PACE is that "government program" you hear people talking about–– although that's NOT correct. It is a private loan program that allows you to pay back your loan by adding the payments to your property taxes, but it is NOT sponsored or part of the government in any way.

PACE stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy, a program created to allow homeowners a way to pay for energy efficient home improvements such as a new Roof, Solar Energy, Impact Windows, new Air Conditioner, and more. They have much easier rules to qualify compared to traditional loans, and the payments are added to the property taxes. It's currently only available in 3 States: Florida, California, and Missouri.

Yes, as a Solar Dealer, we connect you with PACE programs from leading providers like ReNew, GoodLeap, and HomeRun. We prioritize finding the best deals that match your financial needs.

The biggest ones are: Ygrene, ReNew, HomeRun, GoodLeap, FortiFi, Alliance NRG, Renovate America. There's a few more, but those are the main ones

The ideal PACE customer is one that doesn't have the credit score or sufficient income to qualify for a traditional loan, but has lots of equity in their home. Because PACE puts more emphasis on the owner's equity, not on their credit. In short, PACE should be used as a LAST option, not a first option.

Each company might have more specific requirements, but generally, all PACE companies have the following reqs: 
1) you can't have any bankruptcies in your credit history
2) you have to be current on your morgage
3) you need to have paid your property taxes on time for atleast the previous 3 years
4) you can't have a reverse mortgage on your home

PACE financing is extremely easy to qualify for, which is why lazy contractors often offer them to everyone by default, even if their Client could qualify for a better loan. PACE loans also offer 100% financing, which make them attractive to customers that want a zero down payment option. The interest you pay on your PACE loan is typically tax-deductible, and since the loan is attached to the property and not the owner, it can be transferred to the new owner if you were to sell your home if the buyer's lender is OK with it and the buyer wants to assume the loan. If not, this could be present a MAJOR problem (see below), as most lenders don't like PACE liens and will want the loan paid-off in full and the lien removed first before approving a mortgage loan to the new buyer. 

PACE loans are paid back using property tax assessments, and are considered a tax lien. PACE loan payments ("assessments") are treated with equal weight as county Property Taxes, and therefore, not paying your PACE loan is equivalent to not paying your property taxes, and could lead you down the path to property tax delinquency and possibly even foreclosure. 

Also, it can be difficult to sell a home with a PACE loan attached because it stays with the property, not the owner, and therefore transfers over to the next owner. Some mortgage lenders will not give a mortgage to someone who wants to buy a home with a PACE loan attached to it, often requiring the PACE lien to be removed first. The same applies to refinancing–– most lenders won't approve a refinance loan until the PACE lien is removed first. And lastly, interest rates on PACE loans are usually higher than traditional loans, and sometimes require large balloon payments 1-2x a year, depending on your loan

Ygrene, one of the largest PACE providers, faced legal action from the State of California and the Federal Trade Commission, and were forced to cease operations nationwide for repeatedly misleading consumers about the financial impact of the loans on selling or refinancing their home, and for placing liens on properties without the homeowner's consent, oftentimes before the work was even completed.

Ygrene agreed to pay a significant fine and to stop deceiving customers, to more closely monitor their local contractors to make sure they're not using misleading information or  high-pressure sales tactics, to obtain the homeowner's express consent before placing a lien on the property, and to establish a clear process for releasing liens from properties.

This whole incident was embarrasing not just for Ygrene but for the other PACE lenders as well, as this incident highlighted similar issues within the broader PACE industry.

Like we said earlier, EcoPower NRG offers these programs through our network of local contractors due to consumer demand, not because we particularly like them. When we offer them, we make all the Pros, Cons, and loan details crystal clear to the homeowner, and haven't received any negative feedback yet from past clients regarding their experience–– once again proving that PACE can be a good option if there is no better option, and when the homeowner is well-informed and 100% aware of the program's pluses and minuses to watch out for.

As you can see, we give it to you straight. From our experience, we don't recommend PACE loans unless we've exhausted all other options and couldn't get the homeowner approved for anything better.

In summary, based on past experience with PACE and other loan programs, if you can't afford to buy your system cash, and you can't qualify for a traditional loan with favorable terms, and your PACE loan offer is anything short of excellent, you're much better off just using our BillSaver℠ program and skipping all that mess altogether.