Call your insurer before you sign
Ask your home insurer three questions before installation. Is a rooftop solar array covered under my existing policy. Does it change my premium or my deductible. Do you need to be notified, and what documentation do you want after installation.
The deductible answer is the one that most often surprises people, because wind and hail deductibles are frequently set as a percentage of the insured value rather than a flat amount. Understanding what you would actually pay after a hail event is part of understanding the purchase.
Ask what documentation the insurer wants on file, and provide it promptly once the system is in. A claim years later is much simpler when the equipment, model numbers and installation date are already on record.
Do this before installation rather than after. It is a short call, the answers occasionally change the decision, and there is no version of this conversation that is easier to have once a storm has already happened.
What the panels are rated for, and what the warranty pays
Ask what hail rating the proposed panels carry and how the mounting is specified for wind. These are ordinary specifications an installer should be able to produce without hesitation, and an evasive answer is informative.
Then ask what the warranty actually pays if a storm damages the array, because equipment warranties commonly cover defects rather than weather damage. Weather is usually an insurance question rather than a warranty question, and conflating the two leaves people believing they are covered twice when they may not be covered once.
Ask who honours each warranty and for how long: the panel manufacturer, the inverter manufacturer and the installer for workmanship are frequently three different parties on three different terms. Get the model numbers in writing, since a warranty you cannot document is a warranty you will struggle to claim on.
Ask what a panel replacement involves in practice too. How quickly can a damaged panel be sourced and swapped, and what happens to production in the meantime.
Settle the roof before the array goes on
Panels outlast most roof coverings, so a covering within a few years of replacement should be replaced before the array goes on rather than paying later to remove and reinstall it. In hail country that sequencing question comes up more often than elsewhere.
Ask for a condition assessment rather than an age estimate. A roof that has been through a hail season or two may be closer to replacement than its age suggests, and the installer is not the only party whose opinion is worth having.
If the roof has been replaced after a claim, find out how many layers of covering are present and what the current warranty position is, because both affect the installation and what it will cost to do properly.
Getting this right is worth more than most equipment upgrades. Removing and reinstalling an array to replace a roof underneath it is a cost with no offsetting benefit, and it is entirely avoidable at the quoting stage.
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.