The following article is an excerpt from  Feng Shui Tips for House Hunters.

The Neighborhood-Avoid a house that is very close to:

– A Freeway

The noise, pollution, and rapid movement of cars and trucks whizzing by is not conducive to a tranquil home life. Since the outside stimulates the inside, if you live in a house with Feng Shui problems, living near a freeway can make things worse. How close is too close? There is not an exact formula for this; however, if you live within a few blocks of the freeway and can hear it constantly, this is a bad sign.

– A Cemetery

Energies related to death, disease and decay are not the type of energies you want to live near. The frequent question is: How close is too close to a cemetery? There is not set number of feet or miles. But if you can see the cemetery from any window in the house, then the property is too close to it. Many sad people will visit the grave sites; it is just too somber, especially the actual funeral processions which occasionally take place. There is always an unconscious reminder of death when you live near a cemetery. As well, ghosts and spirits can enter your home when you live too close to a cemetery. The subject of ghosts or spirits could be a whole separate book and some people simply do not believe that these disembodied souls exist. But chances are, if you are reading about Feng Shui, you are probably receptive to the concept that a parallel universe exists right among us and that the phenomenon of ghosts is possible. Below is a picture of a cemetery right near a residential area.

– A Place of Worship

People think it is “holy” or somehow very spiritual to live near a church or temple. The religious activities that take place at a house of worship are mixed. Sometimes there are celebrations, like weddings. Sometimes there are sad events like funerals. Like the cemetery, disembodied spirits clamor around the church or temple and it is not good to live within a couple blocks of a church or temple. It is not as bad as a cemetery, but it is still too “yin” of an environment. It can be draining on a level that most people are not even aware of.

– A Hospital

Like a church or temple, happy events can take place at a hospital, such as a birth of a baby or a recovery from illness. But most of the time people go to a hospital when they are sick or dying. This energy can drag down the qi of a whole area. There is also the subtle visual impact of being near a place where there is sickness and death, anxiety coming and going.

Finally, the sounds that come to and from a hospital, the sirens of ambulances, is not something you want to hear regularly in your home.

– A Fire Station

While your house may be conveniently safe from ever burning to the ground if you are next door to a fire station, the sirens that go out on a regular basis can be unnerving to hear. There can be a type of psychic tension around these buildings which are always responding to emergencies.

– A Police Department

The Police deal with emergencies and criminals and sometimes these tension-filled and potentially dangerous situations are brought right to the police station. Some police stations even house criminals before they are transferred to more permanent holding stations. The negative energy of an individual is usually not that powerful to disturb the psyches of those who live in the area. But sometimes the criminals do have powerfully negative vibrations. Again, just hearing police sirens may be as unnerving as ambulances or fire trucks.

– A Liquor Store

Many reputable people own and operate liquor and convenience stores. But the customers who frequent these establishments have a higher chance of being people who are addicted to alcohol. People who are addicted to alcohol can include those who loiter, pander, and they can be psychically weak people. They are vulnerable to having parasitic negative spirits attached to their own auras since addictions make people weaker in general. You do not want to live really close (within a few blocks) of a place which attracts people who have these breaks in their auras.

By having compromised auras, they may have boundary issues that could affect a neighborhood. Just as one example, I have had clients who lived near Liquor stores and they had to deal with inebriated people who urinated on their properties. In the following photo, the house is just steps away from the Liquor Store as well as being on a busy, noisy street.

– A Strip Club

The vibration of a strip club, where women are objectified and not treated with respect, and where there is a higher potential for prostitution can also drag down the energy of the whole neighborhood.This can also invite a higher chance of drug dealing and other illegal activities.

– A Prison

Not too many prisons are plopped in the middle of residential areas. But it is just something to be aware of. You don’t want to live in an area where there are criminals all housed in a concentrated area, with the small chance of being able to escape. Just the visual alone, of driving by a prison, can be disheartening. When it comes to crime, you can look up on the Internet whether or not there are any registered sex offenders living in the area you plan to move to. And you can always get a crime report from the local police department.

– Any nearby property that makes a lot of noise like an auto-repair shop

A good house hunting tip is to visit a property at several different times a day to see if there are going to be regular objectionable noises coming from a nearby business at any time of day or night.People often say that they have “tuned out” these noises after living with them fora while, but they still register with the subconscious and can be a cause of irritation and sleep problems.

These are just a few examples of bad exterior environments. There aren’t cures for everything; some things just need to be avoided.

Kartar Diamond is the author of numerous books and ebooks. She started her consulting business in 1992 and has had thousands of clients since. Kartar Diamond wrote Feng Shui Tips for House Hunters initially to help her clients in the house hunting process, and would send the client a major check list of what to avoid when looking. This evolved into the ebook, which is now available from Kartar’s website. With nearly 70 House Hunting Tips and photos to illustrate each point, this is a must-have for those who want to avoid making a big mistake when they lease or buy.

Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions (R) since 1992
From the Frequent Client Questions Blog Series