Marijuana may become legal in the coming months, but growing it in your house is still a really, really bad idea.

Unfortunately, at this point lenders and insurers view one plant on the deck or out in the garden, the same as 100 plants in a moist and moldy basement, and this can cause problems with financing and insuring your home.

Most lenders will not finance a home if the current owners check off on the property disclosure statement (must be completed on all sales) that Marijuana has been grown on the property (inside or out). This can dramatically affect your price when selling, and if you lie and a neighbor spills the beans later, you could be liable.

The challenge is, we do not currently have any remediation standards for the safe re-occupancy of a former grow-op.  So if a grow-op is busted/found/disclosed we have no real solution to make the home marketable again for buyers requiring financing.

I had a recent file where the sellers of a home deemed to be a past grow-op that had been remediated, had 11 accepted offers over 6 months that all collapsed before they finally got a cash offer for well over $100,000 less than the 1st offer.

So don’t let all your profits go up in smoke (yup I went there), buy your medical marijuana from somewhere else instead of growing it at home as it will be cheaper in the long run!