The classical texts describe a house on its own plot, in a compound, in a village or a town. Most people who ask about Vastu today live in something else, usually a flat on a floor of a larger building. This section looks at the home as a whole and asks the plain question: how much of the tradition applies to where you actually live?
For a flat, the honest answer is some of it. A flat has no plot of its own, fixed plumbing and a door onto a shared corridor, so only part of the tradition carries over: the bearing of your front door, a quiet place for worship, the direction you sleep and ordinary good planning. The room chart mostly cannot be applied, and a kitchen or toilet in the so-called wrong corner is the normal case, not a defect. The guide on apartments and flats explains what is worth doing and what is not worth worrying about.
For a plot, the classical texts spend more effort on choosing the site than on anything else: firm, sweet-smelling soil, a level plot, tests with a pit, and sensible neighbours. On slope the Brihat Samhita says level is best and allows the east or north a little higher, which is not the modern rule of a high south-west. Many popular plot shape rules are later and could not be traced to the verses we read. The guide on plot shape, slope and surroundings goes through the verses and the popular rules side by side.
If you are buying, renting or building, the useful habit is to ask of every rule you are told: is this classical, modern or disputed, and what is the verse? A good adviser will be glad to be asked. A less careful one will tell you the home is unlucky and offer a product.
Start with the entrance checker if you have a door you want to look up, and read remedies without demolition if any result has left you uneasy.