What are Solar Financing Partners?

How solar financing partnerships work

1. Installer partners with one or more lenders (Sunlight, GoodLeap, Mosaic, Sungage are common).
2. At sales presentation, installer offers cash + financed pricing tiers. Homeowner chooses path.
3. For financed deals, homeowner applies to the partner lender directly (often via online application with soft-pull pre-qual).
4. Approval typically returns within minutes to 24 hours. Loan terms range from 10-25 years at varying interest rates.
5. Lender funds the install — installer receives the full ticket minus a dealer fee.
6. Homeowner repays via monthly loan payments. Homeowner owns the system + keeps the 30% federal ITC.

Common U.S. residential solar financing partners

• Sunlight Financial — widely-used solar lender, multiple loan products including no-payment first-18-month structures.
• GoodLeap — broad home-improvement lender with strong residential solar program; consumer-facing app for borrowers.
• Mosaic — solar + home-improvement lender, multiple term + rate options.
• Sungage Financial — solar-specialized lender with focused residential program.
• LightStream — broader unsecured personal loan path that some homeowners use for solar without going through solar-specific lender.

Why dealer fees matter for pricing

Each lender charges installers a "dealer fee" — a percentage of the gross install cost — for originating the loan. Typical dealer fees run 20-30% of gross install depending on loan term + rate + partner. Longer-term lower-rate loans carry higher fees (because the lender's break-even economics require more time to recover).

Installers bake the dealer fee into the per-watt rate for financed deals:

• Cash deal: $2.80-$3.40/W in most markets — installer keeps the full gross.
• Financed deal: $3.50-$5.00/W — dealer fee absorbed in the higher per-watt rate.

How financing pre-qual works on the customer portal

Solar Launch's customer portal can integrate financing pre-qualification widgets from solar lenders. Homeowners get a soft-pull pre-qual decision in seconds without affecting their credit score. They see their monthly payment number alongside the rendered roof, system size, and 25-year savings — before booking a site survey. Pre-qualified leads convert at meaningfully higher rates than non-pre-qualified leads.

Financing pre-qual on every customer portal.

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