Selling a home with a Vivint Solar system

So, you’ve decided to sell your home but aren’t sure what to do with the Vivint Solar system on your roof. Don’t worry—we will absolutely help you with this. In this article, you’ll find helpful information about what you need to know in order to sell a home with a Vivint Solar system.

Step 1: Prepare to answer questions about your Vivint Solar system

Potential buyers will have questions about your Viving Solar system, so we recommend that you’re prepared to answer them. Here are some things you’ll want to be prepared to address:

• “How big is the system?” You can find this by logging in to Account Center and downloading your “CAD” from the Documents tab.
• “How much energy does it produce?” You can pull this information from the production page on Account Center or the Vivint Solar App for Apple or Android.
• ”How does it work?” Feel free to direct prospective buyers to our website for information about how solar panels work.
• “What have your past electricity bills looked like?” You can either show them past copies of your utility bills or just give them a rough estimate of how much you usually pay your utility company each month.
• “Have you noticed any other benefits since going solar?” You can speak to these yourself, or direct them to our website again for information about the benefits of solar energy.
• “What does the contract with Vivint Solar look like?” You can provide the prospective buyer a copy. If you can’t find it easily, don’t worry - you can download it from Account Center by visiting the Documents tab.

We also recommend printing several copies of the Vivint Solar Home Seller Guide and leaving them out for prospective home buyers to read.

Step 2: Find a good representative

We recommend that you find a realtor, lender, and/or title company already familiar with residential solar and how it works. If your representative understands the solar process, it will make a huge difference in your home selling experience.

Step 3: Collect your paperwork

At some point during the selling process, your realtor may ask you for certain documents, including the design of the solar system (see step 1) and the last four to six months’ worth of bills from your utility company and Vivint Solar. Like the design, you can access your Vivint Solar billing history by logging in to Account Center and clicking on the “Manage Payments” tab.

Step 4. Determine your selling options

Your selling options vary depending on the type of contract you signed, along with when you signed it. To make this easier on you, we’re going to review each contract type and the options that go with them.

Loan Agreement

If you signed a Loan Agreement, you have a couple of options when it comes to selling your home:

Option 1. You can talk to prospective homebuyers about taking over the remaining life of your loan. It will be up to our loan provider to determine whether or not the new homeowner is eligible to take over your loan, but we recommend talking to them about it so you’ll have a clear idea of their requirements.

Option 2. As long as you’re eligible, you can increase the overall cost of your home to cover the balance of your solar loan. Though you’ll want to keep making payments while your home is on the market (hopefully it doesn’t take too long to sell), once the sale goes through, you may have enough to pay off the remaining balance of your solar loan.

Cash Purchase Agreement

There’s really only one option for you if you purchased a system by paying Vivint Solar directly. Similar to financing the purchase through a lender, you can increase the overall cost of your home to include the value of the Vivint Solar system. We recommend getting your home appraised to accurately account for its value with the Vivint Solar system that you purchased.

Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) or Lease Agreement

If you signed a PPA or Lease Agreement, your options become a bit more technical, and here’s why...

After we installed your solar energy system on your home, we contacted your county clerk and had them place a notice regarding the system (commonly referred to as a UCC or PUC filing). This notice basically says to other third-parties, “Hey, just an FYI, the solar energy system on this home belongs to Vivint Solar.”

It’s possible that other lenders may tell you that we have placed a lien on your home—this is incorrect. A notice on record is not a lien and should never be mistaken for one.

Why do we do this, you may be wondering? The simplest answer is because we own the system and want to ensure we’re notified if you ever choose to sell your home in the future (which you obviously have).

If you recall from your discussion with your Sales Manager, one of the benefits of a PPA or Lease Agreement is that we agree to own, install, activate and maintain the solar energy system at no cost to you. In return, you agree to monitor the solar energy production and have the opportunity to benefit from the clean energy your system generates.

Because we still own it, we also want to keep track of the solar energy system, so we always know where it is and how it’s working. As an extra measure of security, we contact your local county and pay a fee to place a public notice filing with them. If you ever go to sell your home, you, your agent and/or title company will see the record and know to contact us about the process of selling a home with a Vivint Solar system.

Step 5. Call or email us

If you signed a Loan Agreement and are ready to transfer your solar loan to the new homebuyer, please contact your loan provider so they can help initiate that for you.

Otherwise, at least two weeks before closing, please Contact Us. This will give us enough time to start the paperwork, so everything goes smoothly. We’ll also send you any information you need to make your home sale go smoothly for you—so sooner is better.

When you call, please be prepared to give the following information:

• Home buyer’s first and last name
• Home buyer’s current home address
• Home buyer’s email address
• Home buyer’s phone number
• The projected home closing date

Once we have all the information, we’ll reach out to the new homebuyer to ensure they fill out all the necessary paperwork before the home closes.

For more info, download the selling a house with solar packet