This question has been on my mind for a long time and now I want to find out.

What is involved? Is this going to be really expensive or am I going to make a profit?  What benefits can we create for the tenant, the environment and ourselves, etc.

So, I’ve decided to go on a journey. I want to find out if it’s doable to put solar panels on our investment property.  Ultimately, I would love to create a “win-win-win” situation:

1) The tenant wins
2) The environment wins
3) and as long as this doesn’t cost too much, I win too.
That is the kind of deal I like. Our property is a two storey, four bedroom house in Western Sydney. We built it in 2011 as our own home. It has a concrete tile roof with plenty of north facing roof space and no large trees or buildings blocking the sun.  It’s pretty energy efficient with good thermal insulation and shaded windows (BASIX took care of that). It has ducted air conditioning upstairs and downstairs which is great but also downlights downstairs which (from an energy perspective) is not so great.

It is currently tenanted by a family (a couple and two kids) and their energy bills were $850, $420, $290 and $680 for the last 4 quarters.

I’m always on the lookout for opportunities where there are multiple people (or in this case) the environment who benefit.

There are several challenges I see that need to be tackled:

1)  How do I make sure that I get a good quality system for a good price?
2)  How do I make sure that I get an installer that is still going to be around in 5 years time if I need to make a warranty claim?
3)  How do I get the tenant on board?
4)  How do the finances work?
   4.1) how will I pay for this (from savings or a personal loan or a mortgage top up?)
   4.2) what can we ask the tenant to contribute?
   4.3) what can we claim as a tax deduction, if anything?

I am keen to get feedback & suggestions.

This is the start of my journey.  I need to create a plan and get answers to my questions. I understand I might be missing important topics or considerations so would love to hear from you.  To help me with my questions, this week I’m conducting a survey, see below. I’d love to hear from you if you have experience with solar on an investment property.
#Solar, #investment property, #environment

-Survey-

    Do you have solar?

    When was the solar installed?

    [radio radio-210 label_first use_label_element default:1 "prior_to the property being tenanted", "during_tenancy, on our initiative", "during_tenancy, on the tenants request"]