Is Home Solar For Everyone? Part 1 With Manny Hernandez

Is home solar for everyone? Or is solar just snake oil? I have not been sold on solar because of past conversations with solar contractors and realtors as well as home owners. As of now no one has explained solar to me in a way i could understand it and how solar would benefit me. So does it really work? And is solar for all home owners?

I met the owner of Solar Service Professionals Manny Hernandez when he hired me to inspect his home from a referral courtesy of his realtor Larry Cook. I had no idea Manny was in the solar business, but when i found out i picked his brain and quickly asked him to be a guest on the podcast.

Manny has years of experience in all solar industry positions which makes him very knowledgeable about designing, installing, monitoring and inspecting solar systems for proper operation.

This multi part podcast will cover all things solar, so sit back and relax as Manny educates both you and me about the pros & cons of solar. Be sure to listen to all parts of this Solar podcast so you can make an informed decision if solar is right for you and your family.

You can contact Manny Hernandez Directly

https://solarserviceprofessionals.com/

866-765-7767

Transcript

John Laforme: 0:00

Buying a home. Don't panic. Just listen to the rest of this podcast Welcome to my podcast everybody. My name is John laforme. I'm a certified home inspector and the owner of home inspection authority. My podcast allows me to share my day to day home inspection experiences and knowledge to help homebuyers, homeowners, realtors and other home inspectors set realistic expectations with each other during the home buying process. Okay, everybody, I'm sitting here with the CEO of solar service professionals. We fix solar, Manny Hernandez.

Manny Hernandez: 0:41

Yeah, sounds a little formal. Like that. You know, I had a customer once. Bless his heart. He's passed now and I'll tell you the story about it. Oh, but I'm young, right, obviously,

John Laforme: 0:52

how old I am. 30 is 30. Yeah,

Manny Hernandez: 0:55

I've been me. Yeah, I've been doing this a long time. But I gave him the card. And my long story short, the lawyer said, if you're going to be the owner of the company, you can't mix funds and you got to be the CEO. You're an employee. So you have to be a position. You can't be the owner. Right there in a corporation is no one owner. Right?

John Laforme: 1:16

Well, is he referring to not raping the company? Taking all the money? Yeah,

Manny Hernandez: 1:21

exactly. Okay, so then I'm like, alright, well, then CEOs, you know, so a customer said, hey, you know, your business card is kind of pompous. He's like, you're young. How can you be a CEO and you're out here and meeting customers. You're not a CEO CEOs in the executive branch. Right. And in up in the office, I'm like, Well, what do I what I put owner I mean, it's not a sole proprietorship here, right? Right now, right? This guy lived in Encino. He lived on off of until Boulevard by the Range Rover dealership. Okay, I put in solar for him through a referral. About a year ago. I get a text or a call from that referral saying he died. He was murdered. Whoa, in Encino. There was burglars that came into his house and shot him dead. He came home from the grocery store found him shot him dead. He was on the news. There was helicopters ABC seven was covering it. There's helicopters over the house and I see my solar system on the house. I'm like, oh my god, I can't believe he's he's

John Laforme: 2:32

he got killed that's not the way you want to be noticed for you. So Well,

Manny Hernandez: 2:35

yeah. But it's it's anyway, that's a short story about the CEO thing I every every time someone says oh, the CEO I think of that guy. Because he's the one that told me you're a pompous

John Laforme: 2:46

Rest in peace, man. Yeah, that's that's a sad story. Dude, that's going on right now. That's the world right now. Yeah,

Manny Hernandez: 2:52

it's there's a lot of crimes. You know, a lot of those Beverly Hills people you can't wear nice watch. You can't drive a Lamborghini. It's an I

John Laforme: 2:59

don't know. I don't quite understand why the way that the police department is not able to get ahead. Get ahead. I just don't get it. I will look at I look at other smash and grabs. People walk into Target and just filling up bags and walking out. I'm like, What the fuck? Yeah. What is that about? Yeah, I mean, oh, because it's not over $1,000 with the damage they're not going to do to do anything. It was given everyone carte blanche to go rob everything. Yeah, that is so fun.

Manny Hernandez: 3:27

I think I think the tides turning though I think people are realizing that. It's like, hey, we can't defund the police completely. You know,

John Laforme: 3:33

you know what I love the most. I love this the most about watching people go in the stores, fill up the bags, and watching all the fucking cowards, the men that are standing there, right? Returning on their phones to record it and do nothing. They're there. I'm like, Why is nobody walking up to the clerk, you know, and just choking the shit out of him. choke him out from the back. You know, these guys, they're they're totally vulnerable that they got their backs turned to everybody. Anybody could just tackle them and just snuff this thing. Yeah. And make them get out. You know what I mean?

Manny Hernandez: 4:10

So this guy with this customer that happened? It was happening. I don't watch the news too much. That's a lot of bad shit on the news. You know? Just it's also good stuff. Well, yeah, but it's a get it's a lot of negative don't get your news off Facebook. You'd

John Laforme: 4:24

be fine. Well, yeah, well, actually, I

Manny Hernandez: 4:26

cut out social media. Or you did yeah. Okay. I was gonna ask you probably one of the few young ins millennial millennials that smart just it's just so

John Laforme: 4:35

I don't know, right. Do you advertise on any social media?

Manny Hernandez: 4:37

I still kept the company social medias a smart Yeah, solar Service Pros hashtag.

John Laforme: 4:42

Now, but what do you have that you have it on? You have it on Twitter? Yeah.

Manny Hernandez: 4:46

Instagram, we have Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. Those are the main ones and what

John Laforme: 4:51

how do people find you on that? Give me what each one.

Manny Hernandez: 4:53

It's all of them are at solar Service Pros. So Service Pros.

John Laforme: 4:57

So real quick. I know we jumped into Some. Yeah, a little bit. Let me let me get back on point here. Okay, so Manny and I met through Larry Cook your relative Yeah,

Manny Hernandez: 5:10

my realtor. I trust him. 100% I knew him. You look like you work out. Kinda. Yeah. Just a little bit. Yeah. So he was my, him and his wife have triangle theory, personal training, right. And I worked with him for a while. Maybe two years?

John Laforme: 5:27

Are you just in training with the Oh, yeah,

Manny Hernandez: 5:28

I know how to train right. I'm not in the best shape right now. I probably stopped training for about eight months. But prior to that I was working out daily with a personal trainer. But he went into real estate about four years ago. And so he helped me with you know, we've been looking at houses for a while. And he said, I have the perfect guy for the home inspection. Don't look anywhere else. So I trusted him. And you showed up, right? Yeah.

John Laforme: 5:51

And you gave me a big compliment when we're at your job that day, because I was on a plumbing leak in the back. You looked at me goes worth every penny.

Manny Hernandez: 5:59

Yeah, well, that's true. Yeah. Well, I got I got credit from the from the

John Laforme: 6:03

that's the whole selling man. Yeah, that's the point. They didn't

Manny Hernandez: 6:07

they didn't want to budge on the on the credit. But I told him listen to you, you have this, this and this, which I wouldn't have known if you didn't, right. So if you didn't just flush the toilet and come out and like hey, that's weird. Yeah,

John Laforme: 6:20

yeah. The Manny's new house. He bought about this back in the beginning of May,

Manny Hernandez: 6:25

beginning of May. So did you go through with it? We got the keys this Tuesday.

John Laforme: 6:29

Awesome. Congrats, man. That's awesome. Yeah, hang on. We gotta get some applause going. Here was my applause button. Yeah, there you go. All right. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. And now they're home sold. Yeah. And inspected by the authority. So anyway, man, he's probably the biggest problem I found over there. Aside from the mold issues, I noticed in your garage and stuff like that. He had a, there was a guesthouse built above the garage. And I think the Looney Tunes character showed up to actually install the plumbing. And they ran ABS plastic through the wall at the exterior and ran it all the way down one storey into the ground. And the sun job was droid it

Manny Hernandez: 7:10

was actually an error. So you saw crack. Yeah. And it was leaking. Right when the sun did that. Yeah, son did that. Yeah. So when I had the the septic guy, the plumber, come out and inspect the sump pump and figure out what the situation was there. Yep. When we went to take that off and shove a camera through it, the whole thing came down. So it was actually worse. Oh, wow. So that as soon as you touched it, it fell apart. Yeah. So plumbing should definitely not be exposed. If it's not any

John Laforme: 7:40

ABS plastic. Or PVC and

Manny Hernandez: 7:43

PVC. PVC is even worse.

John Laforme: 7:44

Plastic. The sun destroys everything, everybody in case you don't know that already. Yeah. Long enough in the sun. It'll destroy it. So

Manny Hernandez: 7:51

which is which is funny. People. We I think we all we all know that. But then we forget when salespeople tell homeowners, Hey, your solar system, no maintenance needed. Just buy the $30,000 system, put them outside, on your roof in the elements. Right? And you're not going to need mate. It's not true. The sun in the weather beats everything up.

John Laforme: 8:14

That's true. It does beat everything up. So Okay. Today we're gonna talk about solar because of your position. Yeah. And I'm really happy I met you. I gotta be honest with you. i After meeting you and talking to you, and then realizing that you actually had the solar service company. I was like, Oh, this is great.

Manny Hernandez: 8:30

Yeah. So when I showed up, you thought I was the help.

John Laforme: 8:33

I didn't know who you were. Yeah.

Manny Hernandez: 8:35

I'm like, Hey, how's it going? And he's like, Oh, the I'm not the owner. Like, I know. How's it going? No, no, I'm not the I don't know. I'm the owner. I'm asking you how?

John Laforme: 8:45

I didn't know.

Manny Hernandez: 8:46

And I wrote up in the

John Laforme: 8:48

in the I'm gonna push back now that's Larry's fault for not introducing us. Yeah, that happens a lot. You know, I'll show up. The realtor won't won't even introduce me to the buyer. Sometimes. I'm like, there's like five people show. I'm like, Who the fuck are these people? Yeah. Why this ain't a house the house party

Manny Hernandez: 9:03

and you don't know who's there? Yeah, who's here? Who's gonna? Yeah, you the chimney guy. The you know everyone else there? Yeah. So

John Laforme: 9:10

it was pretty funny how he met that then I realized you had a sense of humor. So that was good. Yeah. Maybe he's a funny guy. So I'd have to invite you over to some barbecues. Yeah, definitely. All right. So I gotta be honest with you. When when I first years ago when I first talked to the first person about solar, all's I can think of was snake oil. Yeah. I was I could think of was just flat out nonsense. You're borrowing from Peter to pay Paul for your electric bill. I just never had never had a conversation with anybody that just gave me a straight. Well, this is how it works. John, this does this. This does that it was always a shell game. And I'm like, Look at these guys that you out of your fucking mind. Are you telling people that? How is that how are you going to tell someone that that has an education He doesn't understand what BS sounds like, because it all sounded like BS.

Manny Hernandez: 10:06

What What year was that?

John Laforme: 10:08

Oh, that was probably see it's 23. Now I'd say at least 15 years ago.

Manny Hernandez: 10:13

15. Okay. Yeah. So that would have been,

John Laforme: 10:16

and then and then everybody since then, it hasn't been much better. Yeah, no,

Manny Hernandez: 10:21

no, I have to disagree with you. I've seen a lot of bullshit in the industry. And the market figures it out, right, people will find out what's BS, what's not. And those companies have gone out of business. But yeah, you're right. Long story short. People didn't really know how to sell it. ethically. That's the thing. So I've been, I've been sober since 20 2011. So 2011. Yeah. And I was in college. And I was an IT background, computer science guy. Okay, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. And I will set it up telemarketing for a solar company. They needed someone out to come out. And I was in college and the saw was cheap. And so they needed someone cheap to the nose networking, set up the computer, set up the stations, the dialers, because they knew you were cheap. Yeah, I mean, I'm young, I was young, they paid me 20 bucks an hour. It was like, you know, it was like, great.

John Laforme: 11:21

They didn't think you were cheap. They knew you were naive, because you're just learning. That's right. Yeah.

Manny Hernandez: 11:25

So. So I worked for them. And the owner came out and said, Hey, listen, I have a position opening. One of my project managers in idiot, and your logical, your computer guy, you know, A, B and C, why don't you become a junior project manager and manage the solar projects? I'm okay, because I but before you do that, you have to learn every position underneath, so that you understand how to manage it, and what are those positions. So the first one is a surveyor, that's the, you know, that's the bottom barrel of the industry, you just go out and measure the roof, take photos, analyze what's going on. There's not much expertise there, anyone could snap a photo, right? You're not doing any of the analysis, and you don't have the experience, the engineer looks at your photos and makes the decision. After that, it's a junior project manager, inspection and inspector to come out and actually meet city inspectors installer to actually put the panels in, and then engineer the way you design the system. So I've essentially held all those positions. And at the beginning, there was a lot of BS, there was a lot of just blatant lies of what the return on an investment is that from

John Laforme: 12:39

the top, the bullshit coming from the top, I just didn't know what they were doing. On the bottom,

Manny Hernandez: 12:44

people didn't know what they were doing. At the bottom, it was a salesman, taking advantage of the government rebates. And this is from 2011 to 2014 I see at now is the most blatant, like a beat abuse of just lying to people and just just trade bullshit.

John Laforme: 13:02

Everybody check your records, if you had sold for them within that timeframe, you might want to go back and double check. Yeah, and cross your eyes.

Manny Hernandez: 13:08

There was there was so the way you the way solar is priced. It's like almost any industry, it's by a rate. So a lot of like flooring is a rate per square foot. Sure, right roofing rate per square foot solar, is dollars per Watts price per watt. So if you have a solar panel, very simple math, it's 100 watts per panel, for example, there are 400 Watts now, but let's say 100 watts per panel, and they sell it to you for $100. That's $1 per watt. Right. And so as you expand this, the average at the time was about maybe $5 per watt. And the government was maybe subsidizing about $3 of it, which, you know, on a $50,000 system, the government was gonna give you 30,000. So it was, you know, that's the boom here in California, San Fernando Valley, all of a sudden, California just blew up. So there's a lot of salesmen, snake oil salesmen, like you're saying, right, snake oil, baby, they saw it, and then went in and just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

John Laforme: 14:16

Alright, so hang on, I need to educate some people. Sure. I took the pleasure of going to this thing called Google Yeah. And looking up what snake oil meant. Okay. So for all you youngsters out there who are not familiar with it, okay, snake oil is a term used to describe deceptive marketing, healthcare fraud or a scam. Similarly similarily snake oil salesman, has a common label use describe someone who sells promotes or or is a general proponent of some valueless or fraudulent cure remedy or solution.

Manny Hernandez: 14:53

Yeah, and the way I also think of it is Fly By Night companies. Yes, right. They come in, they sweep in they do Whatever they got to do

John Laforme: 15:00

that, well, that's most contractor services, they all have that they all have that ability to do to do that every every electrical plumbing, it doesn't matter who you are as a contractor. Everyone has that ability to do that. So I wouldn't kind of I do actually, I do have to generalize that because that can happen to any, any any contractor industry. Yeah. So I got some questions for you here. Yeah. So I'm a homeowner. Yep. I'm not a fan of solar. I'm being honest with you, not only because of what I just told you, yeah. And, you know, as a home inspector, I'm looking at these things on people's roofs. And all's I think of is, well, there's a potential leak there. There's what 3040 miles on one side of a house. So to me, I kind of wish I didn't know what I know. Right? You know, it's one of those things.

Manny Hernandez: 15:52

You saw how the sausage was made? Yes.

John Laforme: 15:56

Yeah. So anyway, let me let me go push a little further on that. So sure. So with that in mind, it's it's, that's in my that's in my head. But having solar to me is, it makes sense for some situations, but not all. In my head. That's how I think, but I did recently buy some solar from my house. Oh, no, I wanted to show you what I bought.

Manny Hernandez: 16:22

Okay. Oh, don't give me a calculator. Okay.

John Laforme: 16:26

I bought a landscape solar light. Those were my yard. Now asked me why I bought this. Why did you buy that? Because I don't have to plug a cord in anywhere. You don't have to pipe anything. Anything? Nothing. So my house I just moved in here like eight months ago. Okay. And I don't have a bunch of electrical outlets in the backyard and why I'd like to light up my yard. Make it look nice at night. Bah, bah, bah. And I'm like, You know what? I try to

Manny Hernandez: 16:52

be one of those costs. 10 bucks. So you saw my property?

John Laforme: 16:56

Watch this. Watch this. Yeah, it actually works. It's pretty dumb. It's not going to lay up the house, you know, like a Christmas tree. But it's

Manny Hernandez: 17:06

more though. Yeah, yeah. No further those. Yeah. So would you get it on Amazon?

John Laforme: 17:10

No, I actually I walked in to Lowe's and they had this 10 bucks. Right. Soon as you walk in the door. They want everyone to know about it. Ya

Manny Hernandez: 17:17

know, those work? Yeah. So you saw my property? Right? Yeah. Yeah. So I need to get a bunch of those fakers. It's dark out there. Yes. And yeah. You know, just walking out to the driveway and getting, you know, trash cans or whatever. You

John Laforme: 17:30

might run into a coyote or a bear or Well, mountain land out there. Yeah. You know, you live in a very, like, off off the grid type area. Yeah. What so you'd be a good candidate for solar, but

Manny Hernandez: 17:41

you already have it. They have? Yeah, it's a shitty solar system.

John Laforme: 17:44

Yeah. So but I remember you telling me it wasn't working. Right. Something wasn't working. Right.

Manny Hernandez: 17:49

Well, okay. So let's go back to your question. So you don't? You're not a big proponent of solar, but you got this.

John Laforme: 17:55

But this to me makes sense. It makes sense. It totally makes sense. Yes. That's it. That's that's, that's so

Manny Hernandez: 18:01

you're you hit home on something solar is not for everybody. Even though the solar installation companies want to tell you it is it's not. So the way solar works. It's essentially let's say, you have a high electric bill in the San Fernando Valley. Really, all of California is now getting hot, unless you live with by the ocean. It's really hot everywhere else. San Fernando Valley and Gabriel Valley. Inland Empire,

John Laforme: 18:28

Georgian hills, I call it Hell's Kitchen. It's so hot. Right over there.

Manny Hernandez: 18:32

So we all have a high electric bill because we use the air conditioner. Yep, that's the main driver. And a lot of the homes also have pools. So there's pool pumps that are just running eight hours a day. That's expensive. And a lot of them haven't been retrofitted. Right?

John Laforme: 18:47

So if the the old single speed pumps, they're just constantly putting out all that power constantly. Otherwise, you know, nowadays, you can get the variable the variable speed. Yeah. Which is very effective. Yeah, it's only using a bit of that power. So

Manny Hernandez: 19:02

we use a lot of electricity for those homes, right? But the same house can have a family of four or five, or it can have a widow, right? We're gonna have you know, a little lady your grandma. And she uses a different amount of power right in that family. So it's not for everybody, because the solar investment the capital investment that you put into it. We're looking at nowadays it's maybe starting at 15 grand and up back in the day it was probably 30 grand and up

John Laforme: 19:33

I mean, for like a 50 100 square foot house or the first San Fernando

Manny Hernandez: 19:36

Valley home. Alright, so okay. Yeah,

John Laforme: 19:39

so how do you guys that is that now when you say for San Fran, San Fernando Valley home and that could be many sizes. So to me it to me a basic average size of a house is 2000 square feet. Yeah, so

Manny Hernandez: 19:50

it seems Yeah. So it probably be about 20 panels. Now we'll we'll go into the specifics you want but panels are different sizes are produced differently. We just like just like cars, some are faster, some are slower. Depends what you're looking for. I

John Laforme: 20:04

say, right.

Manny Hernandez: 20:05

I didn't know that. Yeah. So they're different. But it goes based off the system size. And bottom line, they're expensive. But it makes sense if your return on investment is there. So let's say, What do you pay for electricity now? You know,

John Laforme: 20:22

there's my utility bill, brother.

Manny Hernandez: 20:24

Okay. Water and Power. My electrics right there. Okay. So this every month, yeah. So, okay, I'm looking at it. I'm looking at a bill here from the Water and Power Company. And the top line amount is $404. That's because

John Laforme: 20:40

I forgot to pay last month's bill.

Manny Hernandez: 20:42

So there you go. Okay, so, so what's the current charges? 202. Yeah, so 202. But over that 202 It's only 33 bucks of electricity. Right? Right. So a lot of people get stuck on that 202 solar panels aren't going to do anything for your water, solid waste, or sewer? That's correct. Right. So it should 33 bucks. Don't worry about it. You don't need solar, right. Generally speaking, if you have a $200 a month electric bill, on this line item, it's it's 200 bucks. Right? Then it's worth it. Why? Because if you do the math $200 a month, times 12 months is what? 2.4 2420 402.4? Yeah, 400 bucks. Yeah. If that 2400 bucks. And then you say, well, the solar system costs 15. Grand, right? I don't know if you have a calculator here. But if you do the math, right. Let's see, I'm pulling up my iPhone here. Get this.

John Laforme: 21:40

I knew I forgot something. Today. I knew I was gonna have to do some maths. I

Manny Hernandez: 21:42

hate math. Yeah, so 15 grand, let's say, divided by 2400 bucks. Alright, it's 6.25 years. So in 6.25 years, the solar system would have paid itself off, because you're going to pay the electric company anyways. It's not, you can't tell me you're not going to pay the electric, right? Right. Now, this is before rebates, or tax credits. So of that 15 grand, the federal government will give you 30% backs and in a tax credit, okay. But the homeowner needs to have the tax liability. This is very important. A lot of a lot of homeowners, a lot of salespeople will say you get 30% back rebate, the difference between a rebate and a tax credit rebate to cash, a cheque that gets sent to you that anyone can deposit and take advantage of a tax credit is for someone that has a tax liability, they make enough money that if they owe 10,000 to the IRS at the end of the year, well, they'll credit them oh, well, you have a solar system. Here's five grand credit. Now you only owe the IRS five grand. Right I so the tax credit is key here. So of the 15 Grand, so you have to be a taxpayer to get tax. Right? Yeah. And that the assumption is the assumption is your homeowner and your taxpayer. So if you're a drug dealer, this is not going to help, it's not going to help you. If you're on a fixed income, elderly and you don't have a tax liability, it's not going to help you not not a purchase system, I would say because purchase Okay, purchases, let's say you let's say it's 15 grand, right? And you get five grand back and a tax credit. But you have to owe the government something at the end of the year. If you're a retired person on a fixed income. You don't owe them anything. You're on Social Security's for it. You're not even doing tax, you may have a pension, but maybe you're not even getting taxed anymore. Right. So let's say it's, it's 15 grand, and you get 30%. Back. So net, at after next April 15. You only really pay 10 grand for the system. 10 grand divided by 2400 is four years, it's dropped your return on investment from 6.2 years to four years. The average homeowner lives in the house for 713. Seven to 13 years. Yeah, most likely seven, seven years. Yeah. So it makes sense for them to do it. Or if they're if if the house is going to stay in the family. then by all means, in four years, you get your money back and then everything after that, let's say 2400 For the next 10 years is 24 grand in your pocket that you would have to pay anyways. Put that in a mutual fund put that in an investment put that whatever because you're not paying the utility company anymore. So I

John Laforme: 24:19

can Yeah, so I'm I'm right there with you. I do agree with that, that look at this. If this is your forever home and right you know, you've got a lot of years left, I can be flipping the house. Don't do it. No, if you flipping the house, don't do it. You know, I think people just get caught up in you know, oh, my God, I have solar I have an electric car. Yeah, you know, they just get caught up in that they don't think it through. And you know what, as a home inspector, I deal with this a lot where I show up and there's solar and then I hear the realtor trying to calm down the buyer because, oh, well there's a lease on this and I have to find out how you were going to deal with that. Yeah, that's a problem. So

Manny Hernandez: 24:57

here's so trying to sell so be a problem. So There's a lease. So to get solar, because it's expensive year, there's paid out cash. And so a lot of the systems that you're coming across now, when you're when you're doing a real estate transaction, were installed from 2010. And on, okay, generally speaking, and there was a real big boom in 2013 to 15. So a lot of the houses, maybe in that area, right, if the average homeowner is at seven years, that's this isn't about the time that they're buying the house with solar, right? Or the new homeowner. Okay. So back then you either had enough money to pay 3040 $50,000 Cash, generally older people, right? 70s. They had they had their money, they'll pay it out cash. If you if you didn't have the cash, you were financing it like you'd finance a car, right? And they will do generally quick 12 year loan is five years, the payments, or the payment. The payments are too high that is higher than any electric bill, what's the point? So 12 years or more, or they would lease them back then when I first started the big push? You know Elon Musk, right.

John Laforme: 26:14

I don't like Elon Musk. Personally, I don't know him personally. Yeah.

Manny Hernandez: 26:18

So before he did Tesla, and before SpaceX, he had solar

John Laforme: 26:22

Nowadays he's turning into Dr. Evil. Yeah, I've noticed that about him lately. He's like, he's like on this fucking mission. So I'm glad you brought that up. Because, you know, when I was leaving, I was a big fan. I was a big fan of his for years. You know, but weird, but he's cool. But after watching Austin Powers, you know, and Dr. Evil and all that stuff. He just kind of makes me think of that he just like he's turned. He seems like he's turning in a bad direction. And I just don't like what he's doing right.

Manny Hernandez: 26:49

What do you mean specifically? He's, he's,

John Laforme: 26:51

he's getting political. Yeah. He's leaning it. Yeah. It seems like he took over Twitter, bro. Just just to fuck with people. Yeah, he's I got so much money. I'm gonna do this to go go go back to your thinking when you when you do that when you build pay, pal. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like when you were trying to do something positive for the world and put some money in your pocket. You know, I just don't like what he's doing.

Manny Hernandez: 27:12

Well to defend him. He thinks he is doing something positive. Right. I agree. I get free speech. And they were they were Yes. Freeswitch Twitter was censoring a lot of people. Right. Well, I don't know. I work there. Yeah. Well, yeah. Um, I'm not on Twitter. I care less. I don't understand Twitter. It's just you know what it is? I understand it, but it's a seems too exhausting. Like you're always

John Laforme: 27:38

dealing with everyone's putting their thoughts on Twitter. And a lot of people get in trouble for it. And I think that's fuckin hilarious. Yeah, you are so stupid. You are so stupid. You're putting your angry thoughts about somebody on here. And guess what next thing you know you're getting sued. Yeah, guess what? They have a record of it now because that record. Yeah, that is a legal document.

Manny Hernandez: 27:55

There you go. So So before he had Twitter, before he had a Tesla, he had Solar City. He was I wasn't aware of that he owned it. So solar city actually failed, like most solar companies back then did and to save it. He convinced the board to have Tesla buy out Solar City even though Solar City was a money loser. And the way he sold it is a huge package Tesla to be a renewable energy company. The cars, the solar panels, the solar roof, Evie, all that stuff. But Solar City was if it Tesla hadn't, you know, Solar City was actually ran, but by the time this happened and ran by his cousins, so if he actually had bought them out and save them, it would have gone bankrupt. Right? Like a lot of companies did back then. They pushed so right.

John Laforme: 28:50

So why did he fail? Do you know that? You know the reason for that? On so why did he fail on solar?

Manny Hernandez: 28:58

It's very hard to push a national installation company. That means you there's so many moving parts, right? Why do most contractors plumbers, electricians drywall guys, they're all local. Right? I have I know a guy he lives near Yeah, they're all local. When he tried to do a national brand. Right? Every 50 states they were everywhere. To compete. They had to pay peep electricians, technicians, employees. Back then. I'm talking 2013 14 They're paying people 35 bucks an hour. That was a lot of money back then. Yeah. When when the average industry was paying, if you were really, really good, maybe 25 to 30 bucks an hour. So they were just dumping cash on people. And they weren't finishing the jobs to cashflow. It was very complicated, but essentially he couldn't keep it going. Most solar companies fail because the capital investment required, right. It's too much for them shut up. They get greedy and they pull the money out of the company and there's nothing to keep keep flowing. I don't know exactly why they failed but Right. Solar City rango American, American Solar Direct those are some of the big companies and some homeowners listening my sale I remember those companies because they sold me solar.

John Laforme: 30:17

They I still see Solar City boxes on people's houses. Yeah.

Manny Hernandez: 30:20

Right. Solar cities. Yeah, you'll see that. Ryan goes another one Solar Direct,

John Laforme: 30:24

you know, my neighbor and right next door here as the panel. So Pat has the has the shingles,

Manny Hernandez: 30:29

I'll come back to that the roof shingles, I think that's bullshit. But we'll come back to that all so. So so it's the least it they so what they did is said, Okay, well, the federal government will give you 30% back and tax credit to the owner of the system. Generally speaking, if you're the homeowner, you buy it, you the owner, you get the tax rate, right. But if you don't, if you don't fix income, you're retired. You don't have the tax liability. So you can't take that tax credit we're talking about earlier. Right, right. So what if a company was to buy the system for you, they own the system, they get the credit, from from the IRS 30% of one system to the system's 1000s of systems, they'll discount that amount from your bill. And now you only pay the difference, the 70%. And they'll finance it, and they'll make the payments. So cheap. Over a 30 year term. 30 year 30 years. So if your electric bill was 150 a month now $200 A month, dude, it's nothing. But fine. Right? Okay, that was their whole spiel. That's the cell. That's that's the snake oil. Yes, you save 50 bucks a month, whatever it was, right. So it was and what they really sold was you avoid the rate hikes of the utility company? Yeah, you don't save as much as buying their fixed your fixed

John Laforme: 31:56

you 30 year fixed loan, exactly on a house

Manny Hernandez: 32:00

sandwich. And what they would do is during the presentation, they would inflate the amount that the utility went up, they will say your utility bill goes up 15% a year. Oh, or 10% a year, which was, um, like, if you look at the analysis of it, and federal governments have done this, the average electric bill, yeah, it's like up and down, right. Sometimes it's flat, and then sometimes it goes up 7%. But over a 10 year term, it goes up about 3% a year with the CDR,

John Laforme: 32:31

you know, else goes up 3% a year. Everything else rents.

Manny Hernandez: 32:34

Everything else, right. So that's how they got a lot of people, and they will sell these leases. And what they would do is they would get the lease, they will then claim the tax credit. You know, they get 30% Let's say they get whatever it is dollar, right? They they would then transfer the tax credit to let's say, Walmart, and Walmart would buy that $1 tax credit for 70 cents, so they will cash out the tax credit. Wow, you get what I'm saying? Yeah, because you can eventually get money for it. But if you sell the tax credit to a corporation that have a tax liability for pennies on the dollar, that Everyone's a winner, who's paying for I'll the homeowner, right?

John Laforme: 33:19

So, pour that oil on me. Yeah.

Manny Hernandez: 33:22

What that that is that was that was a lease program.

John Laforme: 33:25

Right? And if you know anything about car leases, you can't get out of a car lease your fuck? You have to buy it out. I believe so many cars in the first couple of early years. When I did it when I was a lot younger. I learned my lesson. Now I'm gonna how to manage that. So it's like anything else if you're leasing it, you gotta know what the way out is a way out. Is there a way out? Yeah. A lot of people don't understand to just in general, any kind of a contract. There's always a way in. But most people never think of the way out. Okay, that's it for part one of is home solar for everyone with Manny Hernandez from solar Service Pros. Thank you for listening, and we will get Part Two out to you as soon as possible. Don't forget to check out our YouTube channel. Just go to YouTube and search. Buying a home don't panic. You can check out a lot of my videos regarding day to day inspection defects I find how to videos, and so forth. And don't forget to like and subscribe. Thank you