A Roofing Contractor Drives Sales and Leads with Fast and Easy Energy-efficiency Financing

PACE Ygrene Energy Fund

After 15 years in the roofing business, I’ve seen countless construction, design trends and sales methods change over time. The one thing that has always stayed the same? That first discussion with the customer around the kitchen table, looking at the scope of the job and then getting right down to finances. It’s the conversation that can make or break a project: Can the customer get the financing he or she needs to complete the job? Do we need to offer other options? Scale back? Or, even better, can we expand the job and sell into higher-quality products and designs built to last?

Supported by local governments, the YgreneWorks PACE program allows property owners to perform energy-efficiency and resiliency upgrades on their homes or businesses with zero down, a low interest rate and simple annual payments made through their property taxes.

Supported by local governments, the YgreneWorks PACE program allows property owners to perform energy-efficiency and resiliency upgrades on their homes or businesses with zero down, a low interest rate and simple annual payments made through their property taxes.

Regardless of project size or complexity, customers have two top-of-mind factors when considering a reroof: cost and time. As roofing contractors, we strive to deliver the highest-value renovation in the shortest time possible. To keep our team at Cal-Vintage Roofing of Northern California, Sacramento, at the industry forefront with competitive product and service offerings, we’ve developed a partnership with Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Ygrene Energy Fund to offer customers the latest in financing. The result has been a much happier kitchen-table conversation, alleviating customer concerns about reroofing costs and ultimately increasing our business by 20 percent.

KEEPING PACE WITH A GROWING TREND

Ygrene Energy Fund is a leading multi-state provider of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. Supported by local governments, the YgreneWorks PACE program allows property owners to perform energy-efficiency and resiliency upgrades on their homes or businesses with zero down, a low interest rate and simple annual payments made through their property taxes. These “green” roofing projects can include everything from cool roof shingles that slow heat build and save on electricity costs to reflective insulation providing a better thermal barrier for a building.

Increasingly, Cal-Vintage customers are more concerned with how projects impact the environment and are always interested in ways to lower utility bills. In fact, many PACE-qualifying upgrades are now being mandated by law; for instance, Title 24, Part 6, of the California Code of Regulations requires that residential and nonresidential buildings adhere to strict energy-reduction standards mandated by local governments. This has resulted in an uptick in owners who need major roof renovations and also need a way to afford the upgrade. As similar laws gain popularity amongst U.S. cities and states, PACE is a valuable tool for customers looking for better reroof financing options. As a large roofing company, we at Cal-Vintage must take it upon ourselves to offer every way to comply with these rules.

To qualify, Ygrene considers the equity in the property, not the personal credit of the property owner, unlocking finance doors for entire groups of customers. So far, more than 40 Cal-Vintage clients have taken advantage of the PACE option to avoid dipping into savings, escape lengthy paperwork and skip extensive background checks. Securing traditional reroofing loans can be a long and difficult process. With PACE financing, our customers have been able to complete larger, longer-lasting projects faster because the financing comes through in two to three days rather than two to three weeks.

BECOMING A CERTIFIED PACE CONTRACTOR

many PACE-qualifying upgrades are now being mandated by law; for instance, Title 24, Part 6, of the California Code of Regulations requires that residential and nonresidential buildings adhere to strict energy-reduction standards mandated by local governments.

Many PACE-qualifying upgrades are now being mandated by law; for instance, Title 24, Part 6, of the California Code of Regulations requires that residential and nonresidential buildings adhere to strict energy-reduction standards mandated by local governments.


Our job as roofing contractors is to provide the best value to our customers and community, and in a world of changing regulations and housing needs, this value extends to financing. The entire Cal-Vintage team is trained through Ygrene’s Certified Contractor Education program to know when and how to offer PACE financing as an option at the kitchen-table discussion.
The Ygrene education and certification program includes in-person training for our sales teams matched with webinars and online tutorials that can be accessed from the web anywhere, anytime. Topics cover all the information we need, including details about the PACE program, important consumer protections, step-by-step instructions for helping customers fill out the online application and how to ensure we receive our payment in a timely manner.

The Cal-Vintage sales team also received an in-person, individual training by a Ygrene regional area manager dedicated to our team. The training included information about program features and benefits, access to the web portal, the proposal tool and in- depth answers to our questions. As PACE requires a number of legal disclosures and approvals, our contractor team was briefed on the application and approval and funding processes so we could properly answer any custom- er questions. Additionally, Ygrene offers a support call-center to field any additional questions on the financing.

GETTING STARTED

We heard about Ygrene through a customer and reached out to the company’s local representative to become certified. The process was simple, and all of our questions were answered in the training session. Since the company’s inception, Ygrene has trained nearly 3,000 contractor companies in communities across its service territory. With $1 billion in approved applications and $350 million in closed contracts, Ygrene has been generating successful outcomes for customers and contractor partners across the U.S. Those interested in becoming a certified contractor can visit Ygrene Works’ website.

PHOTOS: CAL-VINTAGE ROOFING OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

About the Author

Pete Mazzuca III
Pete Mazzuca III is co-founder, executive vice president and sales manager for Cal-Vintage Roofing of Northern California, Sacramento.

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