Three ways to have solar, three different sales
If you own the system outright, it is simply part of the house, and the conversation with a buyer is about documentation and performance rather than about obligations they are taking on.
If you are paying off a solar loan, the debt is yours. Either it is settled at closing out of the proceeds, or it has to be dealt with some other way, and a buyer will want clarity about which. That is a manageable situation but it is not automatic, and it is worth understanding the payoff terms of any loan before you sign it.
If you have a lease or a power purchase agreement, you do not own the array. A third-party owner does, and Section 48E, the commercial Clean Electricity Investment Credit, survives at 30 percent and is available to those third-party owners, which is part of why the arrangement can look attractive up front.
The sale consequence is that a buyer generally has to qualify for and assume the agreement, or you have to buy it out. Ask any lease or power purchase agreement provider, in writing and before signing, exactly what happens on a sale: what a buyer must qualify for, what a buyout would cost, and how long a transfer takes.
Keep the paperwork that makes a sale easy
Whoever eventually buys your house, and their inspector and insurer, will want to see what was installed and that it was done properly. Assemble that file while the project is fresh rather than years later from memory.
Keep the permits and inspection sign-offs, the interconnection paperwork, the equipment specifications with model numbers, every warranty document with the name of whoever honours it, and the record of your property tax exemption filing.
Warranties are the part that most often goes missing. Panels, inverter and workmanship are frequently covered by different parties on different terms, and a warranty you cannot document is a warranty a buyer will discount to nothing.
Note who honours each one. A company that has left the market cannot support a workmanship warranty, which is one reason an installer's durability matters as much as their price.
The exemption and the electricity plan do not follow you
Texas Tax Code Section 11.27 exempts 100 percent of the appraised home value added by an installed solar energy device from property tax, claimed by filing Form 50-123 with your county appraisal district, generally by April 30 for the current tax year.
That exemption attaches to the property rather than travelling with you, so a buyer should be told it exists and shown the filing. Equally, if you move to another Texas home and install solar there, it is a fresh filing with whichever county appraisal district covers the new address.
Your electricity plan does not transfer either. In the deregulated market you buy electricity from a retail provider under a contract in your name, while a separate transmission and distribution utility owns the poles, wires and meters. A buyer will choose their own provider and their own solar buyback plan.
So when you describe the system's savings to a buyer, be careful to describe what the system does rather than what your particular plan paid you. Their return will depend on the plan they select, and overstating it helps nobody.
The exemption you have to claim, and the credit that ended
Texas Tax Code Section 11.27 exempts 100 percent of the appraised home value added by an installed solar energy device from property tax. It is not automatic. Form 50-123 must be filed with your county appraisal district, and the deadline for the current tax year is generally April 30.
Ask whether your installer assists with the filing, and put the deadline in your own calendar regardless. An exemption you qualified for and never claimed is the most avoidable cost in a Texas solar project, and unlike the rest of the arithmetic it is entirely within your control.
The federal position has changed and a great deal of published material has not caught up. The 30 percent Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, so a cash or loan purchase now does not receive it. A quote that still applies it is overstating your return substantially.
Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements, so such a provider may claim it and reflect part of that value in the rate they offer. What they claim and what actually reaches you are separate questions, so ask both and confirm with a tax advisor rather than with the sales material.