Solar Panels on a rental in TX

[Ernest Plasencia]

I am closing on my first SFH that will eventually be rented out in Harker Heights, TX. The neighborhood and surrounding areas have tons of homes with solar panels.

I am about to start running numbers on the possibility on costs/energy savings/ and electrical company potential credit back from

Energy collection. I’ll figure out how to calculate that the hard way.

Has anyone had success with it? Is it even profitable on a rental?

Pros-

no money down, free installation.

Maybe some credit back on utilities

Cons- Additional monthly expense.

[Pete Harper]

I see zero potential ROI on Solar Panels for a rental. I assume the tenant is paying for utilities. Are they going to pay more in rent vs a property without solar? I don't think so, especially in Texas where people are not familiar with the technology.
I seriously looked into solar on my private residence in CA. I’m not as familiar with TX but in CA solar didn’t pay. PGE payed you at the lowest rate for energy you produced during the day. At night when you are not producing you bought back at the highest rate. At end of the year you paid true up charges. Talking to others their true up charges we close to my annual power bill. Then you need to figure in annual maintenance cost and the high probability of a TX hail storm.