Good idea to take a compass when viewing houses?

lou49

Thank you, thank you, thank you all. Just looked back to see if anyone had replied yet and I was blown away by the response!

It does sound as though it's best to work things out (which way back garden faces) yourself. Was just talking on phone with a friend about this, and she told me a story of how one of her cousins was showing a potential viewer round her house, which was for sale. The potential viewer asked the vendor whether the back garden was sunny or not; the vendor said that there was lots of sun, but was then surprised and a bit offended when the viewer took out a compass to check for herself! We were quite interested in a house with a very small back garden (newly remodelled house but haven't seen inside yet) but the garden is rather small, and I suspect may be north or north west. Want to check this out before even viewing it, I think. We've had 23 years of my feeling narky about our back garden (well I was, particularly when my kids were young) and I do not want to jump out of frying pan into fire!

Urgh. Lot to think about here. Going to clean my oven!

Louise

Jorgan_2

Apparently satellite dishes point in a southerly direction, don't quote me on that though. Its certainly true on a number of properties I have checked. It may not be 100% accurate, but it may help you work things out.

PasturesNew

I agree that a proper South West facing garden is essential.

I always stalk houses online first.

http://maps.google.co.uk is good but where possible a good 3D view such as http://www.aboutmyplace.co.uk can be more fun. Others use Google Earth (my PC's not up to it) or Virtual Earth.

I would be doing enough odd things in the seller's house, checking out my specific bug-bears, so I don't think I'd want to be whipping out a compass in the garden or who knows where I'd end up. Binoculars for checking the roof perhaps? Dowsing for drains and streams?

When buying their house, my parents cited that they wanted a SW-facing garden "to get the sun". The girl in the estate agency looked at them with confusion "the sun is in the sky" she said, believing it.

MissMoneypenny

PasturesNew wrote: »

When buying their house, my parents cited that they wanted a SW-facing garden "to get the sun". The girl in the estate agency looked at them with confusion "the sun is in the sky" she said, believing it.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::T

dekh

Stick the postcode into google maps.

zoom right in, find the house and switch to satelite view - zoom in further.

South is usually the bottom of the picture.

Zooming in on our house you can see that it is about 30o east of south to the rear.

Huge shadow to the front of the house - it gets the sun in the late afternoon, evening in summer - so far this winter no sun has touched our front garden.

It took a while to work out what the blurry white mark in the back garden was - sheets on the washing line!

You can't beat visual evidence.

TBeckett100

at which point is a north facing garden a south facing one if you turn the deckchair round?

dad-of-4

Jorgan wrote: »

Apparently satellite dishes point in a southerly direction, don't quote me on that though. Its certainly true on a number of properties I have checked. It may not be 100% accurate, but it may help you work things out.

sky dishes point 28.2 degrees east i think.

Sisyphus

Are you kidding you can afford to buy a house at the most crazy prices in history but you are too stingy to buy a flipping compass?

All right then. Magnetise a needle, stick it in a cork and float it in a glass of water. Don't blame me if they throw you out for looking like a complete nutter.