A profile of a pot house in Elk Grove

There have been quite a few “pot houses” discovered in the Sacramento area over the past few years, especially in the City of Elk Grove. Most of these residential “farms” have been found in newer subdivision built during the past ten years in houses that are typically 2500-4000 square feet. Let’s take a look at one recent pot house sale from February 2011 to see how the neighborhood market reacted to this sale.

The sale circled in red on the graph signifies a recent pot house sale in a particular neighborhood in Elk Grove near W Stockton Blvd and Sheldon Road. This house as pictured to the right is just about 2,500 square feet and sold well below the range of other sales, which is obvious when viewing a bracket of properties between 2000-3000 square feet. As you can see, only one other house in this neighborhood sold below $200,000 over the past few years (an aggressively priced short sale in 2009). In this case similar competitive sales around February were selling between $220,000-$230,000 easily. Of course these “comps” did not have major electrical damage, moisture damage, holes in the sheetrock, potential structural issues and all the other factors associated with a “growing facility.”

Tips for Finding Pot House Comps: Usually pot houses can be found in MLS by searching for phrases like “marijuana”, “pot house”, “pot farm”, “agricultural income production” and “growing facility” (kidding on the “income production” – just seeing if you’re really reading). It’s always helpful to ask trusted real estate agents what they know too since sometimes sales are hard to find since listings can say things like “call agent for history of house”. Lastly, search online for terms like “pot houses in Elk Grove” to see what you can find. For example, this News 10 article lists six pot houses that were raided. If these houses have since sold on the open market, they have potential to help us measure the impact that indoor marijuana cultivation might have on local real estate.

Would you buy a former pot house? If you are an agent, have you sold one? How have you seen pot houses impact the ethos of a neighborhood or real estate values? Share your story below.