September 3, 1999

Feng shui analysis hits home

By TOM KELLY
The Real Estate Advisor

I have been acquainted with the philosophy of feng shui since the mid-1980s, when some local architects and builders were considering this ancient Chinese art of alignment, or geomancy, for their office-building proj ects in Seattle and Bellevue.

If feng shui is positive, it is said to ensure good fortune and harmony.

Feng shui, pronounced "fung schway," is translated as "wind and water." It is a mix of mystical Buddhist and Taoist rules for positioning buildings and arranging their interiors to balance with the forces of nature.

The idea of consulting a feng-shui master about a single-family house really hit home recently when my sister Kate (of Irish descent), and her husband (of Greek descent) shelled out $100 an hour to a feng-shui man to check out the vibes of their San Francisco flat before putting it up for sale.

I did some checking, and that fee appears to be in the ballpark. Shan-Tung Hsu, whose Blue Mountain Fung Shui Institute School offers 14 different workshops each year, charges $250 for a residential visit.

However, some of the top feng-shui experts in Hong Kong command $500 an hour, and there's no negotiating. You see, arguing over the price of a feng-shui consultation could affect the feng shui of the building.

"The man walked around for a long time without saying anything," Kate said. "When he started talking, it was a mile a minute. I started taking notes and didn't stop for about 45 minutes. I take it he didn't like the front of our building, and I think he felt our bedroom was a disaster."

Colors, numbers and building lines are all critical to good feng shui.

For example, blue is considered evil while red is lucky. The number 8 is treasured in Hong Kong because it sounds like the Cantonese word for prosperity. The number 4 is a no-no because in Cantonese it sounds like the word for death. In feng shui, words that sound like other ominous words are considered sinister signs.

If you have a building that faces the water and is flanked by mountains, you're in luck. The water will bring you profit and money and the mountains will bring you protection and stability.

"The big negatives were dried flowers and textiles," Kate said. "Everything has to be healthy -- green -- full of the life force. We replaced the dried flowers with plants, plants everywhere. He suggested we replace the textiles with framed prints of landscapes.

"The basic bedroom change was the bed -- it faced the wrong way. Never sleep with your back to the door. It should be turned around so that you can see the doorway."

Oh, the doorway. My memory tapes churned back nearly 10 years to the commercial-real-estate agent who told me that, for good feng shui, elevators should never be directly ahead of you when you walk into a building. Elevators should be to the right of the entry while escalators should converge toward the entry on a diagonal.

These moves are said to confuse evil spirits and prevent them from entering the building while keeping money within the building.

Feng shui men and women, sometimes known as geomancers, also advise that sofas, chairs and desks face the doorway, even if you have to give up a dynamite view of Puget Sound. The key is to design the home so that the doorway and any possible view co-mingle.

Also, if you cook with your back to the doorway, hang a mirror behind the stove so you can see the reflection of the burners and the doorway.

"By using a mirror behind the stove to reflect the burners, you are getting double wealth, double prosperity," Kate said.

Bad feng shui is given off by sharp exterior angles. Geomancers believe that sharp angles act like spirit knives, sending off negative energy to whatever lies below. The triangle is viewed as a huge design flaw because the Cantonese phrase for triangle sounds like a phrase for burial urns.

Luckily for Kate, she didn't have many triangles. She followed up her feng-shui session by placing a wind chime on the front porch and "misting" her house with spray from the mix of water and nine round pieces of orange peel.

"Hey, we knew it couldn't hurt," Kate said. "We needed to sell the house in a hurry, and it did sell in a hurry."

Previous columns:

• New book shows the lighter side of lending, 08-27-1999
• A new way to hunt for a home, 08-20-1999
• Mortgage rates up, but why?, 08-13-1999
• Insurance changes apply to new loans, 07-30-1999
• Realtors debate Net's role, 07-23-1999
• Are too many millionaires ruining the area housing, 07-16-1999
• New tool in online property marketing, 07-02-1999
• Fixing up the home, 06-25-1999