This is worth a read (and it’s not by Taibbi!) on that subject.
“So you’re looking for a 502, huh?” he says. O’Neil scopes the space. Upstairs is a one-room dispensary; downstairs are a handful of spindly pot plants.
“I’m asking $175,000,” the owner says.
O’Neil pokers his expression. The price buys neither the building nor the land, only the right to take over a $2,800 monthly lease. “The listing said $100,000,” says O’Neil.
The owner nods. “The guy down the road just sold his MMJ for $125,000. He’s not even zoned 502 legal. So I figured . . .”
O’Neil passes on the deal. A few weeks later, he leases a storefront two blocks farther south, paying three times the market price to beat out two other marijuana concerns bidding on the space.
