The single highest-leverage decision in a residential solar campaign is which neighborhood you mail. Get this right and the math takes care of itself. Get it wrong and the best postcard design in the world won't save you — most of the homes either can't afford the install, can't physically host the system, or live under a utility that nukes the savings.
The 5-filter framework
1. Median home value $400K+
Residential solar is a $15,000–$40,000 install. Even with 30% federal ITC and 0% financing, homeowners in $200K-median neighborhoods generally can't carry the monthly payment without consideration. Homeowners in $400K+ neighborhoods typically can, and homeowners in $600K+ neighborhoods often pay cash and skip the financing conversation entirely.
Check Zillow's regional data view, Redfin neighborhood pages, or a Google search for "median home value [zip code]." Takes 2 minutes per candidate neighborhood.
2. South-facing rooflines visible from satellite
Solar production peaks on south-facing roof planes. A neighborhood of east-west-oriented houses produces meaningfully less per kW installed. Skim Google Maps satellite view of the neighborhood before mailing — if most rooflines are aligned with the cardinal points, you're looking at strong south-facing exposure on a majority of homes.
3. Low canopy shading
Mature oak trees are a solar installer's nemesis. A neighborhood with dense canopy can shade panels for 4+ hours mid-day, killing system output by 30–50%. Newer subdivisions with smaller, sparser landscaping are dramatically more efficient to install in. Google Earth Pro's 3D view will tell you in 60 seconds.
4. Roof age in the 5-20 year window
Roofs younger than 5 years are great — but those homeowners aren't motivated yet, because the utility bill hasn't compounded enough to register. Roofs older than 25 years need replacement before solar can go on, which kills the deal economically. The 5–20 year sweet spot is where most "I'm finally doing this" conversions happen.
5. Utility territory with favorable net-metering
This one's a structural make-or-break. A neighborhood inside a utility that pays full retail rate for exported kWh is a different product than one inside a utility that pays $0.03/kWh wholesale. Check your state's utility commission decisions and avoid utilities that have nuked NEM in the last 18 months unless you can pivot the pitch to battery + self-consumption.
How Solar Launch automates the prospecting
Manual neighborhood prospecting for solar takes hours: pulling address lists, scanning satellite for roof orientation, eyeballing shading, checking utility territory boundaries. Solar Launch collapses that into a single workflow:
- Type a street name into the Render Agent.
- Solar Launch pulls every house from Google Street View and Google Solar API.
- AI renders panels on the appropriate roof plane of each home.
- Each render gets a per-home system-size estimate (kW), production model (kWh/year), and 25-year savings projection — all powered by Google Solar API rooftop geometry.
- You eyeball the renders + system sizes to confirm the neighborhood looks right.
- Press send. Mailing is $1 per home, all-in.
For broader prospecting across multiple candidate neighborhoods, see lead prospecting for solar companies.
Common mistakes
- Mailing close to the shop. Convenience-bias picks the wrong neighborhood. Pick by economics, not by drive distance.
- Mailing too small a campaign. Under 100 postcards is statistical noise. Minimum 150–200 for a real test.
- Mailing scattered across town. A 1,000-postcard campaign across 5 neighborhoods underperforms a 200-postcard campaign in 1. Density matters for warm-follow-up reps.
- Skipping the orientation + shading filters. A great median home value can't compensate for east-facing roofs under heavy canopy. Filter the homes, not just the zip codes.
- Mailing right after a utility NEM change. Wait until the new tariff has been in market for 6 months and homeowners have absorbed the change. Pitching new economics into a confused market wastes the postage.
Pick a street. Render it. Mail it. $200 campaign, $32:$1 average return.
Free to start. Free to render. You only pay when you mail.
Start free →