A few years ago, a leased solar system on a Chandler listing barely came up in negotiations. Buyers were waiving inspections to compete for a house that would get eight offers by Sunday. Nobody had time to read a solar contract line by line.
That era is over, at least for now. Redfin's data for the three months ending in May 2026 put Chandler's median sale price at $520,000, down 2.9 percent from the same period a year earlier, with homes taking an average of 49 days to sell. Earlier in the year the picture was even slower: one market tracker put January 2026 inventory at 598 active listings with homes sitting a median of 70.5 days. That is not a crash. It is a market where buyers have room to read the paperwork, and where a solar lease that used to be background noise can now become the thing a buyer's agent flags before writing an offer.
At the same time, the tax rules that made leased solar an easy sell just changed. The federal residential solar tax credit under Section 25D ended for any system placed in service on or after January 1, 2026, following the One Big Beautiful Bill. That credit never transferred to a home's buyer anyway, since it belonged to whoever originally paid for the system. But it mattered indirectly: it made buying out a lease before listing cheaper, because a seller who converted a leased system to owned could sometimes offset part of the buyout with that same 25 percent-plus credit. That option is gone in 2026. Arizona's own incentives, a 25 percent state credit up to $1,000, a sales tax exemption on equipment, and a property tax exemption on the added home value, are all still in place. But the federal cushion that used to soften a lease buyout is not.
Put those two things together and you get the actual shift: the same leased system that was invisible to a buyer in a seller's market is now a line item a buyer's agent can use for leverage in a slower one, and sellers who want to clear that friction by buying out the lease are paying full price for the privilege.
Three Paths Once You're Under Contract
Every leased or financed solar system resolves one of three ways at closing, and each one changes the deal differently.
| Path | What Happens | Typical Cost | Effect on the Sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buyer assumes the lease | The buyer takes over payments and the remaining contract term. The solar company runs its own credit check, typically looking for a FICO score around 650 or higher. | No direct cost to the seller | Industry data from SEIA and EnergySage suggests leased-solar sales take 15 to 30 days longer to close than comparable homes without solar |
| Seller buys out the lease | The seller pays the remaining balance before closing so the system transfers as owned equipment | Often 60 to 80 percent of the original system cost, even if the lease is years old | Removes the friction, but without the federal credit that used to offset part of that cost in prior years |
| System is relocated | The solar company physically moves the panels to the seller's next home | Roughly $2,000 to $5,000 | Only realistic if the seller is staying in the area and the new roof qualifies |
None of these is automatically the right call. A seller moving out of state has no use for relocation. A seller with a lease that's only two years into a twenty-year term may find the buyout number brutal. And a buyer with a 620 credit score simply cannot assume a lease that requires 650, no matter how much they like the house.
The Lien Most Sellers Don't Know Is Sitting on Title
Leased systems and financed systems create different problems, and the difference catches people off guard. A lease is a service contract. A financed system, one purchased with a solar loan rather than cash, usually comes with a UCC-1 Financing Statement filed against the equipment itself. That filing acts like a lien, and a buyer's mortgage lender typically will not fund the loan until it is cleared. Homeowners who paid cash upfront or who assume their system is unencumbered are sometimes surprised to learn a UCC-1 was filed anyway, simply because that's standard practice for financed installations. Before listing, it is worth confirming with the original solar company or a title company whether any such filing exists on your specific system.
Owned Solar Still Pays. Leased Solar Is a Different Product.
The value case for solar ownership hasn't gone away, and the data is worth separating from the lease conversation entirely. National analysis has put the average premium for owned solar around 4.1 percent of home value. A separate 2025 study of installed systems found premiums running higher, up to roughly 6.9 percent in high-adoption states that include Arizona, adding an estimated $20,000 to $30,000 depending on system size. That gap reflects how mature the local solar market is, not a contradiction.
Getting credit for that value at appraisal requires documentation. A 2025 Appraisal Institute study found that 68 percent of residential appraisers now formally value solar systems, up from 41 percent in 2020, which means most appraisers today know how to account for it if you hand them the right paperwork: production history from your monitoring app, whether that's Enphase Enlighten, SolarEdge ONE, or the Tesla app, along with a utility bill comparison showing usage before and after installation.
Leased systems don't get this treatment. A lease is a monthly obligation the buyer inherits, not an asset the appraiser can credit toward value. That distinction, owned versus leased, matters more than almost anything else in how a solar system affects your listing.
Why the Name on Your Utility Bill Matters
Chandler sits across two utility territories, and which one serves your address changes how attractive your system looks to a buyer. North and west Chandler, including downtown, the Fashion Center area, Chandler Viridian, and the corridor near Arizona Avenue and Chandler Boulevard, tends to run on APS. South and east Chandler, including Ocotillo, Andersen Springs, the San Marcos corridor, and neighborhoods near the 202 heading toward Dobson Road and Mesa, tends to run on SRP.
That split isn't trivia. APS bills residential customers under its E-27 time-of-use plan, with on-peak hours from 4 to 7 p.m. on weekdays year-round. In summer 2026, that on-peak rate runs around 29 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared to roughly 10 cents off-peak, and APS layers on a separate demand charge tied to a household's highest 15-minute draw, which tends to catch anyone running central air hard on a Phoenix afternoon. SRP structures its rates differently. A buyer evaluating whether to assume your lease is really evaluating whether your system's savings, under your specific utility's rate structure, are worth taking on the payment. A system that pencils out well under APS's time-of-use rates might look different to a buyer moving into SRP territory, and vice versa. Confirming your utility before you list, rather than assuming, gives you an accurate answer instead of a guess.
What to Pull Together Before You List
- The original lease or loan agreement, specifically the buyout schedule and any escalator clause that raises payments annually
- A recent utility bill to confirm whether the home is served by APS or SRP
- Twelve months of production data from your monitoring app
- A utility bill comparison showing usage before and after the system was installed
- Written confirmation from your solar provider on relocation eligibility and cost, if that's a path you're considering
A Few Straight Answers
Does a buyer's lender care about a solar lease? Often yes. Many conventional lenders count a solar lease payment as part of the buyer's debt-to-income calculation, the same way they'd count a car payment, which can affect how much home the buyer qualifies to purchase.
Is owned solar always worth more than a home without it? Generally, based on the premium data above, but only if the appraiser has the documentation to credit it properly. Without production history and a usage comparison, even a strong system can go unrecognized on paper.
Does it matter which utility serves my specific address, or just which one serves Chandler broadly? It matters at the address level. Two homes a mile apart can sit on different utilities with different rate structures, and that difference changes what a buyer is actually inheriting if they assume your lease.
If you're weighing whether to buy out a lease, wait for a buyer to assume it, or price your listing around the friction either way, that's exactly the kind of decision worth talking through before you put a sign in the yard. Eddie Villalobos and his team work with sellers across Chandler and the East Valley on exactly this kind of transaction detail. Start Your Property Search today and get a straight answer about what your specific system means for your specific sale.
