POT-GROWING OPERATIONS DECREASE PROPERTY VALUES, MAKE TOUGH SELL

Real Estate Experts Discuss Restoration Projects, Explain
Depreciation Of Home Resale

Selling homes identified as marijuana-growing operations can be a
difficult task, according to real estate experts in Nanaimo.

Property owners tend to spend anywhere between $10,000 and $20,000 on
average to bring the property up to code, only to then take another
$30,000 to $50,000 hit when they try to sell it, explained Stanley
Chong, realtor with Realty Executives.

Once the police clean out a grow-op, city bylaw officers secure the
home by boarding it up and turning off the water. The home can be
sold at any time, but most owners work with city staff to obtain a
new residential permit. A grow-op illegally transforms a home into
agricultural use and it must be made livable, according to Ralph
Topliffe, the city's building inspection supervisor.

Construction costs are high, but a key component of the restoration
comes from air-quality consultants who ensure the home is free of
mould and moisture left behind. Selling a remediated home should not
be difficult, but it can be, according to Chong.

"There is always going to be that identification on the property
statement," he said.

Gordon Wedman is the Nanaimo branch manager of Pacific Environmental.
The air-quality consultant usually inspects about six grow-op homes a year.

His tests measure the amount of mould spores in a home and his
inspections can cost up to $3,000.

The value of the home should not decrease tremendously after it has
been returned to livable condition, according to Vancouver Island
Real Estate Board president Jim Stewart, but the negative stigma
attached to the home lasts well after it was sold.

"When I drive by those houses on Terminal (Avenue), I will always
think: 'Remember when there was a bunker under there,'" he said,
referring to the RCMP's latest raid.

BY THE NUMBERS

Residential grow-ops closed by police in Nanaimo :

2004: 17

2005: 11

2006: 15

2007: 12

2008: 6

2009: 6

2010: 7