Purchasing a new HVAC system is one of the most significant investments you’ll make for your home.  But I wanted to let you know that we offer some great for financing options here at Fox Family Heating and Air.  So, what follows is a few different financing solutions for our customers to help ease the financial burden.

At the end of telling you what we do offer, I wanted to tell you WHY we don’t offer PACE financing as an financing option for our customers.  So, I hope you’ll stick around to hear that.

We use two solutions for financing — Synchrony Bank and GoGreen Financing by PG&E.

Synchrony Bank Financing

Synchrony is our most popular form of financing.  It offers an unsecured revolving credit line (like a credit card), specifically for home improvements like your upcoming HVAC system.  They have no liens attached to your HVAC equipment either.

Here are 5 reasons we partner with Synchrony3 finance.

1. Their PAYMENT OPTIONS
   Synchrony allows our customers to select a payment plan that works best for their budget.  Customers can choose one of the following options.
   • 25 months at 0.00%
   • 37 months at 5.99%
   • 61 months at 7.99%
   • 132 months at 9.99%
2. Their EASY APPLICATION PROCESS
   • The credit application is short and simple and can be done over the phone with our office staff – or we can email a link directly to the customer to complete. Please email us at foxfamilyheatingandair@outlook.com to get started with the process.
3. You get an INSTANT CREDIT DECISION
   • Upon completion of the application, the credit decision is instant. Once approved, Synchrony emails a financing agreement to the customer for electronic signature.
4. It’s FULLY DIGITAL
   • The entire process with Synchrony is done electronically. This means faster processing and no postage or wasted paper.
5. There’s NO MINIMUM
   • Customers can apply for financing for smaller repairs, too. For any financed amount under $2,500, Synchrony offers a payment plan of 6 months at 0.00%.

GoGreen Financing through PG&E

Again, this program is available to PG&E customers only. Meaning, at my house, we get our natural gas from West Coast Gas and our electricity from SMUD. So, we wouldn’t be able to use GoGreen financing.

Customers can choose from several different lenders affiliated with this program.  The rates range from 5.99% to 9.99%, and they also have options available for customers with lower credit scores.

This is an unsecured loan, so there is no lien placed on the equipment.

Customers can apply for this loan by going to www.gogreenfinancing.com.   The customer works directly with the lender for the application and financing documents.  This process, from application to system installation, typically takes about 5-7 days.

Once all required paperwork is in place, GoGreen will provide us with an authorization to proceed with the system installation.

Why We Do Not Use Pace

You may have heard about PACE, YGRENE.  A PACE loan might be a viable option for funding. It makes it easy for you to qualify for relatively affordable long-term loans, but there are pros and cons of going this route.

The Pros are typical – easy approval, no down payment, the assessment stays with the property, very flexible terms, extended payoff times (10-20 years, for example), and the interest rates might be tax-deductible.

But because of the Cons – we don’t offer it. Don’t get me wrong; some companies do a ton of PACE financing. But something rubs me wrong about it, so we don’t.  And here’s why:

• Some contractors push PACE financing options to serve their own interests. Contractors receive additional referral fees from a lender if they arrange the project’s funding, so the potential for conflicts of interest is real.
• Most people think of payments as a monthly routine. Payments for the PACE loans are due in large chunks once or twice a year.  So, you have to save monthly for when it’s time to make those bulky payments, or else you’re going to get a surprise expense when it’s time to make those inflated payments.

Granted, If your mortgage loan servicer pays your property taxes through an escrow or impound account, you should be able to make your PACE payments in monthly installments as well.

• PACE financing, while relatively simple, isn’t cheap. There are significant closing costs, and the interest rates can be higher than traditional home equity loans or a line of credit.
• Realtors hate PACE financing because it makes it difficult to sell the house until the loan is fully paid off. And if you suddenly decide to pay the loan off early so that you can sell the house easier and you didn’t check that little box when you signed up for the loan, you get stuck paying the loan’s interest anyway.

Salespeople will tell you the loan stays with the property and not the owner.  So when you’re ready to sell your home, it just passes on to the new owner.  But no buyer wants to incur those payments, trust me.

• Finally, PACE borrowing is secured by your home, so it’s possible to lose your home in foreclosure if you don’t make the payments. And because the PACE lien is generally in “first position”—meaning, in front of your mortgage lender—you risk foreclosure even if you make your regular mortgage payments as agreed.

Also, according to the Federal Housing Financing Authority, homes with a PACE lien are not eligible for a mortgage financed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or the Federal Home Loan Banks. That could make it impossible to sell the property to someone whose mortgage was obtained through a federal lending program.

Okay, I didn’t mean to go off on a tangent there, but I feel strongly about transparency.  As the owner of Fox Family, I’m privy to all of these details, but it’s hard to get this info to all of my techs and make it sink in by the time they get to your kitchen table to sell you a system.  For that reason, all of these little details, which can ultimately end up with someone losing their home, aren’t worth it to us just to sell a system.

Our 2 Financing Options

So, these are our financing options.  Hopefully, this eases the burden of your HVAC project so you can break it down into smaller payments.  Our 0% for 25 months option through Synchrony is a great way to go.  You can pay it off early, but you have to make at least minimum payments every month.

Fox Family Heating & Air serves Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, and all of Northern California. If you’re looking to schedule HVAC service in these areas, give us a call!