CALGARIANS LINE UP TO BUY FORMER GROW OPS

CALGARY -- Calgary's red-hot real-estate market is so frenzied that
people are lining up for condemned houses that were used as drug operations.

And while some houses are actually listed as former marijuana
grow-ops, Alderman Diane Colley-Urquhart says there could be thousands
of similar homes on the market that desperate, unsuspecting buyers may
purchase.

"The market is so hot [that] these houses are selling with zero
conditions on them," said Ms. Colley-Urquhart, who toured a former
grow-op Sunday with a woman who wanted to buy the three-year-old house
listed for $320,000.

"[She] wants to get someone to come in and look at the damage . . .
but she hasn't got time because people are lined up knee-deep to buy
the house," said Ms. Colley-Urquhart, who chairs the Stop Grow Ops
Calgary Coalition.

In recent months, prices for resale homes have soared as people moving
into the booming city scramble to find a place to live.

The possession time for new homes has stretched to up to 14 months as
builders struggle with a shortage of workers in construction trades.
Calgary Realtors sounded the alarm last fall about former grow ops
being put on the market. Housing agents now require sellers to sign a
disclosure form noting the home's former use.

But although police shut down 300 operations last year alone, there's
no way to know if that is just the tip of the iceberg.

"We don't know if we have 900 of these houses or 9,000," Ms.
Colley-Urquhart said yesterday.

The seedy past of the home she toured is no secret. It's mentioned in
the real-estate listing, health warnings are posted on the windows and
the home looks as it did when police shut down the grow op in April,
2005.

Dozens of pots -- minus the plants -- cover the unfinished basement
floor.

There are telltale changes to the ventilation system and holes are
ripped in the drywall.

Chemical bottles are spread across the kitchen counter.

Kevin Clark of the Calgary Real Estate Board, who has shown the
condemned house to a potential buyer, says what's more worrisome is
that there are sellers who don't want to be upfront about a home's
past and who opt to go directly to potential buyers.

"The huge red flag we see is that within the speed of this
marketplace, if I personally owned a grow operation, the place to be
selling it is privately," Mr. Clark said.

"If a contractor/tradesperson was to be the buyer of the house, they
might look at it quite differently and be able to remediate it.

"Your average homeowner, I'd say absolutely not, avoid it completely.
The problem we run into is that there's no standard measure for
remediation."

A public health inspector with the Calgary Health Region says anyone
buying a condemned house can't move in until the property is brought
up to acceptable living standards.

That can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Inspector Vicki Wearmouth said it's not uncommon for a home to need
upwards of $35,000 in repairs, which can mean stripping a house down
to its studs to get rid of mould. In the most extreme cases,
demolition is the only answer.

"I get many, many calls from realtors and prospective purchasers
questioning individual houses that they are looking at," Ms. Wearmouth
said.

"The notice of health hazard is issued to the property. It doesn't
lapse just because somebody sells it. It has to be
remediated."

Ms. Wearmouth said health inspectors condemned 78 houses in 2004 and
more than 100 homes in 2005. She expects that number will continue to
rise this year.