Tesla Solar Rental purchase

[icycool]

Has anyone who is renting Tesla Solar Panels tried ending the rental and purchase the solar panels from Tesla?
There is an option to do so in the agreement, but I am curious as to what type of pricing Tesla is offering for purchase.

 

[arnolddeleon]

If it's at the end of the contract, the pricing is reasonable. I purchased my "leased" system last year.

I looked into buying out the leased system *early* in the life of a system for an investment property. That didn't much sense since the buyout price was the basically the same as the remaining payments.

 

[GregBallantyne]

It is at the end of the lease - or at least the one on my mother's house is like that. I tried to buy it out a few years ago. It's not an option until the initial lease runs its course. Our family trust still leases the system.

 

[arnolddeleon]

It is at the end of the lease - or at least the one on my mother's house is like that. I tried to buy it out a few years ago. It's not an option until the initial lease runs its course. Our family trust still leases the system.

If it is at the end of the lease, they should give you a price. The place I expect to have leverage is if the contract has the free removal option at the end. Removing the system makes no sense for them, it is all expense. There is almost zero salvage value. It is in their interest to give you a good price for purchase or continue the lease. Usually, the math says buy it.

 

[GregBallantyne]

If it is at the end of the lease, they should give you a price. The place I expect to have leverage is if the contract has the free removal option at the end. Removing the system makes no sense for them, it is all expense. There is almost zero salvage value. It is in their interest to give you a good price for purchase or continue the lease. Usually, the math says buy it.

My thoughts exactly. In the case of my mother's house, I tried to leverage the fact that there was a deed change when she put the place into a trust. The lease payment was no better than the local grid op's standard supply rate, and I thought if I could leverage a buyout the trust could get rid of the payment. But, since the lease was about halfway thru, there was no avenue to try to use that sort of leverage. It's been a few years so I don't recall all the details... One choice would have been to see if defaulting would actually trigger any removal action, but that might have resulted in some negative unforseen outcomes so I decided to just continue the lease.
In your case, it should turn out differently.