Primary Homes with Solar - Sales Questions

[Nicholas Simopoulos]

Hello all,

I've put solar panels with a backup battery on my primary home within the last year. To finance the system I went through a 3rd party which provided a 25 year loan with a 2.99% interest rate (not bad). Payments are comparable to my electric bill. 

However, payments only stay low if I use the full 2021 tax credit (about $14k) on paying down the loan, otherwise they jump 35% monthly. Total loan amount and rate do not change though.

My question to you all is, what do I do with the $14k credit? 

More background information:

I don't plan to stay in this house for more than 7 more years

I'm okay with taking a small loss on the solar panels because I believe in sustainable energy. 

If I were to sell the house, there is an option for the new owner to outright pay off the new system, or to inherit the current solar project loan. If that were the case, the amount of payment (base payment v. base+35%) they make would depend on what I do with the $14k credit. 

I also have a primary loan and a HELOC on my residence. I could consider refinancing the HELOC, primary and solar loan altogether, mostly because the HELOC isn't getting paid back fast enough (4.1% rate on that, but it's variable so could rise). I am cautious about doing this though because I refinanced my primary in 2021 and got a good 2.75% rate on it.

I don't want to decrease the marketability of my home either by refinancing the solar into the primary and making a new buyer pay for the solar outright, or by spiking the payment that they would inherit. However, I don't know what the market's appetite is like for primary homes with solar. Any guidance on that would be extremely helpful.