How to Close 10–30% More Solar Deals Using Debt Consolidation and Home Equity

If you sell solar, you’re probably asking yourself one question right now: how do I keep my close rates up as the residential tax credit winds down?

The answer might not be a new panel brand or a better slideshow. It might be something bigger: fixing your customer’s total monthly cash flow, not just swapping their utility bill for a solar payment.

That’s exactly what we broke down on a recent DealMachine Solar Masterclass with banking veteran Don Worthington, how to pair solar with debt consolidation and home equity so you can close 10–30% more of the deals already in your pipeline.

Let’s walk through the framework in a way you can plug into your sales process this week.

Why Solar + Debt Consolidation Works So Well Right Now

Let me clarify how this actually works.

Right now, most homeowners are living in the same tension:

• They’re carrying high-interest consumer debt like credit cards, store cards, and personal loans, often at 20–25%+ APR.
• At the same time, they’ve built up home equity as values climbed over the last three to five years.

Add on the reality that the residential solar sales tax credit is ending, and you’ve got a situation where plenty of people want solar, but the standard “bill swap” pitch either doesn’t save enough or gets blocked by credit.

That’s where this strategy comes in. By using a first-lien mortgage product to tap equity, a homeowner can:

• Pay cash for the solar system
• Consolidate expensive consumer debt
• Roll everything into one new mortgage payment that’s often lower than what they’re paying today

You’re not just helping them get solar. You’re helping them fix their monthly money problem.

Shift Your Pitch: From “Bill Swap” to “Cash-Flow Reset”

Most solar pitches live in a tiny box:

• “You’re paying this much to the utility today.”
• “With solar, you’ll pay this much.”
• “Here’s the savings.”

That’s fine as a starting point, but it ignores the rest of the financial stress. The homeowner still has cards at 25%, car payments, store accounts, and personal loans piling up. When you talk to them, they might say “go green” or “energy independence,” but what consistently drives action is simple: they want more leftover cash at the end of the month.

So you upgrade the pitch.

On the “current” side of the T-chart, you add up:

• Mortgage payment (principal, interest, taxes, insurance)
• Average utility bill
• Monthly payments on credit cards, car loans, store cards, and personal loans

On the “reset” side, you show one new mortgage payment that:

• Includes the solar system at a cash price
• Pays off the expensive consumer debts
• Removes the power bill as a separate monthly line item

Now you’re not just asking, “Do you want solar?” You’re asking, “Do you want a cleaner balance sheet and more money in your budget every month with solar included?”

If the reset number is meaningfully lower than the current number, you’ve solved the real problem.

Real Numbers: What the Savings Actually Look Like

Let’s put real numbers to this.

In the examples Don walked through, a typical case might look like this:

• A solar system around $36,000
• A power bill of roughly $180–$250 per month
• Several cards and a car payment adding up to a few hundred dollars each month

When you roll the solar cost and those debts into a new first-lien mortgage, the total monthly out-of-pocket often drops by $530–$750. In more aggressive resets, the savings climbed to around $900 per month.

There’s also usually a short delay before the first new payment is due. If funding happens in mid-August and the first payment is due October 1, the homeowner effectively gains a month or two of extra cash. That gives them breathing room to catch up on repairs, replace a failing appliance, or clear a nagging bill.

Many people then choose to take a portion of their monthly savings and send it back to principal. Over time, that can quietly shave years off the mortgage, turning a 30-year term into something closer to 20, while still leaving more money in the monthly budget than they had before.

This isn’t complicated. It’s just math that most solar reps never put in front of the homeowner.

Why First-Lien Solar Financing Is Safer When They Sell

If you want more referrals and fewer angry phone calls later, you have to think about what happens when the homeowner sells.

With many standard solar loans and leases, the lender files a UCC-1 lien on the property. When the owner goes to sell, that means the solar finance company usually has to approve the buyer to assume the solar obligation.

If the buyer is declined, the seller is in a bind. They might have to buy out the system, discount the home, or watch a deal fall apart at the finish line.

We discussed a real case like this. The house was worth around $500,000. The mortgage balance was about $295,000. The seller had financed a $97,000 solar system and still owed $67,000 on it when they listed the property. Most buyers wanted nothing to do with that kind of extra obligation. Even if someone agreed, you’re talking well over a decade of bill savings just to break even on the solar balance.

When solar is funded within a first-lien mortgage, the story changes. The system is treated as a home improvement, just like a new roof or a kitchen remodel. There’s no separate solar lien. At closing, the mortgage is paid off and cleared, and the buyer gets a home with owned solar and no extra approval process.

That’s better for the homeowner, and it’s better for you if you care about long-term trust.

Who This Strategy Helps the Most

This model isn’t designed for every homeowner. It’s a powerful tool for a specific profile.

The best-fit households usually:

• Have owned their home for three to four years or more, or they have strong equity from recent price appreciation
• Are carrying high-interest consumer debt, such as credit cards, store cards, or personal loans.
• Tell you their top goal is to save money when you ask.
• Sit in the 550–650 FICO range, where standard solar financing is often tough or unattractive.
• Have a clean mortgage history over the past 12 months (no 30+ day lates).

On the other hand, this approach is usually not a fit when there’s little equity, minimal debt to consolidate, or a recent pattern of late mortgage payments. In those cases, a simpler solar loan or lease might be the better choice.

The point is not to force this product on everyone. Your job is to diagnose correctly and choose the right tool for the right homeowner.

How the Calculator Fits into Your Sales Process

Now let’s talk about the calculator Don shared and where it fits into your workflow.

On a live call, you can get what you need in about three minutes by asking questions like:

• How long have you lived in your home?
• Roughly how much do you owe on your mortgage?
• If you sold today, what do you think your home would sell for?
• What’s your current mortgage payment, including taxes and insurance?
• What’s your average monthly power bill?
• What’s your best guess at your credit score?
• Have you been more than 30 days late on your mortgage in the last 12 months?
• What other monthly payments do you have for credit cards, cars, or store accounts?

You plug those into the calculator and get two numbers back: their current total monthly outflow and a draft reset payment that includes the solar system at a cash price with the debts paid off.

From there, the decision is simple. If the reset doesn’t create meaningful savings, you don’t push it. You move them to a different structure, or you end the conversation respectfully.

If the reset does create a significant monthly gain, you walk them through the T-chart and move toward a full application or a handoff to your finance partner.

The calculator keeps you from guessing and lets you stay honest about whether this really helps.

Using Data to Find the Right Homeowners (Instead of Guessing)

You can wait to bump into the perfect candidate for this kind of deal, or you can use data and actually go find them.

Solar teams using DealMachine are doing exactly that. They’re building lists of homeowners who are likely to have the right mix of equity and debt by focusing on:

• Properties in specific value ranges where equity is likely
• Owners in age ranges where income and credit usage tend to match this profile
• Modeled data about mortgage balances, monthly payments, and credit card usage

That means your outreach isn’t just “everyone with a roof.” You’re spending time on conversations where a cash-flow reset plus solar actually has a shot at working. Once you’re on the phone, you use the same process: clarify the homeowner’s main goal, gather a few key numbers, and drop them into the calculator to see whether the reset is real or not.

You combine smarter prospecting with a better financial structure. That’s how you get more out of the leads you already have.

Where the Extra 10–30% of Closings Come From

Here’s the part a lot of teams miss: your biggest opportunity might not be more leads. It might be the “dead” deals already in your CRM.

Every solar company has a bucket of:

• Credit declines
• Stalled proposals
• “Not enough savings” conversations

Don’s exercise is simple. Take that bucket, say the last month, six months, or year, and:

• Count how many households landed there
• Multiply that number by 10% as a conservative estimate of how many could be rescued with a reset
• Multiply again by your average system size and net commission per watt

That rough math tells you how much revenue is sitting in your “garbage can.”

Teams that plug in this first-lien reset as a last resort for those files are seeing around 10% pull-through on deals they would have written off. Teams that start qualifying for it earlier and aim with better data are seeing 20–30% or more improvement in pull-through on the same lead flow.

In a world where every set and every booked appointment is more expensive, that kind of lift matters.

How to Roll This Out with Your Team (This Week)

If you want this to show up in your numbers instead of just your notes, here’s a simple rollout plan you can start this week.

1. Audit your recent pipeline.

Pull the last 60–90 days of credit declines and stalled deals. Flag the homeowners who have equity and visible debt, then plan to re-run them through this cash-flow reset lens.

2. Tighten your discovery script.

On every call, ask the homeowner to pick their biggest goal: saving money, energy independence, or going green. If they pick saving money and they fit the equity/debt profile, you know this structure might be a good fit.

3. Use the T-chart and calculator on qualified calls.

Put their current mortgage, utilities, and debts on one side and the reset payment on the other. If you’re not saving them at least a few hundred a month, don’t force it. If you’re saving them $500–$900 per month with owned solar and no separate solar lien, you have a strong offer.

4. Set expectations clearly.

Be upfront that traditional solar loans are faster and simpler, but don’t address other debts. Explain that the first-lien reset takes more steps and usually around 30 days from application to funding, but can materially improve monthly cash flow.

5. Plug in the right partners and track results.

Work with a bank or manual underwriting team that understands this product and use DealMachine (or similar data) to find the right homeowners. Track how many “dead” deals you revisit, how much you save each homeowner per month, and how much additional revenue this structure creates each quarter.

Final Takeaway

The core idea here is straightforward:

Stop selling only a solar payment. Start selling a full cash-flow reset that includes solar as part of a broader solution.

When you ask better questions, show the math clearly, and choose the financing path that matches the homeowner’s real situation, you build offers that are easy to understand and simple to evaluate.

If you want a concrete next step, grab your “dead” solar deals from the last 60–90 days and run at least ten of them through a debt consolidation plus solar reset scenario. Look at how many start to make sense when you focus on total monthly outflow, not just the power bill.

Teams that consistently apply this approach see more of their existing pipeline convert, stronger word-of-mouth from homeowners who appreciate the full solution, and better resilience as incentives and commission structures change.

Want to Go Deeper?

If you want live scripts, real call breakdowns, and a deeper dive on contracts and transfers, join the Solar Masterclass. We’ll walk through the actual virtual systems, word-for-word call frameworks, and provider checklists you can plug into your team without rebuilding your entire process.