Find out early whether design review applies
Ask the city early whether your address sits within a historic district or is otherwise subject to review of exterior alterations, and what that process involves. It is a short call and the answer shapes the design rather than following it.
If review applies, treat it as an input to the layout rather than a rubber stamp on a finished one. Approaching design review after equipment has been ordered around a specific plan is how projects end up redesigned, and that cost falls on you.
Ask what the review calendar looks like and whether there are application deadlines. A body that meets monthly sets the rhythm of your project rather than your installer's schedule, and missing a deadline by a day can cost a month.
Ask your installer whether they have taken a project through review in this city before, and agree in writing who is responsible for that filing alongside the building permit.
Older roofs, and what to establish about them
Panels outlast most roof coverings, so a covering within a few years of the end of its life should be replaced before the array goes on. Removing and reinstalling a system to reach the roof underneath is a cost with no offsetting benefit.
Ask for a condition assessment rather than an age estimate, and consider getting it from a roofer rather than only from the company selling you solar. Ask how many layers of covering are present and what the structure underneath is.
Ask what covering material you have and what mounting method the roofing manufacturer approves for it. Slate, tile and metal are all attached differently from asphalt shingle, and an installer whose experience is entirely on one is not automatically right for another.
On a constrained roof, ask how the usable area was calculated and what setbacks or access requirements reduce it. That determines the largest system you can actually fit, which is often well below what the roof looks like it should hold.
What a modest system still earns here
Virginia Code Section 56-594 compensates a residential system of not more than 25 kW one-to-one at the retail rate for exported electricity. Full retail crediting means a smaller system is not penalised the way it would be under a below-retail export regime.
Certificates stack on top. The Virginia Clean Economy Act requires at least 1 percent of Dominion Energy's annual requirement to come from in-state distributed generation smaller than 1 MW, which is what creates demand for a rooftop system's certificates.
To sell them you register your system and work with a broker, and a seller does not have to be a Dominion Energy or Appalachian Power customer to sell into the Virginia market. Certificates are eligible to be sold for 5 years and prices move with the market.
Ask for the net metering savings and the certificate income to be shown separately across a year rather than combined, since only the first is set by statute.
Ask your locality about the property tax exemption
Virginia Code Section 58.1-3661 allows any county, city or town to exempt or partially exempt certified solar energy equipment from local property taxes by adopting an ordinance. This is the detail most often got wrong about Virginia solar, because it is a local option rather than a statewide rule.
A guide that tells you Virginia exempts solar from property tax is only right where the locality has actually adopted an ordinance, and it may be a partial exemption rather than a full one. Ask your county or city commissioner of the revenue directly whether an ordinance is in place and what it covers.
Where adopted, the exemption is effective beginning in the next succeeding tax year and is permitted for a term of not less than five years. Ask what term applies locally, since that is the horizon you can plan against.
On the federal side, 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 receives no federal credit. Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements, so ask any such provider what they claim and what of that value reaches you, and confirm with a tax advisor.