門登戶對? 賣屋四寶
Some Observations of A Realtor

John Yeung '53

《為了要光明》
In my thirty years of real estate selling, I have yet to come across a single oriental client who does not equate the comfort feature of a house to its being bright. So, once I come into a house for showing with a client, the very first thing I do is open all the curtains, drapes, and even sheers on each window. But, strangely enough, once the client has moved in, he/she has a tendency to cover up all the windows. I have done much research on this topic. The conclusion to this lies in the difference in ethnic background. People from a western culture like to show the house as it is. The Hong Kong oriental like to own an expansive house as a symbol of financial success. But, other than that, anything behind the walls is a very private domain. A case in point is the house in the photo. It is facing south and has the highest windows-to-wall ratio in the area. Yet, all the windows are covered by common plastic blinds 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

《門登戶對》
Many houses with a lot size of 30 feet or less, and a double garage, will not be able to have the front door facing the street. If the width of the lot is 30 feet or less, the double garage will normally be located between the house proper and the street. There is virtually no space left to make the front window and front door facing the street. In this case, the entrance door will be at the side of the house, as indicated in the photo below. A bay window in a house, with a view of the street, is a good feature of any house. But if the lot size is narrow, there will be no front windows. Most people do not mind as long as other Fung Sui is good. But a house with a front door not facing the street is not acceptable. So, some creative mind is at work. They build a small glass enclosure in front of the entrance door. With the enclosure, they can install another door to face the street. A house with such an alteration is shown in the second photo.

《物盡其用》
A house with a porch is a good design. It can provide some shade on a bright sunny day; it keeps the house cool; it provides a transition space between the house proper and the outside environment, such as on a rainy day, or during a snow storm. Best of all, people can sit on the porch in the summer evening to relax. Some farmhouses in the South have a long porch surrounding the four sides of the house just for these purposes.

Yet, most oriental homeowners do not seem to appreciate the front porch of a house. Their immediate sense of practicality leads them to enclose this porch, as soon as they move into a re-sale house. The photos below show a house with a front porch, and a house with a porch enclosed.

《Love Thy Neighbours》
We all live in a tolerant society. People are free to worship. But some people with a pragmatic view about everything will frown at the sight of a cross or a symbol of a church. They feel that such sharp, or pointed object will cast an evil shadow over their houses. They will feel extremely uncomfortable unless such unsightly objects are removed from their view. A church in Markham, perhaps in view of this neighbourhood impact, will not have anything resembling a cross or any symbol outside the church building, much less on the roof. Shown below is a Chinese church without such a cross, but with a plaque to attest to the neighbourhood congeniality.