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Solar Resale Evidence Guide
A historical study average is not a household estimate. Keep the result unavailable until current local market, appraisal, system, and contract evidence is available.
Historical population studies cannot establish a current value for one property. Ownership status also cannot be converted into a zero-dollar resale effect. Keep the result unavailable until a qualified appraiser evaluates current local comparable sales, the system and its performance records, and the actual ownership, financing, transfer, payoff, or buyout documents.
- Confirm who owns the panels and whether another party has a security interest.
- Provide system age, capacity, condition, production history, and warranty records.
- Provide the complete loan, lease, or PPA transfer and payoff terms, when applicable.
- Use current comparable sales and market reaction selected for the subject property.
Primary-source boundaries
The 2015 Berkeley Lab study analyzed sales from 2002–2013 in eight states and limited its photovoltaic sample to homeowner-owned systems. The April 16, 2019 Zillow analysis covered homes sold from March 1, 2018 through February 28, 2019. Neither population result is applied automatically to a current household.
Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-1.3-05, dated June 4, 2025 requires market reaction and ownership structure to be evaluated; its rule that third-party-owned panels are excluded from appraised property value does not prove that a particular sale-price effect is zero. The resale evidence guide explains these boundaries. If resale value is part of a bigger equity or timing decision, consider a financial advisor via AdvisorWorld alongside your agent and appraiser.
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