BUYERS LIVE WITH GROW OP HOMES' SHADY PASTS

For Some, 'Bad Karma' Enough To Scuttle Sale

Most people would see the overgrown yard, double air vents in the
basement, drying hooks in the ceiling, hear about the home's criminal
history, and move on.

But all Dan Olineck saw was an affordable first house.

The 34-year-old, now-divorced, father of one bought and lived in a
three-bedroom, bi-level in Chestermere for almost three years with
his young family even after he was told it was once a grow op.

And given the chance, he'd do it again, he said, while paying a
recent visit to the home he sold last spring.

"I would buy another one, yes, because we never had any problems,"
Olineck, a gravel truck driver, said of the West Creek home.

Hundreds of houses in the Calgary area have had the dubious and
potentially damaging distinction of playing host to marijuana crops.

In the past week alone, police announced they had raided three Calgary homes.

Six children were taken into custody following the first two raids
under provincial legislation aimed at protecting kids living in drug homes.

And on Monday, nearly $1.5 million in pot was seized from a home on
Coral Reef Close N.E.

But for Olineck, buying the former grow op house wasn't an issue once
the seller cleared up health concerns and had a number of renovations
done, including new floors, painting and the removal of extra vents.

"When we bought it, I had a newborn baby, so I told them I wasn't
moving in until they gave it a clean bill of health. They did all the
work, everything we wanted them to, and it passed a home inspection."

Olineck moved his family into the home, which had been busted by the
Southern Alberta Marijuana Investigative Team three months earlier.
Then the neighbours came calling.

"Every time we met a neighbour, it was like, 'You're the guy who
lives in the grow op,' " he said, noting the stigma of living in a
drug den never bothered him.

"It was fine because my neighbour right next to me was living in one
too. There were seven of them on my block, so we weren't the only
ones. I don't think it's a big deal."

The young man who bought the house from Olineck last April isn't
concerned about the home's history either, but because some people
might be, he spoke on the condition that his last name wasn't printed.

"You have to be careful. It's the ones that are never fixed up you
want to stay away from," said Chris, 26.

After Chris moved in, he learned there used to be an underground
tunnel connecting his basement to the neighbour's. It was sealed,
inspected and is no longer a problem, he said.

"And there was some wiring that needed to be fixed, but besides that,
we couldn't tell."

But to some, the stigma is too much and, despite the booming Calgary
real estate market, more and more former grow ops are sitting on the
market, empty. Not even a complete renovation and an OK from the
Calgary Health Region are making these houses sell.

By law, homeowners must reveal to their agents that their house was a
former grow op and the disclosure is supposed to continue for the
life of the house, said Kevin Clark, president of the Calgary Real
Estate Board.

"I would exercise the highest level of caution when buying a house
like this, and that's where it's important to use a realtor. Private
sellers can say whatever they want," he said.

"A large percentage of the people in the market, I think, would say
they don't want the headache. I wouldn't want my son or daughter
living in one, and that's the question you have to ask yourself."

Clark said the value of the houses depends on the demand in the market.

"But the jury is still out. Less demand and more supply equals a
softer value," he said.

First-time home buyer Melissa Bobb, 27, said it's the "bad karma"
that has kept her from considering a former grow op house, despite
their lower prices.

"I don't know if I would be able to raise children in a house like
that and feel OK with it," she said.

"It's too risky."

Bobb and her boyfriend recently made a $294,000 offer on a
three-bedroom home in Coventry Hills that was listed at $305,000, but
retracted that offer when home inspector Jim Hamilton from Home
Crafters revealed it had been used as a grow op.

"All the signs were there," Hamilton said. "There was still potting
soil in the basement."

Repairing these houses can sometimes cost tens of thousands of
dollars, depending on the extent of the damage, Hamilton said.

The house has since been taken off the market until the repairs and
proper inspections can be done.

And Bobb is back to Square 1 in her house hunt.

Experts who specialize in inspecting grow ops for the city say Bobb
was right to walk away from that house because it had never been
inspected by the Calgary Health Region and therefore wasn't put on
their growing roster of unsafe houses.

But if she's looking for a quality house, she shouldn't rule out a
former grow op that has been properly renovated and inspected, experts say.

"If we were involved, and if a home has been remediated, I would see
no reason not to buy it," said Vicki Wearmouth, a Calgary Health
Region veteran inspector.

"But there's nothing we can do about the ones we don't know about, so
in that case, it's buyer beware."

Last month, the Calgary Health Region started posting homes condemned
as grow ops on its website, along with policies and guidelines for
homeowners to fix them up.

Until they have been remediated properly and given the thumbs up by
the health region, the condemnation order remains on the title and
they can't be lived in, Wearmouth said.

"But they can be sold."

The biggest issues inside an old grow op, she explained, are the
potential fire and electrocution hazards caused by bypassing the
electric meters and rewiring rooms; poisonous chemicals in the
heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, flooring and walls;
its structural integrity; and mould from excessive humidity.

But once they are renovated and pass all necessary inspections and
air quality tests, they are good houses, Wearmouth said. "What kind
of job would I be doing if they weren't?"

Air quality and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.-trained home
inspector Reinhard Thomas of Professional Home and Air Quality
Inspectors, said the houses which have their renovations supervised
by the Calgary Health Region are "cleaner homes than a lot of new houses.

"For example, there is some kind of mould in most houses," he noted.

"I would buy one if it was cleaned up properly."

Staff-Sgt. Monty Sparrow of the Calgary police drug unit, which busts
between 125 and 150 grow ops "that they know about" in Calgary a
year, said grow ops are springing up in every Calgary neighbourhood,
from Forest Lawn to Douglasdale, Tuscany to Bridlewood.

"I can't even tell you what areas to avoid because they're
everywhere," he said.

More often than not, the grower has hired a crop-sitter to live in
the house with the marijuana, he said.

The operations range from sophisticated set-ups with multiple floors
being utilized to grow pot, to minor hydroponic grows in the basement.

But no matter what kind of operation they find, the grower has
altered the house in some way to accommodate their business, Sparrow said.

"I wouldn't buy one because you just don't know how bad the damage
was and if it's been repaired properly," he said.