PACE Loan on Your Tampa Bay Home? Here's How to Sell Without Paying It Off First

A PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) loan helped you finance an energy upgrade for your Tampa Bay home — solar panels, impact windows, hurricane shutters, a new roof, or a high-efficiency HVAC system — without any upfront cost. The assessment was added to your annual property tax bill, payments spread over years. Now you want to sell, and the PACE lien is complicating the transaction in ways you did not anticipate.

Conventional mortgage buyers typically cannot close on a Tampa Bay property with an active residential PACE lien because most major lenders and the agencies that back conventional mortgages restrict financing on PACE-encumbered properties. Your buyer pool has effectively narrowed to cash buyers. Chitty Buys Houses purchases Tampa Bay homes with PACE liens — factoring the balance into the offer and handling the lien at closing — without requiring you to pay off the assessment beforehand.

What Is a PACE Loan in Florida?

PACE financing allows Florida property owners to fund residential energy improvements through a special assessment attached to their property tax bill. Repayment terms typically range from 5 to 30 years, with interest rates generally in the 6% to 10% range depending on the provider and term. Projects funded through Florida PACE programs have typically ranged from approximately $15,000 to $75,000, covering solar panel installations, battery storage systems, energy-efficient HVAC upgrades, impact windows and doors, and storm shutters.

Unlike a personal loan or home equity line of credit, a PACE assessment attaches to the property itself — not to you as a borrower. This is the feature that originally made PACE attractive: the obligation stays with the home if you sell. But that same feature is what creates problems when a buyer's mortgage lender objects to the lien.

How a PACE Lien Affects Your Tampa Bay Home Sale

When you try to sell a Tampa Bay home with an active PACE lien, the lien creates a real obstacle for most conventional buyers:

• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac restrictions. Conventional mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have generally placed restrictions on properties with active residential PACE liens, because the PACE assessment holds a priority position in the property tax payment structure. This eliminates many buyers who are using standard conventional financing.
• FHA and VA complications. FHA and VA loan guidelines have also been restrictive regarding PACE-encumbered properties, though guidelines have evolved over time. In practice, many lenders still require the PACE balance to be resolved as a condition of financing approval.
• Required payoff at closing. Even when lenders technically permit the lien to remain, they often require it to be paid off from sale proceeds before they will fund the buyer's loan. If your PACE balance is substantial — $20,000, $30,000, or more — that payoff comes directly out of your proceeds.
• Reduced buyer competition. When your home effectively requires a buyer with specific lender approval, your negotiating leverage decreases and your time on the market lengthens.

Hillsborough County and the PACE Program History

Hillsborough County terminated its residential PACE program in response to consumer protection concerns about how certain PACE products were being marketed and sold to homeowners — concerns documented by the Tampa Bay Times and raised by county officials. However, terminating the program does not eliminate existing PACE liens. Assessments placed on Hillsborough County properties before the program termination remain active obligations on those properties until paid off. If your Tampa Bay home carries a PACE lien, the lien is still valid and must be addressed in any sale transaction.

How a Cash Sale Resolves the Tampa Bay PACE Problem

A cash buyer has no mortgage lender — which means no lender restriction on PACE-encumbered properties. The transaction proceeds without the lender's approval being contingent on PACE payoff, and the parties can negotiate how the PACE balance is handled at closing:

• Payoff from proceeds. If you have sufficient equity, the PACE balance is paid from your sale proceeds at closing — just like a second mortgage or any other lien. The title company handles the disbursement to the PACE servicer.
• PACE balance transferred to buyer. In some cash transactions, the buyer agrees to assume the PACE obligation going forward, taking on the property tax assessment as the new owner. This would be reflected in the offer price.

Either way, the transaction closes in 7 to 21 days without you needing to fund a large PACE payoff out of pocket before closing. Compare the options in our guide to selling a home with liens.

Get Your Tampa Bay Cash Offer Today

Call Chitty Buys Houses at (888) 913-9906 or submit your Tampa Bay property details online. We purchase homes throughout Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, and Manatee counties with PACE liens, tax liens, mortgage liens, and any other encumbrance — as-is, with no repairs required and no upfront payoff required from you. Close in 7 to 21 days.