Do A SWOT Analysis Before Buying Or Selling A House

After you have determined your own personal strengths, do the same thing for the house or property you are about to buy or sell. Better still, do a SWOT analysis. Here is an example of what I mean:

Grab a sheet of paper and using a pen divide it into four. Head the top left rectangle "S" for Strengths, the top right rectangle "W" for weaknesses, the bottom left "O" for Opportunities and the bottom right rectangle "T" for Threats. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

STRENGTHS - Here are some examples of strengths you could include:

• Close to city location (3 minutes drive).
• 2 car under-cover drive-on parking.
• Established trees and srubs in landscaped garden.
• Private.
• Good indoor/outdoor flow with lagre deck.
• Generous open-plan living area.
• 3 large bedrooms plus study and sleepout.
• Newly renovated kitchen.
• Schools, shops, bus stops etc close by.
• Large fully-fenced section that could be sub-divided.
• etc. etc.

Now write down what you could do to maintain or capitalize on these strengths?

WEAKNESSES - Here are some examples of weaknesses you could include:

• Exterior paintwork on house front wall looks tired.
• Busy road assessible to south flowing traffic only.
• Driveway has holes.
• No garage – undercover car port only.
• Trees over-grown and block sun.
• Sleepout below standard of rest of house interior.
• Blocked view.
• Neighbours have large rusty wrecked campervan on front lawn (unsightly).
• Guttering and spouting leaks.
• etc. etc.

Now write down what you could do to overcome these weaknesses?

OPPORTUNITIES - Here are some examples of opportunities you could include:

• Paint front wall of house.
• Fix pot holes in driveway.
• Fix spouting and guttering on house.
• Paint and tidy-up interior of sleep-out.
• Trim trees to let in the sun and improve view.
• Talk nicely to neighbours – maybe offer to move unsightly campervan.
• Talk with developer about potential to subdivide.
• etc. etc.

Now write down what you could do to take advantage of these opportunities?

THREATS - Here are some examples of threats you could include:

• 5 similar houses in street just put on market.
• Rumors of road speed limit being increased – would make access to driveway more difficult.
• Termites discovered in east wall.
• etc. etc.

Now write down what you could do to overcome or limit the effect of these threats?

For more helpful real estate buying and selling tips and ideas have a look at this real estate resource.