If you have looked at brand-new homes, you have probably seen floor plans. They can be found on builders' office walls and you may even have brought home a set for your house file. However, if you are considering an older home, a floor plan may not be available.

Therefore, mentally walk your way through any older house that interests you. Imagine both your daily routine and a special situation, such as a party. Where will you come in from work? Where will you hang your coat? Where can you read quietly while the kids are playing video games?

You will have to make your own notations, in lieu of a set of plans, of where walls, windows, doorways, and so forth are situated in the house. You do not have to make a fancy drawing, but it is smart to scribble some kind of floor plan, even though you can actually walk through the rooms of the house.

This will help jog your memory later, and it will be useful for answering questions you may have forgotten to think about the first time you walked through.

Few people really try out a house when they first inspect it; most just glance around as observers and guests. That is fine for the just-looking stage, but it is not adequate for a house that one is seriously considering.

If you draw and take home a floor plan, no matter how primitive, you can live in the house mentally. Questions will almost certainly pop into your head as you look at that plan.

Here are some of the most important traffic-pattern questions:

• Are there rooms that must be walked through in order to reach other rooms? Only the kitchen is an acceptable walk-through room, and it is often located at or near the activity center of the house. All other walk-through rooms are a detriment to a sale. You will want to be especially careful to avoid floor plans where you must walk through one bedroom to get to another bedroom. Such houses are very difficult to sell.

• How do you get from the kitchen to the backyard? This is especially important for families with young children who need to be monitored. But anyone will find it handy to be able to go from the lawn chairs to the refrigerator easily.

• Where will guests enter the home? Most buyers prefer some kind of foyer or front entrance hall in which to greet guests. From there, movement into the living room should be natural and easy. Then think about how a guest will get from the living room to the dining room. And where is the powder room or guest bathroom? If entertaining is your style, you might also consider where guests are likely to mix during a party.

• What is the traffic pattern between the family living area (the kitchen or family room) and the most-often-used bathroom? Some bathrooms are located off the foyer, which is convenient for guests but inappropriate for the family, especially when muddy children are told to wash up and must walk through the dining room to the bathroom.

• What is the traffic pattern for bringing groceries and other merchandise into the house? As mentioned earlier, it can be inconvenient to have to lug bags up from a downstairs garage. Check the stairs that must be climbed and the distance that must be walked to perform this task.

• What is the distance and traffic pattern between the family room and the kitchen? Often, buyers like them to be adjacent or for one room to serve both functions; others prefer a separation.

• Are any of the hallways particularly long or dark? Many buyers object to long hallways. Lighting from a skylight can eliminate that objection.

• How are the bedrooms laid out? Many buyers prefer the splitbedroom layout, where the master bedroom and bath are on one side of the house and the other two or three bedrooms and one or two baths are on the other. This works particularly well for unrelated single buyers and for couples with older children; it gives everyone some distance.

Before you read this list, the traffic pattern of your future home was not on your list of things to consider when house hunting, was it? You can see how important the layout of rooms can be, and how frustrated you can become after moving into a poorly laid-out place.