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What should you bring to a viewing?

A charged phone, a tape measure at least 5 metres long, a written list of no more than ten points, and the measurements of your three biggest pieces of furniture. Everything else is optional — and a laser distance meter is the best of the optional extras.

The four things you should always bring

1. A charged phone. It's a camera, compass, notepad, voice recorder and — on an iPhone with LiDAR — a measuring tool, all in one. Check the battery before you set off: a viewing day with five homes, photos and scanning drains a phone faster than you'd expect. Bring a power bank if you're seeing more than two homes.
2. A tape measure at least 5 metres long. A 3-metre tape won't stretch across a living room, and a tape you have to reposition partway gives you imprecise numbers. A rigid steel tape of 5–8 m can be held level on your own over 3–4 metres, which a soft fabric tape can't.
3. Your list. No more than ten points, written in advance, with the three most important ones marked. A list kept in your head vanishes the second the agent says hello.
4. The measurements of your three biggest pieces of furniture. The sofa, the bed and the dining table, in centimetres, saved on your phone. Those three numbers decide more buying decisions than anything else you could have in your pocket.

The best optional extra: a laser distance meter

A simple laser distance meter measures a room's length on your own, in a second, without anyone needing to hold the other end. That's its real advantage at a viewing: you're often alone, and pressed for time. Most models also measure height, which turns ceiling height into a two-second job instead of an acrobatic feat with a tape measure.

If you have an iPhone with LiDAR, the phone covers much of the same need — and a scan gives you the room's entire shape, not just the measurements you remembered to take. If you have neither a laser nor LiDAR, a tape measure does the job; it just takes longer and calls for more system.

What you shouldn't drag along

• Ladders, torches and damp meters. That's a surveyor's toolkit, not a buyer's. If the home needs a technical inspection, that belongs in a separate walkthrough with a professional.
• The listing printed out. It's on your phone. A stack of paper means your hands are full and you can't measure.
• The whole family on a first viewing. Children are welcome in many places, but you can't watch them and take stock of a home at the same time. Bring them on a second viewing, where it's about how you feel in the rooms.

Dress to be able to move

Shoes you can slip off and on without sitting down — many sellers ask visitors to remove shoes, and you'll be moving in and out of the home, into the garden and maybe down to the basement. A jacket with pockets, so you can carry the tape measure and phone on you instead of in a bag you set down and forget. And leave the big backpack in the car; a viewing happens in narrow spaces alongside other people.

Courtesy: ask before you measure and photograph

Say it at the door: "Is it all right if I measure a couple of rooms and do a scan with my phone?" Most agents say yes straight away. But some sellers have asked for no indoor photos, and at a busy viewing you might be in the way. Ask first, and respect the answer.

Be discreet whatever the answer is: measure walls and rooms, not the family's belongings. Don't open cupboards and drawers without asking. Don't walk into a room where someone is sleeping or working. You're a guest in a home another family still lives in.

The sum you should be able to do on the spot

With your furniture measurements on you, you can settle the most important question in 40 seconds. Example: your sofa is 240 cm long and 95 cm deep. In the living room you measure the width across, where the sofa is meant to go, and find 3.40 m. Then you add up the space needed:

• Sofa, depth: 95 cm
• Gap from sofa to coffee table: 40 cm
• Coffee table, depth: 60 cm
• Walkway behind the coffee table: 80 cm
• TV unit, depth: 45 cm

95 + 40 + 60 + 80 + 45 = 320 cm against the room's 340 cm. It fits — with 20 cm to spare. If the room had been 3.10 m, it wouldn't have fit, and you'd know it while you were standing there, instead of on moving day.

The same goes for the bed: 180 cm wide plus 60 cm on each side needs 300 cm of room width. If the bedroom is 270 cm wide, the bed can only stand with one side against the wall.

What the phone can take home with it

The practical problem with a tape measure is that you only get the measurements you remembered to take. Scan the rooms with your iPhone's LiDAR, and you bring the whole geometry home and measure afterwards — including the measurements you didn't know you'd need.

HouseSense turns the scan into a measured floor plan with area and ceiling height per room, a 3D model with true sunlight based on the home's location and orientation, and a takeoff you can send to a contractor. You can place your own furniture in it at its real dimensions, so the furniture sum becomes something you see instead of something you calculate. Everything lives in your own iCloud; there's no account and no server.

Four things in your pocket, ten points on the list, three furniture measurements on your phone. That's all it takes to leave a viewing with numbers instead of impressions.