My husband is directionally challenged. In fact he is so bad that whatever his instincts tell him to do, he does the opposite. He says he has a 95% hit rate of heading the right direction that way. Me…I have pretty good directional instincts. He tells me which way to go and I ignore him. We have a much better chance of getting to our destination that way.
Not too long ago I sat down with some new clients who wanted to buy a house here in Salem Oregon. As we went over their needs, they nervously fidgeted about their last need for a home purchase.
“We would prefer that it faces North to West.”
“No problem,” I said. We have so much inventory, I was sure I could find something that met their criteria. Even the directional needs.
The day was slightly overcast, which is not a surprise for Oregon this time of year, as we headed out towards our first set of homes. I had looked as many up as I could on Google to see which way the houses faced prior to heading out, so when the buyer asked me…
“Which way does this house face?” the buyer asked.
“North,” I said with confidence.
We went along and looked at a few homes. Some homes were too new to map out on google as the streets didn’t appear there yet. We were going in blind…The street curved right, it curved left, weaving through the neighborhood. As we got out and looked through the house, I was again asked “which way does this house face?”
As I stood outside, I was unable to say with confidence which way it faced. The curves in the road left me unsure of exactly which way the house was facing. No help from the sun, hiding behind the clouds…
“I need a compass,” I replied.
Ugh…I hate being unprepared. Next time…
Cell Phone…check
Laptop…check
Supra key…check…
Compass…as soon as I finish digging through my camping gear…check!
(c) Copyright, 2008. Melina Tomson, All Rights Reserved (ie…be nice and create your own content. Don’t steal mine…)
We bought a house recently, after a verrrry lengthy search (my agent said he had never worked longer with any lookers who actually ended up buying), having rejected a number of otherwise-acceptable houses because of poor solar orientation.You can do a lot to fix up a house, but rotating it is not one of the options. By buying a house that has the long axis running E-W, we got a house with a beautiful south-facing expanse of roof, which we promptly used to install a solar hot water heater (which you are helping to pay for, thanks to tax credits and energy trust rebates that take care of 57% of the installed cost).In the future, smart agents will always take the time to note good opportunities for solar installations. Smarter agents will begin now. The smartest ones will work with builders and developers to ensure that all their new construction is designed to make the best use of the free energy that streams down abundantly, even in Salem.