Potential home purchase in Northern California with solar PPA + batteries — looking for thoughts/advice
My wife and I are considering purchasing a home in Northern California, East Bay to be exact. We reviewed the solar documents and are trying to understand whether this is considered a good setup or something we should negotiate harder on.
Here’s what we know so far:
- Solar is NOT owned outright (appears to be PPA/third-party owned)
- Monthly payment: about $365/month
- Escalator: 0% annually
- Long-term agreement (~2050 timeframe)
- Includes batteries/powerwalls
- SolarEdge inverter warranty through 2050
- PG&E statements show strong production/export credits and very low electric bills in some months
Questions:
- Does this actually sound like a decent solar setup for California standards?
- Is a 0% escalator considered a major positive?
- Would you try to negotiate:
- seller payoff/buyout,
- seller credit,
- lower purchase price,
- or just assume the agreement?
- How important is the current buyout amount in evaluating this?
- Would inheriting this type of PPA scare off future buyers later?
- Anything else we should specifically watch out for before moving forward?
Trying to be thoughtful here since this is our first home purchase and we also have a young child, so just trying to make a smart long-term decision.
Appreciate any insights from people who’ve dealt with similar solar agreements.
EDIT:
One additional detail we learned after reviewing the actual signed agreement more carefully:
It appears the system cannot be purchased/bought out until after the 5th anniversary of the commercial operation date (system appears to have gone live around late 2023, so roughly 2028 timeframe before buyout eligibility).
So unless I’m misunderstanding the contract, it seems like we would need to assume the PPA first and could only potentially buy the system later at Fair Market Value (FMV).
We’re also planning to ask whether they can provide:
- estimated current FMV,
- projected buyout estimates,
- or examples of how EnFin typically values systems at buyout time.
For those familiar with PPAs:
- does this materially change how you’d evaluate the setup?
- Have FMV buyouts generally been reasonable in your experience?