Solar is a Silent Investment but a very good investment that pays dividends if you buy right. it’s not a bright shiny object, You can’t drive it, you can’t wear it, and you can’t eat it. That’s one of the things that’s making solar a tough sell in Florida. Solar is a sound investment because you’re already paying the power company the money to invest, redirect your power bill to an investment. It’s an identical comparison to owning a home versus renting a home, buying is an investment renting is not.
The other thing that makes solar a tough sell is what it costs. Solar isn’t really that costly for the equipment and installation. The costs skyrocket when you start calculating the overhead for solar companies.
When I say it’s not that costly for the equipment and installation that’s compared to the ROI. If you spend say $12000 for solar and deduct 26% tax credit your net cost is $8,880. So if it offsets modestly a $140 of electricity usage every month, it pays for itself in 5.25 years.
This Is Where It Gets Crazy!
Now, this part is hard to believe, every single solar company has $7000 to $9000 in additional costs. That’s just to break even! We know who’s absorbing that cost and it’s not the solar company.
When I would do a solar presentation not only did the customer not understand why the price was so high, so did I. That was until I broke down all the hands in the pot, it’s insane!
Salesperson and sales manager commissions combined were about $4,000 average. Then the office warehouse and utilities are easily another $1000 a deal. Permitting and proposal builders another $800 a deal. Then the cost of vehicles and insurance is another $200 a deal. Now the cost of the leads per close is an additional $1000.
Those expenses are added to every single solar deal. That’s just to break even and we know they’re not in it to break even. So add another $3500 to $5000 and that’s how they get to $32,000 for a 7K system.