A sales rep is paid to close. Your job is to make sure the deal is right for you before you sign anything that runs 20–25 years. Slow down. Ask hard questions. Get the answers in writing. The list below covers what is worth confirming in every conversation — license and references, equipment and warranties, performance guarantees, fees, ownership, and what happens if you sell the home or the installer restructures.
Background and credentials
Verify the company's credentials before anything else: ask for the license number in your state — CSLB in California, ROC in Arizona, NC General Contractors in North Carolina, and so on. Look it up yourself on the state contractor board website. Check the company's history, any complaints, any disciplinary actions. If the rep gets defensive about this question or cannot provide a license number on the spot, that is disqualifying.
Ask whether the company is bonded and insured. Get the insurance carrier name and policy number, and call the carrier yourself to confirm the policy is active. Insurance matters because if something goes wrong during install — a damaged roof, an injured worker, a fire — you do not want to be the one chasing payment.
Ask for references from installs completed at least five years ago, not five months ago. You want to talk to homeowners who have lived with their system through multiple summers and winters and seen real production data over time. Call those references. Ask if production matched the proposal, whether the company has been responsive to service calls, and whether they would hire them again. A confident installer has no trouble providing old references.
The system itself
Ask exactly what is being installed. Get the specific panel model, inverter model, racking, and any optional add-ons like monitoring or rapid shutdown. Ask why the rep chose these components. Some installers custom-tailor to your roof and usage. Others install the same configuration on every home. Neither approach is automatically wrong, but you should understand why this gear is going on your roof.
Ask about the warranty on each component. Panels typically carry a 25-year production warranty. Inverters are usually 10–12 years from the manufacturer; Enphase and SolarEdge microinverters often run 25 years. Get the exact warranty period for each component in writing. Then ask who handles warranty claims when something fails — the manufacturer, the installer, or a service contractor — and who pays for labor when a part is replaced under warranty.
Ask about production monitoring. Who provides the platform, and can you access it directly without going through the installer? Manufacturer-direct platforms like Enphase Enlighten and SolarEdge mySolarEdge let you see system performance even if your installer's situation changes. Third-party monitoring tied to the installer can vanish when the company does. Register your account with the manufacturer's portal the week your system is energized.
Performance guarantees in writing
Get a written production guarantee in kWh on paper before you sign — this is the part most reps would prefer to skip. Ask for the guarantee in kWh — not a polite estimate. The installer should be able to tell you exactly how much electricity the system will produce in year one, along with the assumptions behind it: panel orientation, shading, weather data, and equipment degradation rate.
Then ask what happens if production falls short. Some reps will say production varies and hand you a non-binding estimate. That is not good enough. You need a contract clause that specifies the guarantee in kWh and the remedy if it is missed. Does the installer repair or expand the system at their cost? Do they pay you per kWh of shortfall at your retail rate? Get the answer in writing.
The performance guarantee is your protection against undersizing or design mistakes. Without one, you are betting entirely on the rep's competence and have no recourse if the year-one estimate misses by 20%. With one, the installer has skin in the game on the same number you are buying against.
Cost, fees, and ownership
Ask for the all-in cost itemized. If you are buying, that means equipment, labor, permits, dealer fees, and any financing costs. If you are leasing or signing a PPA, it means the monthly payment, the escalator rate, the contract length, and the residual value at the end of the term.
Ask specifically about dealer fees. Some companies add a charge called an acquisition cost, broker fee, or loan origination fee. This is money that goes to the installer or a middleman, not toward your equipment, and it can run several thousand dollars on a $25,000 system. Ask how much it is and how it shows up in your contract.
On a lease or PPA, ask about the escalator. Get the rate in writing, confirm it is capped, and confirm it is pegged to inflation or a specific percentage — not to the company's discretion. A 3.9% uncapped annual escalator over 25 years materially changes the deal.
Ask whether you are receiving Section 48E tax credit value, the only federal credit still available to residential homeowners in 2026 and only through lease and PPA financing. How much of the credit is passed through to you as a lower payment, and how much does the company retain? Some pass through the full credit. Others keep a meaningful share.
Finally, ask who owns the system, who controls shut-off, and what happens if you later want to add a battery or a second array. Some lease contracts restrict additions. Know before you sign.
Long-term service, sale, and recovery funds
Ask whether routine maintenance is included. Modern systems need very little — annual inspection, occasional cleaning, and a string-inverter replacement around year 12–15 if your system uses one. Clarify who covers each of those if it comes up.
Ask how service calls work. If something breaks, how do you report it? What is the typical response time, and what is the labor charge once you are out of warranty? Find this out before you have a problem, not while you have one.
Ask what happens if you sell your home. If you own the system outright, you own it forever and the value typically rolls into the sale. If you have a lease or PPA, the contract follows the property and the buyer has to qualify and assume it. Ask for the transfer process in writing, including any transfer fee and any right-of-first-refusal clause the solar company has on a sale. If the contract contains a clause that lets the company block a buyer, ask for it to be removed or narrowed.
Finally, ask whether the company participates in your state's contractor recovery fund. California's CSLB Recovery Fund and similar programs in other states protect homeowners when a contractor damages property and refuses to make it right. Licensed installers should be participating. It is your backstop if installation goes badly and the company's insurance falls short.