Frequently Asked Questions

A heuristic score for any U.S. residential address, based on classical Form SchoolForm School

The older of Feng Shui's two major traditions, focused on the physical shape of a site itself -- nearby water, hills, roads, and the building's own shape. FengShuiIQ's free and Expanded ProperQi™ Score are built on Form School principles applied to real map data.

No. This is an automated, data-driven heuristic -- it can't walk the site, see the interior, or apply the judgment an experienced practitioner brings. Treat it the way you'd treat any single data point in a big decision: useful, but not a replacement for expert advice when the stakes call for it.

They're deliberately separate. The ProperQi™ Score is the Form School site-analysis score described above. The Numeric AddressNumeric Address

A separate, older tradition scored alongside (not folded into) the ProperQi™ Score -- Chinese numerological associations with house numbers, like favoring 8 and avoiding 4.

Yes -- the Share this score button on any result builds a branded image card (score, grade, and address) and hands it straight to your phone's native share sheet, or downloads the image and copies a caption with a direct link back to that address's full score on desktop. The image carries the headline number; the accompanying caption carries the actual link back to the full breakdown.

This can genuinely happen with Road Exposure (part of every free score), and Junction Type and Poison Arrows (both part of the Expanded tier) -- and it's intentional layering, not the same deduction billed twice.

Road Exposure checks, within 30m of the property, whether any real road junction exists at all, and penalizes based on how many. Junction Type checks a wider 80m radius and asks a more specific question: what kind of junction is it -- a normal through-street (fine), a cul-de-sac (mild concern), or a T-junction/dead-end (the classical concern, since a road ending pointed at a house reads as more disruptive than one that continues past it)? Poison Arrows goes one step further still, checking whether that dead-end's final approach is actually aimed -- within about 25 degrees -- straight at your property, versus just nearby but off to the side.

So the same physical intersection can show up in all three because each factor is answering a different, progressively more specific question about it -- not because three unrelated things happen to be wrong with your street. A dead-end road pointed directly at a house is a real case where classical sources treat the exposure as more serious, and the score reflects that by design.

Both only appear near a genuinely severe hazard (a landfill, active substation, or similar close by), and both are shown explicitly rather than adjusted silently.

A severity ceiling caps how high the overall score can go when the closest hazard is bad enough on its own -- a landfill next door shouldn't be offset back to "Balanced" just because the same lot also backs onto a nice patch of green space.

Separately, nearby positive factors are muted, not zeroed -- water, green space, terrain, and similar readings are still credited near a severe hazard, just at a reduced strength, since a serious hazard is treated as coloring the whole site's read rather than something unrelated positives can freely cancel out. Neither is a hidden penalty; each is labeled directly on the result when it applies.

We cap how far the core site factors, taken together, are allowed to swing a score in either direction, so one especially lopsided address doesn't read as more extreme than the tool is built to claim. When that cap changes a factor's contribution, we redistribute the difference across the other factors -- but never push one past its own zero point.

If a small remainder is still left after that redistribution, it shows up as this explicit line, folded into the total, rather than quietly rounded away. It's usually zero, and small on the rare occasions it isn't -- shown so the displayed total always reconciles with the visible factors above it.

A few factors depend on free public data sources -- USGS for elevation and water-flow direction, Regrid for parcel boundaries -- that can occasionally be slow, down, or simply not have data for a given location. When that happens, the factor shows as unavailable rather than guessing, and it's excluded from your overall score rather than silently counted as zero or penalized.

One Expanded-tier factor, Kua Direction Compatibility, is genuinely personal rather than site-only -- every other factor describes the property the same way for anyone. It comes from Eight MansionsEight Mansions

A classical Compass School method that sorts everyone into one of eight personal directions of best and worst fit, based on a number calculated from their birth year and sex. It's the system behind ProperQi™ Match's per-person readings and the Expanded tier's Kua Direction Compatibility factor.

The classical calculation itself has exactly two formulas, tied to birth sex rather than gender identity -- no recognized school defines a third. Rather than forcing everyone into one of those two boxes, this factor offers three choices: pick whichever formula applies to you for a real scored reading, choose "Show both readings" to see both classical calculations side by side without picking (shown as informational rather than scored, since blending two different classical categories into one number wouldn't be an honest reading), or "Prefer not to say" to skip this one factor entirely.

It's entirely optional. Leave it blank and every other Expanded factor still works normally -- this one factor simply reads as "add your birth info to personalize this" and doesn't affect the rest of the score. You can add it, skip it, or come back and change it at any time from the report itself; it's tied to your device (or account, once signed in), never to a single purchase.

One honest limitation: the classical calculation technically runs on the Chinese solar calendar, where a year starts on February 4th -- so someone born in January or the first days of February can, in principle, fall on the other side of that boundary from what a plain birth year assumes. We only ask for birth year (not a full birth date) to keep this quick and optional, so this factor can be off by one for that specific narrow window of birthdates. Everything else about the reading is applied exactly as classical Eight Mansions sources describe it.

Two reasons this can happen legitimately over the longer term. First, the underlying map and elevation data can change over time -- a new road, building, or updated flood-zone map. Second, we occasionally refine the scoring methodology itself; when we do, previously cached scores are recomputed under the new method rather than kept stale, so a re-check can reflect an improved model, not an inconsistency.

Note this second reason applies specifically to the free Basic ProperQi™ Score and its own 7 free factors -- adding a new Expanded ProperQi™ Score factor doesn't touch your free score, since the two are scored from separate factor pools. Your Basic score only moves if we change something in that free factor set itself.

If you checked the same address twice within a few minutes and got different results, see the next question instead -- that's a different, shorter-term cause.

Usually not, and it's not a sign anything is wrong with the property. A few factors -- Road exposure especially, plus the Direction estimate that partly leans on nearby road frontage -- depend on a live query to OpenStreetMap's road-network data for that specific spot, made fresh each time you check rather than pulled from a static snapshot. Like any public data service, that query can occasionally return a partial result.

We deliberately don't save a degraded read as the address's stored result, so checking again a few minutes later has a real chance of pulling a complete read once the data service responds normally -- or, less often, the other way around.

Separately, if the address was typed or selected slightly differently between the two checks (a different autocomplete suggestion, an added ZIP code, a nearby-but-not-identical formatted version), each version is treated as its own fresh lookup rather than reusing an earlier result -- picking the same autocomplete suggestion each time keeps repeat checks pointed at the same stored result.

Water, green space, hazards, schools, terrain, and the flood-zone check draw from steadier sources and don't fluctuate this way.

No single factor, or even the overall score, is meant to be read as a verdict. Confidence, yes -- certainty, never. Treat a low score as "worth understanding why" rather than "disqualifying," and weigh it alongside everything else that matters in the decision.

The Basic ProperQi™ ScoreProperQi™ Score

The free, unlimited score for any U.S. address -- seven Form School site factors (water, green space, hazards, road exposure, terrain, direction, schools) plus a FEMA flood-zone check. Not tied to any one person.

Both are live. The $29 Floor Plan ProperQi™ ScoreFloor Plan ProperQi™ Score

A $29 one-time purchase that scores one home's interior layout from a floor-plan image -- room shapes, missing corners, and similar interior-specific reads. Re-edits to the same plan are free forever.

Four things. First, a full Eight Mansions (Ba Zhai) reading for every resident you add, showing all eight compass directions and their traditional meaning, with a specific plain-language fix for every direction that isn't supportive -- never left as just bad news. Second, a Xuan Kong Flying Star read for your home's construction period, always shown, plus an optional fuller natal chart if you've also given a compass facing reading (see the next-but-one question for why that one carries a "preview" label). Third, a household overlap section once you've added 2 or more residents, showing which directions are traditionally supportive for more than one person at once -- useful for a shared space like a living room. Fourth, room-by-room matching against a floor plan -- a Floor Plan ProperQi™ Score for this address is included at no extra charge with your $49 purchase (normally $29 on its own), so there's nothing separate to buy to get this one. That match lands in one of four bands: Strong Match, Good Match, Fair Match, or Growing Match, with the specific rooms behind that score always shown.

Every one of your four traditionally less-supportive directions ships with a specific, practical adjustment alongside it -- never just a flag with nothing to do about it. The mildest ones suggest something simple, like not putting a bed or desk that way; the most significant one comes with a note that it's worth asking a Feng Shui practitioner about directly. Each adjustment is labeled with how soon it's worth addressing, from a same-day change to something to plan for over the coming year.

The period read only needs your home's construction year (or an estimate) and tells you which20-year Flying Star eraFlying Star period

A 20-year era a home's construction year falls into, each with its own general element. This reading only needs a construction year (or estimate) and is always shown on a ProperQi™ Match report.

We ship the natal chart labeled "Preview: pending verification" because one classical input it depends on -- how close a facing can sit to a boundary line before the reading becomes genuinely ambiguous, a concept called kong wangKong wang

A classical concept describing when a home's facing sits close enough to a boundary line between two directions that the Flying Star reading becomes genuinely ambiguous. This is the specific open question keeping the natal chart labeled "Preview" on this site.

Yes, once you've added 2 or more residents with a birth year and sex each. We compare everyone's own Eight Mansions reading and show any compass direction that's traditionally supportive for more than one person at once -- a useful starting point for orienting a shared space so it's not just optimized for one person's reading. If nobody's directions happen to overlap this round, that's shown as a normal result too, not an error -- it's common, and just means it's a difference to balance rather than something wrong.

No -- these are unrelated products, aimed at different volumes of use. The $29 Floor Plan and $49 ProperQi™ Match tiers on the pricing page are live, one-time-per-address purchases. The For Professionals page has two separate monthly subscriptions instead: $39/month for unlimited Expanded ProperQi™ Score unlocks (normally $4.99 each) and an 88-address comparison panel; and $149/month for unlimited $49 ProperQi™ Match unlocks. If you're not checking listings or matching households regularly, the per-address $4.99 unlock, the one-time $29 floor plan score, or the one-time $49 Match are likely the better value; the For Professionals page walks through the math for when either subscription pays off instead.

The $149/month plan includes everything in the $39/month plan, plus more. $39/month gets you unlimited Expanded ProperQi™ Score unlocks (normally $4.99 each) for any address, and room for up to 88 saved addresses on your comparison panel. $149/month adds unlimited ProperQi™ Match unlocks (normally $49) on top of that -- every score tier, Free, Expanded, and Match, is included on any address you look up. If you regularly buy Match reports for clients, $149/month typically replaces both a Match habit and the $39/month plan in a single subscription.

It depends on which plan unlocked them. Expanded ProperQi™ Score unlocks from the $39/month plan are yours for that address permanently, the same as if you'd paid $4.99 for it directly -- canceling doesn't take that away. ProperQi™ Match access from the $149/month plan works differently: it's tied to having an active subscription, so once it lapses, viewing a Match report for an address again requires a new $49 purchase (or an existing Match credit) for that address. If you want a specific Match report to stay accessible after you cancel, that's the distinction to plan around.

Canceling doesn't cut off access right away -- your subscription stays active through the end of whatever period (or free trial) you've already started, and simply doesn't renew after that. We don't refund the current paid period if you cancel partway through; canceling stops future charges going forward, it doesn't reverse the current one.

No -- these are two separate $39/month products. The For Professionals plan gives real estate, interior design, and architecture professionals unlimited Expanded ProperQi™ Score unlocks for scoring properties. The Practitioner Directory listing is a different subscription that puts a Feng Shui practitioner's profile in our public directory, where homeowners can find and contact them directly -- it doesn't include any scoring unlocks, and subscribing to one doesn't get you the other.

No -- the unlock is tied to that address in your account. Re-checking it recomputes the score fresh (so it reflects current data), but your Expanded access for that address persists.

This is almost always an email mismatch: your purchase is linked to whatever email you entered at checkout, and signing in only reconnects to it if you use that same email address. If you're sure you used the same email and it's still not showing up, email contact@fengshuiiq.com and we'll sort it out directly.

No -- the free Basic ProperQi™ Score never requires signing up or logging in.

It lets you save and compare addresses side by side -- up to 2 free, up to 8 once you've unlocked any address's full report for $4.99 -- and pick up any paid-tier unlocks from any device or browser -- useful if you'd otherwise lose that history by clearing cookies or switching computers.

No -- sign-in uses a one-time magic link sent to your email instead of a password, the same as many modern consumer apps.

Google (geocoding), Mapbox and OpenStreetMap (nearby features and roads), USGS (elevation and water-flow direction), Regrid (parcel boundaries, Expanded tier only), and -- for California addresses specifically -- CalRecycle's state landfill registry, used as a backup landfill signal alongside public map tags. Full detail on what's collected and shared is in the Privacy Policy.

As accurate as the underlying public map data allows -- which can be incomplete, outdated, or wrong for a given address, the same limitation any tool built on public data sources has. See the full methodology and its limitations for specifics on each factor.