100% agree. I was looking at buying a new home out here in Southern California. The new trend is "solar" on the homes....but the problem is that you don't own the solar when you buy the home. Instead you sign a contract with the solar panel owner and either buy the electricity from them or buy the panels outright....for an additional lump sum of 20k+. When you go to sell the home....you have to get the solar company involved and a bunch of other hassles. It is a bad idea to set it up like this.

this.

anything that restricts or impedes what you can do with a home is a liability, not an asset. Up in SF, even partially tenant-occupied homes typically sell for a sizable discount.

(also doubt that ~10k/year is going to make waves in the target market -- Bay Area homeowners with a back yard big enough to make this viable.)

It could be very meaningful to older retired or semi-retired folks who have fully paid for their home and are looking for additional income but don't want to sell their house and leave their neighborhood. AirBnB used folks in that situation here in Vancouver to great effect when pushing for support for short term rentals in the local market.

A lot of people we've talked to have been in this exact situation. Older folks who have lived in their home for a long time and watched the cost of living rise while remaining on a fixed income from something like Social Security. Our hope with Rent the Backyard is to help people like this remain in their homes and have a higher quality of life.