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Forget the chardonnay and brie spread, one California real estate firm is bringing cannabis to the housing market.
According to Business Insider, Los Angeles home sellers Rodeo Realty recently spruced up an open house for a $3.5 million mansion with the help of free pre-rolls, CBD massages, edibles, and more.
The event, dubbed “The Greenleaf Cannabis Laboratory,” was a collaboration among Rodeo Realty, Society Group PR, and Mota Group, the latter a members-only organization for cannabis creatives. It is now being called the first-ever “cannabis open house.” In between tours of bedrooms and bathrooms at the spacious Sherman Oaks estate (which happens to sit on Greenleaf Street), guests sipped infused kombucha cocktails and puffed vape pens.
Cannabis has been legal in California for more than two years, and in that time it feels like the entire state has become awash with 420-friendly media, fashion, fitness, and more. But for the real estate industry — which has used alcohol to lubricate potential buyers for decades — the introduction of cannabis isl relatively new, and still a bit taboo.
“So I said, let’s brand an entire house with cannabis,” Alexander Ali, founder and CEO of Society Group PR, told Business Insider about the Greenleaf Laboratory event. “We’ll put cannabis plants in the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) photos, we’ll have a trimming open house where brokers can get up close and personal with a cannabis plant and learn how to trim and cure it. And then we’ll throw a huge party where we have a bunch of cannabis activations from all these new brands and show people the evolution of cannabis.”
“This isn’t bongs and tie dye,” he said. “Billions of dollars are being poured into this industry.”
And for Rodeo agent Ben Quibrera, the cannabis plants staged in the foyer and CBD massage oils worked out better than expected, with an offer placed on the Sherman Oaks mansion after the event went down. With that kind of success, Quibrera expects to see 420-friendly open houses become a trend around the state.
“This cannabis and CBD open house is the tip of the iceberg for luxury real estate in Los Angeles,” Quibrera said.
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