sit down with a
client and we get them preparedto go out and look at homes, we
want to see what they couldafford or what they're
comfortable in their payment,right.
And so now if we're looking athomes with solar and it has like
(15:27):
a graduated lease on it, theynow have to count that payment
against their debt to incomeratio, which lowers their buying
power.
And I've actually had agents goout and they're showing, say, a
listing like mine that might bea $500,000 listing and that
client can't even qualify forthat home.
If my house has a graduatedsolar lease on it, meaning it's
(15:48):
an escalator and goes up Right.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah, I was going to say explain what a graduated
solar lease is.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yes, so you need to prep your client.
You need to know thatinformation.
Don't waste their time drivingthem around looking at something
that they can't even look at,right, right.
So what I always do is I'lllook at the house ahead of time,
right.
So what I always do is I'lllook at the house ahead of time.
Ben, you know this.
I pull the solar agreement, getall the information from the
agent.
Even if they don't have ituploaded, I'll get it.
Then I'll send it to my client.
We'll talk to the lender.
(16:13):
Is this going to affect theirpayment?
Yes, it is OK.
So what could they qualify?
So, if you like this house, nowit changed.
And here's the thing about it.
It's not that it's the worstthing, guys.
Okay.
And the reason I say that itstill might be cheaper than APS,
right, right.
Long term, you're controllingyour cost.
It is affecting your realestate, but you'd have an energy
(16:35):
bill anyways, right.
The difference is they don'tcount your SRP or APS bill
against you and your debt toincome ratio.
But if you have a great, that'sright, and you need to
understand that formula.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, in that scenario, could you make it a
condition where the homeownerhas to pay off the lease as part
of the sale?
Speaker 3 (16:51):
I actually had that happen.
Yeah, pay off a lease on abuyout, negotiate the lease Uh,
these are things that I've donepersonally and seen happen.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, it's going to be something that I don't know,
if we were going to get into itlater, but you know what happens
when you do buy a house thathas a solar system, that is
financed or leased, or you knowit's an escalating lease.
Can you know, does thehomeowner have to buy this off
or pay it off before it sells,or can they transfer to the new
owner, or they can theynegotiate the price down to
assume it?
And you know what are theoptions that they have.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
And it's kind of like in real estate.
On the resale market we have astandard contract through the
Arizona Association of Realtorsand I can tell you verbatim what
that is.
When we're dealing withbuilders, they all have their
own contracts.
It's kind of the same thing insolar.
When I see a house that hassolar, I have to pull the
contract.
I have to read through thatcontract because they're all
(17:44):
different.
So it just depends on a case bycase scenario.
But let's say there is anexample of a house that has a
solar lease or some type ofsolar on it.
There is the ability to buy itout and sometimes that does get
negotiated up front.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, that's what I was going to do.
If I sell my house, I'm justgoing to pay it off and just
sell, and just sell it, as it'sjust a benefit of sitting here
saving your money, you're notgoing to cost you anything, that
to me is a very positive.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Yeah, I agree, right, yeah, it's like a prepaid lease
.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
It's like a prepaid lease Right.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
But if you're like, oh, I have five thousand dollars
left on my loan for my solarsystem, I don't have the cash to
you know, roll it into the saleof the home, or drop my price
by five grand to kind of make upthat you know, and it'll be
paid off once the home closesthat deal.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
And great point and it also the real estate market
matters factors into that rightwhen the real estate market's
hot, when COVID hit and themarket went up, yeah, I mean
they had leverage.
So with solar that you're goingto buy that house and do the
graduate lease or whatever thatis.
But now that the market'ssofter, it's a buyer's market
it's hard enough to sell thehome.
(18:49):
If there's solar and you'retrying to negotiate value, it
does make it tougher.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
So it all does depend on the market conditions, 100%,
all right.
So I mean, we're not I'm goingto clarify here.
We're not sitting here sayingsolar is a bad thing, right?
You don't want to have it onyour home or you don't want to
buy a house with solar.
It's just a lot of.
Again, there's a ton ofvariables.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
The common theme with all our podcasts, everything we
talk about, there's alwaysvariables.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
There's going to be times where it's going to be
tougher because of marketconditions, and right now market
conditions are kind of soft.
Yeah, that's about to change, Iwould assume, after the
election.
I think things are going to getbetter next year.
It's funny.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
since election I've already had a listing that was
sitting with no showings.
I've had two showings in thelast two days.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Right, Because now people are instantly feeling
good about things and thinking,hey, the economy is going to
rebound, solar and you're like,but I'm only going to be in my
home for another, like five orsix years.
Okay, take that intoconsideration.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
You know, with your system size and you know, talk
to your real estate agent Like,hey, I'm, I'm here in the home
now.
I want to add solar, but I'monly going to be here about five
or six years and that's even abigger reason why you have to
make sure the company you'retalking to about solar knows
what they're doing and is nottrying to take advantage of you,
(20:09):
because if they take advantageof you.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
You might be sitting on a brick.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah, that's one of the questions I asked to you
know, when I'm talking withcustomers, I always tell them
how long do you plan on being inthe home?
Design a system that's going tobe for you to be there forever.
If it's going to be, you know,just kind of a general system
for whoever takes over the homenext, then we'll make it, make
it work that way and it makesyou make a decision on what.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
if you want to lease, right, you want to finance it,
you want to pay cash for it.
We always say cash is king, andit's always going to be the
best scenario where you get yourun into a home that's got a bot
and so it's a bot system that'spaid for.
That's even easier for you tosell.
Oh, it's huge.
Yeah, it's a huge benefit,right?
So I guess I just want to makethose points.
Is it all matters?
The variables are all there,right?
If the system's owned and paidfor, yeah, that's a value to
(20:54):
that home.
People are going to want that.
If it's a lease and you can payit off within the transaction,
or every, there's a value there.
If it's finance, you can evenpay it off in the transaction as
well if it's financed.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Another thing to touch on that that's important
that I see, is the tax credit.
So here's what happens If I seea solar system on a house, say
I represent a buyer and thatseller did not take the tax
credit and pay down theprincipal, then that might not
be a good solar deal for thatnext buyer.
But if they took the tax credit, they applied it to the
(21:26):
principal.
I would say majority.
Most times that ends up being apretty good solar situation,
right.
So there's a lot of things thatgo into it.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So we've talked about that before.
Just to clarify and that's areally good point actually when
you, when you get a system andyou finance it those first 18
months we talked about whereyour payment's here right, it's
a lower payment, it's a goodpayment for you.
If that person doesn't take thetax credit that they're getting
off of buying that system andput it back into that loan, it
re-amortizes and when itre-amortizes it typically goes
up quite a bit.
(21:57):
It goes up that 30% that youdidn't pay back and now your
payment goes from.
Know, let's say you were 120 amonth.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
now you might be 200 a month yeah, and that's
something you're now payingright because the homeowner
didn't take the tax credits.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
You're now paying for that so it might be a good idea
to kind of, when you, when youlook at the when paperwork and
say, okay, what's the payment onthis, on this, uh, solar system
, what's it producing?
And kind of try to put thattogether and I'm sure that's
probably what you do to figureout what they're paying per
kilowatt hour, because you knowwhat is APS average right now is
what?
16 cents, 16 and a half centson average Sure.
If you have a solar system whereyou're paying that or more
(22:33):
probably not a really good idea,you know, but if you're paying
less than that, you're savingmoney, okay.
Well then you can count that.
Hey, over the next period ofyears I have to buy this house.
I'm going to save money onelectricity because of xyz.
So you need a.
You need someone that knowswhat they're doing.
It's the more I'm thinkingabout it.
Man, it's just so important tohave a guy like michael and his
team, because you could reallyget in a bad way real quick yeah
(22:55):
, no, it's.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
It's good having all that knowledge, because I know
there's times where you know Iwas shopping for a home with
mike and I would say, hey, Ilike this home, let's take a
look at those.
You know it has a solar system.
Send me all their theirinformation.
I take a look and I go, I nolonger like the home.
Yeah, because it was just a baddeal and I don't want to, I
don't want to assume that baddeal.
But then there was other timeswhere like, okay, I like this
home, let send me theinformation on their solar
(23:16):
system.
I look at it.
Okay, this was actually a gooddeal.
This, everything looks legit.
Okay, we're now.
This home still is a good deal.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
And guys.
Something else to talk aboutwhat's out there and we know
this because we put a lot ofthem on myself those fixed
leases from before 2017, fixedrate leases.
If you get into one of thoseright now at the $0.08, $0.09,
$0.10 range, you're saving what?
Almost 50% on your energy bill.
That's nice savings in today'smarket, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And there's a lot of those out there.
So the the things to look for,just to clarify, is if you have
a pre, if you find somebody hasa prepaid lease, basically they
don't pay anything anymore.
They paid it all up front.
It's like a cash purchase rightit's like a cash purchase and
you're just sitting theregetting the benefit of the power
for 20 years, however manyyears are left.
Um, if you have a fixed ratelease where, like I do, I have
an eight cent a kilowatt hourlease, it doesn't change for 20
(24:06):
years.
It's eight cents.
It's that gas card at 99 cents.
That's just nothing but abenefit.
So you have to look at the kindof lease somebody's in or the
kind of situation purchase wisethat they're in, to determine if
it's good or bad for you,because it's going to be good
and it's going to be bad,depending on all these variables
again, that we always talkabout.
So a lot of people out there,when I say real estate agents
aren't educated, a lot of themaren't and they're just gonna
(24:27):
poopoo solar the minute theyhear you know what.
They don't want to deal with it, because they have to do all
the stuff that Mike's talkingabout to really understand the
situation.
Right, you might get somebodythat wants to sell their house
and you might look at this andgo.
This is not a good thing,that's right.
It happens all the time then yougot to either put a plan
together to figure out how tomake it a good thing, or maybe
you have to even walk away fromit.
I don't know if you have, butit becomes a tough sell.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Well, I've had to negotiate out of it because I
haven't been able to sell thehouse.
So that's another thing.
If somebody's in a bad solardeal, we have options and with
my knowledge and background insolar, I've been able to
negotiate out of those deals inorder to sell the house, or else
they can't sell their house.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Do you actually contact the lenders or the lease
companies?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Both yeah, depending.
Yeah, depending on the deal.
Wow, how do they respond?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I know that Sunrun was big back in 2017, them and
SolarCity and I know there'speople sold a ton of leases back
in 2017 and 16.
And a lot of them did thosegraduated leases where they're
going up every year and theywere at 2.9% and I know Sunrun
actually had to come in and makethem zero escalated leases
because they were so bad forpeople because of how high these
(25:30):
dirty people sold them for, andso they did their part.
I give them credit for that.
They actually helped out to tryto help the customers out so
they can sell the homes and bein better situations.
So, yeah, there's so much tolook at when you're buying a
home with solar.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
And another thing, too, guys, is and this is what I
love about your company is,when I sell a house or I
represent a buyer and it hassolar, you guys do the
inspections.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Right and you've been around.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
That's another big deal of getting your solar
system inspected before you'regoing to make this purchase.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, so just like they do home inspections, we do
the solar inspections, right?
So real estate agents will giveus a call and we'll go out
there.
Um, for a fee, we'll go outthere and we provide a complete
report of what we found with thesystem.
Is it working?
Is it not working things thatit might need?
I don't know if you've donesome of them with us.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Yeah, you guys have done some for me, In fact.
Uh, you guys did one.
Um, it was the Phoenix Mercurycoach.
The coach before you did herhouse.
She had a beautiful home, shehad a really big solar system
and you guys came out, did agreat job inspecting it.
There were a few things thatneeded to be fixed or adjusted
and the seller was able to takecare of it and everything worked
(26:39):
out great.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yeah, if you're a buyer and you're buying a house
in solar and you don't get itinspected, that's not a good
idea.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
You're getting everything else inspected.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
As is.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Get it inspected, because you'd be surprised at
things that we find sometimesand it's very important to know
that up front.
And it's such a minimal fee,just like a home inspection,
just like everything else you doat home.
You should be doing thisautomatically.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Speaking of those home, do you find that there are
home inspectors now addinglooking at solar to their tool
belt, or they just kind of saynot my wheelhouse, I'm not gonna
do it?
Speaker 3 (27:11):
my inspector is very good about that.
He does look at it, just itlike very minimal and he'll
always recommend getting aprofessional company like
yourself to do a thoroughinspection.
Okay, but he'll give you kindof like an overview.
I didn't see anything from theoutside.
No panels are broken.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
No loose wires that type of thing, but very, very
minimal okay right, becausewe're going to get in there and
we're going to actually runtesting tests.
We're going to make sure all theinverters are working.
We're going to make sure thepanels are still producing,
right.
There's a lot of things youcan't see just by doing a visual
inspection.
So you can see that stuff, butthere's so much more.
That's one product that Ireally think we finally got in
2017.
We were talking about that andwe finally put it out.
(27:48):
It took us a few years to getthere, but it's such a great
product.
I mean, I know, when I sell myhouse as a seller, I would want
to have that report done and Iwould want to have that on the
table and say here's our solarsystem and here's the report we
did on it.
I don't know if I'm going to do.
I'm going to hire you, soyou're just going to do it.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
I've recommended that to some clients and, um, we
haven't had a situation.
Because the other thing you gotto remember too, guys, when
you're on leases and maybe youguys could talk more on this or
teach me.
This is something that I don'ta hundred percent know but with
these leases, they're fullywarranted by these companies.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, they have a production guarantee now.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
So the key is that um they're still in business,
right?
Speaker 2 (28:26):
as long as they're still around.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
That's a big problem.
So as long as they're stillaround there's an issue, they
have to come out and fix itbecause of the guaranteed
production in the lease.
I understand that piece um, sogetting an inspection at that
time, I don't know if that'snecessarily.
You have to on that type ofsolar right, a lease per se,
because it's warranted,guaranteed, they need to come
(28:48):
fix anyway.
So if it's not producing, youlet them know they'll come fix
it.
But on any purchases oranything like that or warrant
right, like I think it's hugebecause no one's monitoring it
exactly, or even if they aremonitoring it.
there might be something wrongwith it, that is about to go out
or whatever that is, and itmight.
The inverters might not be inwarranty.
Is that still the case?
(29:08):
Inverters are a big expense,yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Well, yeah, if they're under warranty, you know
they're obviously taken care of, but yeah, it is.
It is one of the most popularthings to go out of your system,
your inverter.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
It will go out.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, it will go out.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
The difference is now you have so you have the string
inverters from back when youwere really doing it in the 2017
.
Micro inverters, the ones thatare on the panels, have gotten
more popular.
Yeah, those have a 25 yearwarranty on them.
So those are.
You know, they're going to goout because they're out there in
the sun on the roof.
I mean they're going to go outand, uh, the string inverters
(29:41):
will go out about every 10 to 12years.
That's what they do.
So if you have a lease, that'sa valid point.
If you have a lease, you'reokay.
As long as it transfers to you,you're good to go.
It's covered.
Remember, it's not your system,it belongs to the leasing
company.
You're just buying the power.
So they're going to make sureto maintain that system that
it's working, because, for youneed to protect yourself and
(30:01):
make sure this thing's workingbecause the cost comes back to
you, yep.
So, and if you know, if it's anown system too, I mean the
warranty might cover the part,but it won't cover the labor.
So a lot of them will cover thelabor for the first five years
and they won't cover laboranymore.
So an inverter goes out.
They'll put a new inverter upthere, but you're paying to
actually do the job.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
They're just going to pay for the part so you got to
look at all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
It's very important most people don't think about
that.
They think, oh, it's covered.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
No, the parts, it's bumper to bumper yeah, and
that's exactly how they sell it.
They sell it as a bumper tobumper, but it's not because the
labor is only one to five years.
Don't have bumpers in arizona.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
You only have to do I think it's a one or two year
labor warranty on anything youdo.
Yeah, so, just so you know thatwe do, we have a workmanship
warranty now that's 25 years.
I mean, our warranties havegone through the roof, right,
right.
So we have penetration for 30,workmanship for 25.
Nobody does that, but we're soconfident in what we're doing
and how we do it that we coulddo that.
Yeah, so that's what makesHarmon different.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
And correct me if I'm wrong.
You guys are a roofingelectrical company too that does
solar.
So those are all importantpieces of the process.
What happens, curious, when thelease is over?
So let's say, for example, likeI got a 20 year prepaid lease
on my roof and that 20 years isup, what's going to happen to my
system?
How does that work?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
I got to be real careful of my answer here.
The correct answer is look atyour contract, because on every
lease it has what happens at theend of the contract and you
have to kind of go by those,those terms.
So your options, usually on onall your leases, are at the end
of the contract.
You can either renew it on likea year by year basis.
You can buy the system out atfair market value.
So they'll, you know, come outappraising, oh, if this system
is worth this, you can pay forit.
Or the leasing company willremove it from your roof, um, at
(31:45):
no cost to you.
So those are pretty much your,your options.
That's spelled out on thepaperwork yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
So just a couple points of that.
When they remove it, they haveto put the roof back to
condition correct, so they haveto seal the hole.
They can't just say, okay, see,I'm ripping this thing off so
so think, think about that.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
they have to roll trucks out right, pull that
stuff off your roof, all thewires, seal your roof, put it
all back together.
That's not something that'sdone for free.
They have to pay for that, so acompany has to come out and do
that and pay for it.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
This is where fair market value comes in.
Do you think that a solarcompany or a leasing company
wants to pay for that?
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Probably not, and then what are they going to do
with those 40 modules that?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
are 20 years old.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
I always tell people it's not like leasing a car.
When you lease a car, at theend of your two or three-year
lease, that company can stillsell that used car.
It still has a value.
Ralph, are we selling20-year-old panels at Harman
Every day?
So you have a 20-year-oldsystem that was specifically
(32:45):
designed for you and your home.
20 year old system.
20 year old inverters, 20 yearold wiring, 20 year old,
everything right.
Who's gonna buy it?
There's no value.
So they spent all that moneytaking it off your roof and now
the company's stuck with this 20year old system.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Let's clarify there's no value to the next person to
sell that to right there isvalue to the home it sits on.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yeah, because when I rip it off, that rail is wasted
I don't need that rail anymore,because that was designed for
your house, right those panelsare now.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
You know they've derated 20 years down, so
they're not producing what theywere producing 20 years ago,
still valuable to that home, butnot to sell.
Yeah, it just doesn't make anysense.
So, with all that said, fairmarket value is probably a
dollar, probably a dollar.
Seriously, it's probably goingto be somewhere they're going to
say here's a dollar sign, this,we're done yeah, I I don't see
them doing anything else with itexactly.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
I think at the end of those leasing terms, the
leasing company is going to go.
You know what?
We take a look at this and payus a buck and we'll call it a
day, it's, it's yours and Ithink we're probably about we're
getting close seven, eightyears away, six years well,
leasing started around 2005-2006.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
So those 20 year leases are coming up soon.
It's next year and the yearafter.
We're just hitting it for thefirst time.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
We're going to find out what they're actually going
to do.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
And I think what we're going to see is saying hey
, keep it, Send me a buck.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Everyone's happy.
We've already made our money.
You made your savings.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
And if you don't want it, on my house they have to
yeah.
There's no way around it.
Definitely what I would tellyou to do against.
Don't sign a one-year re-up,yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I wouldn't do that.
Do not do that.
They want it.
They want you to do thatbecause it's extra money for
them.
Don't do that.
But the most important thing isread your contract.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
And every leasing contract it has those clauses of
what's happened at the end ofyour lease.
That's a very good point.
Okay, answer your question.
Yes, no, it totally answered myquestion.
So the fair market thing Ithink I like, because I was like
they're not going to come takethis thing off my roof so no,
why would they?
Speaker 1 (34:32):
yeah, why would they?
Speaker 2 (34:33):
right, and then someone mentioned roofs.
What were we talking about?
Speaker 1 (34:36):
yeah, we're talking about roofs, tax credit roof.
So you're buying a home, it'san older home, got's got an
older roof, it has a solarsystem, or I'm thinking about
getting a solar system.
Should I replace the roof now,before, like when I buy my home,
when I'm adding the solar?
What's, what's the process,what's the order?
Should I buy the home, add theroof, then the solar, or should
(34:57):
I try to wrap it all in once?
What do I do well, what's thebest way to do?
Speaker 2 (35:01):
it the best way to do it in the city of phoenix,
where it's 100 billion degreesevery year and everything gets
worn down outside, so your roofshere don't last very long,
probably.
What?
Speaker 1 (35:10):
10 years max before it has to.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
I think the new home developers will give 5-10 years
on roofs it's 10-year roofwarranty typically, I think the
underlayment usually is 20 to 25years yeah, typically yeah, the
underlayment, the shinglesforget it, they ain't gonna
laugh shingles different.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
So everyone's tiled now right.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
So when you've had a roof and the average, average
house that we probably see thatwants solar is typically 20
years old on tip, that's typical, right, I mean, they're 20 year
old.
A lot of them haven't beenre-roofed, sure, yeah, and the
customer is always like you know, I want to put solar on this
and we inspect the roofs.
We always inspect the roofbecause we have to put a 30 year
penetration on it.
We want to make sure it's notgoing to leak.
So if we don't, if we see that,hey, this thing it's brittle
(35:50):
and we're not messing with it.
But I would highly recommendthat if you're, if you're in a
house 15, 20 years and you wantsolar, should probably do the
re-roof right there and thenroll it into the whole
transaction.
Because I think, according towhat the IRS code is and again,
I'm not a tax expert, I'm notgiving you tax advice.
I thought you were Ben'sdefinitely not a tax expert, but
(36:11):
he'll still give you tax advice, but you need to talk to your
accountants.
But my understanding is what Ibelieve is that you can then get
the 30% tax credit on thatre-roof.
You can roll it in because itis part of the installation of
the solar system.
Again, I'm not saying that's100.
You need to talk to your taxguy or talk to ben um, I'm gonna
(36:31):
keep putting it there to flashmy phone number but that makes a
re-roof 30 cheaper.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
That's right, if you were just smart if you were just
go out and re-roof itself, youwouldn't get that.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
But if you're adding solar to it now, you get that,
because remember now part of thepackage if you add solar to a
bad roof and three years fromnow it's raining which it barely
rains here, but when it doesget the monsoons and rains, and
all of a sudden it's dripping inyour house.
Now you got a re-roof, yeah, doyou think maybe there's an
added expense to removing thosepanels while you're doing the
roof?
Speaker 1 (36:56):
yes, there is.
We just talked about that wedon't remove panels for.
Right, it's not free, it'squite expensive and that adds
value to the home.
Like, hey, I have a solarsystem and a new roof, but when
I got my solar system, I've gotthe new roof.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
There's value there no-transcript is preventing the
(37:30):
heat from going in.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
You know the way it used the panels are taking all
the damage to me yeah, thepanels are taking the damage.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
I would think that's true.
So, yeah, these are basicallyroof covers.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Yeah, yeah roof savers can I have a shade canopy
over my modules as well toprotect those Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Because the ultraviolet rays will still come
true.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
You know, some we didn't talk about guys.
I think is important is thepigeon, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
That's a really good point, because I'm sure that you
come up against that sometimesAll the time.
Yeah, all the time.
So we all know that pigeonslove to nest and they like to
nest under panels.
I found that out right awaywhen I put my solar up.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
This is a pigeon neighborhood, yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
And as soon as I put it up, I didn't have the.
It took them a few weeks to getthe stuff around it.
And man, it was a zoo downthere.
You just start hearing it.
There were pigeons everywhereand then right over my bedroom.
I just wanted to go up thereand start shooting.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
It was kind of sort making a mess over the side of
the house and everything andthey could get into the wires,
you know, because they're gonnabe nesting and you know there's,
there's those home runs and thewires under there that you know
pigeons right.
So what we?
Speaker 2 (38:28):
do is we go.
We go to your system and we putnetting it's.
It's a plastic mesh or a steelmesh, I think it's more steel.
Um, it goes completely aroundthe arrays that we put on your
roof and this way the pigeonscan't get underneath there.
Funny, funny story is I.
I remember somebody that didthat one time when there was a
pigeon under there and theyforgot about him and they
covered him up and they left.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
They left him in there.
Now you have a pet trapped.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
We didn't do it but, eventually they had to go up and
get him.
So he was totally a nice littlepet but like I'm sure you run
into homes and neighborhoodswhere you see that there's
pigeon, you know stuff.
I was gonna say the wrong word.
Yes there's all over the floor,the side of the house they're
eating up the wires, are doingand they're just everywhere on
that house all the time.
Yeah, and that's just bad.
You have to know it.
You know if you're in a pigeonneighborhood, right, you just
(39:11):
know it.
If you, if you've been there atleast a month, you know it.
I know I am it's, I hate it.
So you have to protect thesystem against it's just another
thing and also a lot of thesystems we do today.
It just seems like more andmore they're getting the actual
electrical panel upgrades.
So when you're getting a new, anew solar system, a new roof, a
new electrical panel upgrade,it's all value yeah.
(39:31):
And you're getting it done forcheaper by doing it with the
solar system than you are doingit separately.
Yeah, you know, can you get atax credit on that?
Again, talk to your taxprofessional, it's part of the
transaction.
So yeah, I mean technically,but I didn't say that Right.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
Ralph does my taxes, by the way, that's why you're in
jail.
I get audited every other month.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
So I think the point of this podcast, and number one,
is to talk about the realestate perspective and what
people think um on that side ofthe business, and I think it's
important to understand that ifyou're not educated on something
, no matter who you are, um you,you tend to probably just poo
it and say, yeah, I don't reallyknow much about it, so I don't
deal with that.
That or you get taken advantageof.
That was my next point.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Okay you can go ahead and make it.
No, you're doing it.
I don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
All right.
So either you're gonna turnyour back from it because you
don't want to deal with it,because you don't understand it
and you don't want to take timeto learn about it, or someone's
going to take advantage of you,right?
So you need, if you're going todo this, if you're going to, if
you're going to buy a home withsolar, if you're going to sell
a home with solar, you have tohave somebody that knows the
industry, that understands solar, and Make sure your cousin
knows what they're doing.
Well, and it speaks to that.
(40:45):
You just said this a few minutesback and I was on the podcast,
but you said that what 90%?
Speaker 3 (40:50):
95% of the business is done by 5% of the agents.
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
But that's, it.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
I saw a stat I don't have the research on this
currently, but there wassomething like 22% of business
in Phoenix is done by three realestate teams, and I won't
mention those names.
I'm not one of those teams butthey're big call centers is what
they are.
Right You're not gettingnecessarily that same attention,
but the point is is it's reallyimportant to have somebody
(41:18):
that's a professional and isdoing transactions day in and
day out on a regular basis,especially when you're seeing
solar and the different types ofsolar?
How many solar companies arethere in the Valley Just over
the years?
A couple hundred, come and goright.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Yeah, especially lately, they've come and gone a
lot.
We've seen a lot of and we'regoing to actually do a podcast
that's going to touch on thatwhere we're going to talk about
how a lot of these installersand companies have moved out of
the market or have gone bankruptor whatever, um, and what that
means to the market and whatthat means to you if you have
solar.
But yeah, there's a ton of them.
They're going out every everyyear.
You know we'll have two, 300 ofthem and all of a sudden you're
, they're just gone.
(41:53):
They just come in here Biggestoffender in this state where
Arizona, we have a high powerusage people coming in from
other states doing a cash grab,selling as much as they can,
then leaving the state and theydon't care what they put on your
roof, right, they partner withan installer, they just put what
they can put on and they're outand they make their money.
Worst scenario for any customerto go through, and those are the
ones that you're going to seethat there's bad deals, bad
(42:15):
deals, yeah, bad deals.
So there's good solar systemsales, there's bad solar system
sales and it impacts you downthe road whether or not you want
to sell this house, so youreally need to be smart about
who you're having put solar onyour house.
We do get that at Harmon, whichis why we have these
conversations and we put thisout there.
We want to arm you guys withthis, and you have to have a
(42:35):
real estate agent or a team thatunderstands these things as
well, or you're going to be introuble.
I wouldn't want to go into thiswithout someone like you.
I mean, I just, I just wouldn't.
I want you to do all the thingsthat you know that you need to
do to protect me and um and andto help the bring the right
people in that want to buy thishouse for the right reasons.
I don't want to screw anybodyeither, right?
So no, no, you do it well.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
I just know a lot of people out there have solar and
they just don't understand it.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Yeah, they just don't I mean, like I said, friends of
mine buying a house with solarand not talking to me about it.
That's just not smart, right?
You know who you are, like youlike you know what I do for a
living right, I mean you've gotto ask the questions, you got to
leverage the experts, andthat's why harman's around, and
(43:20):
that's why michael wiley and histeam are around.
Those are the experts, right?
So we brought in a real estateexpert to kind of show are we
missing anything?
is there anything we want totouch on?
I think we've talked about alot.
Yeah, it's a lot of stuff.
Go back, rewind, keep watching,not like a tape rewind, but you
know what I'm saying, you cango, we're going to have this
contact information.
Speaker 3 (43:37):
Yeah, okay, mike.
Yeah, thank you guys,appreciate it, we're gonna.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
We're gonna put up Mike's name and his contact
information.
You can say it.
They'll go ahead and say it.
If someone wants to reach youor your team, what do they do?
Speaker 3 (43:47):
They can contact us.
They can go to my website atmichaelwileyteamcom.
There's a contact there.
My number is 480-343-4534.
Or email me at mwiley athsmovedcom.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
And that's all on the bottom of the screen.
Right now you see thatinformation.
I would highly recommend thatyou contact Michael if you're
looking to buy a home that hassolar, if you're looking to sell
a home that has solar, or ifyou're just looking to buy or
sell a home, it doesn't matterif it has solar or not, but I
mean definitely if it has thesolar stuff.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
So there's nobody else that I would call yeah, and
if you want solar, we find youa know, find the right deal and
package it up so it all workstoo.
So that's one last question.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
We're not done yet, folks.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
If someone comes to you and says, hey, I want a home
, you know getting a lot ofpeople that come out of state.
They come in here and they go Iwant to buy a home, I want
solar on my home.
What do you do?
What would you ask?
What questions do you ask?
What's your process?
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Yeah, and that that.
So my process is first thing, Ieducate them on solar and
different options.
Now I tell them I am not asolar professional.
I used to sell solar.
I know enough to be dangerous,but I also have the resources,
the people that I can connectyou with right, which is where I
would lean on you guys.
But you know, we'll talk aboutthe benefits of solar, what that
(45:01):
looks like house Because yougot to look at orientation of
the roof, right.
I mean, if you've got asouth-facing roof that has a lot
of space, that's a good housefor solar.
Yep, right, right.
So there's a lot of differentthings that go into it, but I
just try to educate them as muchas I can and then let them make
informed decisions, yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Pretty easy that way.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Yeah, I think so.
I mean, there could be asituation where, hey, maybe we
can't find what you need withsolar on it, but we'll get it
put on there, or we'll get itput on there, you can help them
with that too.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
That's exactly how I approach it.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
So there you go, you got all.
This is the guy.
This is the guy.
I told you, I got a guy.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
That's the guy.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
You guys need to reach out to him and his team if
you're looking to buy or sell ahome that has solar or just you
know, in real estate in general.
We brought him on here for areason.
You know us.
We only talk to the top tierpeople in the industries that we
trust, and so Harmon can put astamp of approval on his
forehead and say this is a realestate guy that we trust.
So think about that.
We'll be back next time.
We've got some really goodtopics to get into.
We're going to talk about themarket and what's changed in the
(46:01):
solar market, a couple otherthings.
So we'll be back, but hey,thanks for watching and we'll
talk to you again.
Thank you, thanks, guys.
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