BEWARE: YOU'RE BUYING A GROW-OP

A group of residents in a quiet area of old Abbotsford is taking a
proactive stand against marijuana growing operations setting up in
their neighbourhood.

And by putting up signs warning potential buyers that the attractive
houses they're thinking of buying are former pot operations, they're
also sending a message to drug dealers to get out.

But while their efforts seem to be paying off, the residents still
aren't comfortable speaking out publicly, fearing those connected to
the drug operations may seek revenge.

Several residents had been keeping an eye on two upscale houses at
Woodbine and Ash streets in east Abbotsford for nearly six months as
they watched the same vehicles coming and going from the two houses at
all times, day and night. They noted the licence plates, which they
discovered were also attached to a home on McKinley Street that was
later busted by police as a marijuana growing operation.

At one point, according to a neighbour who did not want to be
identified, he saw a hydro crew come out and check the power lines to
the house and confirm that it was a grow-op. Shortly afterward and
before the police moved in, the people living there dismantled the
operation and moved out.

The house, a stylish rancher, went up for sale soon after, but not
before the angry residents put up their own sign on a nearby power
pole claiming the house was a former grow-op.

"The sign went up the day I found out. [The real estate agent] didn't
disclose [the growing operation]," said another neighbour, who also
wanted to remain anonymous.

Every time they would put the sign up, the real estate agent would
take it down just before he showed the house, he added.

Residents felt it was their duty to warn perspective buyers about the
history of the properties, especially if real estate agents did not.

But most real estate agents disclose information when they know they
are dealing with a former grow house, said Reg Davies, president of
the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board in Surrey.

"It's kind of a moral thing and most Realtors are really conscious of
that," he said, but added that many grow houses in an area can damage
the area. But one or two grow houses don't necessarily create a stigma
for that neighbourhood he said.

While it may be buyer beware, residents continue to get the word out
warning people about what they're getting.

"They knew exactly what they bought because of the sign," a resident
said of one family that eventually bought the house on Woodbine. What
it did, he said, was drive down the price of the home by $30,000.

He also thinks the signs are a warning for future drug dealers to not
set up illegal operations in their neighbourhood, or they will have a
lot of trouble selling the houses.

"We've done a lot of things with only a little piece of paper on a
pole," he said.

One resident who has owned his home in the area for 30 years, said, "I
think the signs are doing some good. Everyone in the whole area knows
these two houses were grow-ops."