Nerissa Rosete fell in love with a pricey South Orange County home, especially its impressive view of the mountains. She entered escrow, putting $20,000 down.
But she walked away from the deal, losing half her down payment, after a consultant noted the way the backyard steeply dropped off to meet Interstate 5. It was, he warned her, bad feng shui: The receding yard would prompt energy to rush out of the home.
Once again, the 3,000-year-old Chinese practice of feng shui, which teaches manipulation of one's physical surroundings to bring about balance and success, had shaken up the real estate market.
Nearly every real estate office in Southern California seems to have a tale about how buyers or sellers, including a large proportion of non-Chinese, have made surprising compromises in pursuit of good feng shui.
One sign is the rapidly growing field of feng shui consulting. Other signals include transactions like Rosete's that are falling through when a consultant vetoes a home. Some deals are taking longer to close because of buyer demands for a feng shui inspection. Some feng shui consultants are issuing certificates that sellers can use to prove a home's worthiness.
A number of resentful real estate agents find this all too much. "A bunch of baloney," sneers one in Beverly Hills. But he, like other critics, asks for anonymity, aware his next buyer could insist on a feng shui-correct house. On the record, he puts it this way: "I would definitely lose business if I were not trying to accommodate people and their concerns."
The agents know that feng shui's rising popularity is propelled not only by an expanding pool of Asian home buyers but also by a growing acceptance of the practice among many age groups and ethnicities.
Feng shui has penetrated the public consciousness so much so that it's nothing for Nordstrom to use the term in a TV ad. And a column that runs every other week in this newspaper's real estate section has given advice about the practice for more than a year.
Feng shui (pronounced "fung shway") translates as wind and water. It teaches that remodeling, rearranging furniture or adding objects to an environment will reawaken positive energy, or chi. Practitioners claim free-flowing chi helps people achieve prosperity, good health and happiness in life.
Feng shui consultants charge anywhere from $150 to a few thousand dollars an hour, usually spending at least several hours at a site. They enjoy a level of devotion from some buyers and sellers usually reserved for celebrated hairdressers or designers.
