Fall has arrived and the real estate market is showing signs of recovery. Many homeowners had waited for the summer to put their house on the market. While some homes move quickly, others feel as if they’re stuck, especially in a market with lots of inventory. Here are some tips to help your home sell.

In Feng Shui we evaluate a house and its property for sufficient Qi (pronounced “chee“). Qi is the living energy of all beings but also for the land and even a house.

If a house does not sell something is wrong with the Qi of the house:

1. There is simply not enough Qi:

If one comes home after an exhausting day at work, the house is hopefully a source of energy and rejuvenation. After a good night’s sleep one should feel rested and fresh, geared up for new challenges. However, if one feels tired or beaten-up, a deficiency of Qi is likely.

Not enough Qi means the whole land energy is low or depressed. Just as the owner feels tired and uninspired this energetic impression easily influences visitors and potential buyers. This might happen on a dead end street or bottleneck shaped property.

On a larger scale, the property itself and the surrounding landscape carry significant patterns of Qi. In Traditional Feng Shui the surrounding characteristics are described in terms of 4 animals: the Tortoise giving protection from the back, the Dragon and Tiger offering support from the sides and the Phoenix opening the view in the front. Additional water in the front optimizes the appearance of the Phoenix.

In this context a slow-moving river is seen as an optimal source of renewing energy, not rushing by too quickly, yet not stagnant either. Similar effects can be observed with streets. Slowly moving traffic is beneficial, whereas dead end streets lack the ongoing energy exchange.

2. The set-up or Qi flow violates some major Feng Shui principles:

Violations of major Qi principles are in the line of:

Clutter in front of the house.

High obstacles in front of the house (overgrown bushes or trees, garages) blocking the Qi flow from the street.

Abandonment of the front door as the main entry point i.e. no path to the front entrance.

Property opposite graveyards, hospitals, police and fire stations, and churches, especially those with tall steeples. All these places are often are carrying major amounts of heavy energy; of sorrow and pain and radiate the pattern in the vicinity.

Houses at T-crossings with accelerated energy running against them.

A few days ago I passed a house we had looked at years ago ourselves here in Portland. It is a John Calvin Stevens home, a beautiful house itself, but next to a high building, very close without an appropriate minimum distance. This house is on the market for the fourth time within recent years and always seems to take a while until it finally finds a new owner. However, as long as the invasion of the neighbor building's energy and its threat is not resolved, this cycle of unsatisfying ownerships will go on.

3. The Qi is weak because it is drained:

Drained Qi means that even though there seems to be sufficient energy, it is taken away again. Reasons might be Geopathic stress (Geo = the earth, pathology = study of illness, Geopathic stress = stress caused by degenerating earth energies), either of the property or of the house itself. These can be major energy grids as well as blockages of the energy flow within the landscape.

4. There are other obstacles hindering the sale:

When a house does not sell we should ask a number of questions:

Why is the house being sold in the first place? Is it a financially motivated decision, a move for private reasons, etc?

Do all involved parties agree on this step? We sometimes find that one of the partners is not ready or willing to move.

How long have the owners been there? Is there a special attachment? Once in a while it seems that owners have taken such good care of a house, it does not want to let them go.

Long-lasting memories connected with the house can also block the letting-go process and hold things back.

We have also found cases where the energies of former owners or people who died there disturb the sales process.

In some cases the land had been used for sacred ceremonies; e.g., as a burial ground. These are the most difficult situations. As a practitioner, I always seek permission to deal with these issues first, before imposing any other changes.

Whatever the reason for a house not selling might be, here are some ideas beyond the rules of common sense, such as cleaning up the place, trimming bushes and trees, painting the porch and hiding the garbage in the garage:

Clearing the space is always a good start. The same way a house is cleaned and set up neatly before put on the market, an energetic cleanse with sage is warmly recommended.

Anything increasing the attention to a house helps. That’s why there are colorful “For Sale“ signs in front of the house. Moving objects like kites and flags whirling in the wind draw the attention and pull in with it more Qi. (By the way, there are recommendations within Feng Shui circles that the “For Sale“ signs are more effective when placed on the right side of the front door (approaching the door). An explanation might be that the Qi naturally moves about 3/5 towards the right, to the Yang side, the more active side of a space.)

Try to find out what the amount of Qi the house has. Do people feel exhausted in the house, what are the sleeping patterns? Are the plants doing well? I use specific house energy tools developed in Germany to shield a whole building from Qi drains in general, but also to bring in additional energy in cases of low Qi levels.

Important: Make sure the owners are ready to sell. The process is much easier when the people are truly ready to let go and move on.

Dowsing instruments such as pendulums or European tensors can help to identify obstacles and find the right procedure to overcome them.

Use flower essences to enhance the process of separation. “Honeysuckle,” one of the Bach Flowers, is a remedy to support letting former attachment go. We also use South American and Australian essences, which have a number of special flowers addressing stagnation and disturbed energy situations. Put a few drops in a room fountain or spray a water bottle infused with the chosen remedy around the house. A few days of application are usually sufficient to change the patterns.

Check out the surrounding environment for major blockages due to any recent changes. Major projects such as repair of power lines, roadwork, or large construction sites create ruptures through natural earth meridians, traumatize the land and may upset nature and its energetic inhabitants, the elementals. Use dowsing tools to find out details.

A tricky topic, but I’d still like to address it: Check for spiritual energies of people who either might have lived in the house, might have died in it or might be connected otherwise with the location. Just recently I had two cases of 400 m grid lines through a house. This grid is also known as “the ghost highway” and pulls in unwanted visitors. In this case it is necessary to block this grid before any other clearing is performed, otherwise the created vacuum just pulls more of the same back in. Call a dowser or energy worker for assistance if you feel you need help.

It often helps to find a way to communicate with the house and offer appreciation and acknowledgement for its past function and service. This alone can initiate a shift.

Always searching for technical equipment to support our efforts we also use computer technology to change the energy of a space. Our QXCI (Quantum Xerroid Consciousness Interface) biofeedback computer is a radionics device and can be used over distance to regularly send healing impulses to a building to clear it and improve the Qi.

The very latest device we apply in tough cases is called “Space Harmonizer,” a new tool specifically developed to enhance and match the subtle frequency pattern of a house with its inhabitants. We are using the first prototypes and I will report in a future issue how these trials went.

And as a last thought: Dramatic results require dramatic changes. The pace and the amount of adjustments finally determine the speed of the sale.

Werner Brandmaier Dipl.Ing., a medical engineer and a citizen of Austria, studied with prominent international Feng Shui masters and trained in Germany to practice dowsing and geopathology. Werner offers consultations for homes and businesses and teaches workshops and seminars. He is a member of the International Feng Shui Guild and the American Society of Dowsers. You may contact Werner at (207) 772-7888 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .