How to find true north on a US floor plan before you buy

The short answer

Why north decides the whole reading

Vastu divides a home into eight directions around its centre, each covering 45°. Which zone the kitchen, the master bedroom or the front door falls in depends entirely on where north is. If north is off by 10° to 15°, a room near the edge of a zone moves into the next one, and the reading for that room changes.

Across the US that error is real. A magnetic compass does not point to true north, and how far off it is depends on where you are:

From the World Magnetic Model (WMM-2025) for late 2026, the same model the free score uses. The figure drifts by a fraction of a degree a year.

A second source of error is the floor plan itself, which brings us to the first step.

Step 1: don't assume the top of the plan is north

Listing floor plans on Zillow, Redfin or a builder's website are drawn to show the rooms clearly, usually with the front door at the bottom or the garage on one side. Many have no north arrow at all, and an arrow that is there may simply point to the top of the page.

Builders in new subdivisions also sell the same model as a mirror-image or "reverse" plan, and the same model faces different directions on different lots. A model home's plan tells you the layout, not how your lot faces. Check north for the exact lot you are buying.

Step 2: take north from the plat or the survey

The best paper source is the recorded plat of the subdivision or the survey of the lot. Both carry a north arrow, and the lot lines are labelled with bearings such as N 45°12' E. You can usually find the plat through the county recorder or the county's GIS map, and a survey is often in the closing papers or available from the seller or title company.

The north on a plat is tied to a stated basis of bearings, which may differ from true north by a degree or two. For a Vastu reading that difference is small. What matters is that it is a real north, not the top of a page.

Step 3: line the plan up with the satellite view

On Google Maps or Apple Maps in satellite view, with the map not rotated, up is true north. Find the house, note which way the front door and the garage face, and turn the floor plan until it matches the shape of the roof and the driveway. Then mark north on the plan.

This is also the quickest way to check a "north-facing" or "south-facing" claim in a listing: those words describe the direction the front of the house faces, and they are sometimes used loosely.

Step 4: check on site with your phone

If you can visit, stand outside with your back to the front door and read the direction you are facing: that is the direction the home faces. Keep away from cars, metal railings and the garage door, which pull a compass off.

Many phone compasses can show true north; on an iPhone the Compass app has a "Use True North" setting. If yours shows magnetic north, correct it with your city's figure from the table above.

Step 5: check the home with north set correctly

Upload the floor plan of each level, set north the way you found it, and choose your city: the score applies your city's compass correction and the sun path, and you confirm every room before anything is scored. If you are choosing between homes on a shortlist, compare 2 to 3 of them side by side.

• Basements and garages are read for what they are, not as living rooms.
• HOA and condo rules are respected: choose "Own it (HOA rules)" or "Renting" and the fixes suit what you are allowed to change.
• Off-plan homes can be checked from the builder's plan before you sign, using the plat for north.

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