how to find out if there's an annoying yappy dog in the vicinity when you want to buy or rent a house

this is really easy. and simple. i can't believe you haven't thought of this before.
first, get hold of one of these:

or these:

i myself use one of these, which is quite effective:

this is the gigi. can you feel the gigilove?
then you need one of these:

attach to the dog like so:

do i have to tell you everything?
and go walk in the street where you want to check out a particular property. whenever we walk around the streets all manner of dogs come the howling, the baying, the snapping, the rowfing, the yap-yap-yapping. it's like a kids' book, with all the different noises that come from behind fences when we walk past.
and then you know where they are. works every time, 100% guaranteed.