What about Windsor?

Hello.
We are moving to the UK in 10 days and we wanted to live in Marlow (or similar town).
What we want is a town close to London, with affordable houses, beautiful, with caracther,
good schools, restaurants, shops, not so conservative, etc.
We could not found any "serviced apartment" in Marlow, so we are renting for 2 weeks in Windsor,
until we find something. But we have been checking prices in Windsor, and it seems cheaper than Marlow.
Is Windsor an interesting place to live? Does it have an international comunity or is very conservative?
By head is spinning with all the options. DH can work from home, but has to be close to London,
since he has to go there sometimes (do not know how often).
Another question, we want to rent for some months (may be 3 or 4) and then buy. Can we rent
a place for that amount of time? It seems that most of the Real Estate Agencies demand a 6 month contract.
DH used to live in London (10 years ago) and said that he always paid per week, not signing any long terms contracts.
Is it how it works now? Because we even do not know if 3 or 4months we will have found the house of our dreams (medium size,
near local attractions and cheap ha,ha,ha,ha ) I also have been checking RICHMOND since it looks like the kind of place we want to live,
but it is EXPENSIVEEEEEE!
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Windsor is great,I have friends who live near there. Most places to rent want a year contract w/a minimum 6 mos. The rents here are usually listed by the week, but paid on a monthly basis. Example 200gbp per week =866.66 per calender month. Plus you will be responsible for council tax which will add at least another 100 pounds per month. You might be able to find temporary housing or a house share that will allow you to pay weekly with no long term lease. But keep in mind the purchase of property in this country takes time. It could take months not weeks. Its not like the states where you find a property and can purchase quickly. There are lawyers and surveyors involved,letters sent back and forth. And during this long drawn out process someone else can step in and offer more. And you can lose you dreamhome. Its a dirty practice here called gazumping. Good luck 

Windsor is a nice town but I would say be aware of the fact that it is close to Heathrow - lost of airplane noise - and also VERY touristy. You can't walk down the High St for the zillions of tourists swarming about so not the right place if you are looking for somewhere quiet.  The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead is a fairly conservative area (and politically as well)  but with a mixed population.

I can offer my opinion on Chiswick as a cheaper alternative to Richmond with the same benefit of the river and good transport links.  I do not know much about Windsor but I think it is a wasted effort to spend much time thinking about a long term place to live here without being here and spending time in that place.  It is easy to get out on the weekend and spend a day in many places and find what you like.     http://www.virtual-chiswick.ukonline.co.uk/

Buying a house in 3 months time is not impossible but it is unlikely.  The market is quite flat right now so there is no rush and it is a complex process that is treacherous for the buyer.  Search these boards for more info or look at the following web site before you start looking.  You must go in with eyes wide open and a good understanding of the process to avoid disappointment. 

http://www.mortgagesorter.co.uk/home_buyers_guide.html

The site also has a lot of information on mortgages which may or may not be difficult for you to get.  It depends on your income and credit history in the UK.  Nobody cares how good or bad you credit score is in the U.S.

What we want is a town close to London, with affordable houses, beautiful, with caracther,
good schools, restaurants, shops, not so conservative, etc.

I think you just described everyone's utopian place to live! 
Somewhere like that especially close to London ain't gonna be cheap.  But cheap means different things to different people.  If cheap is £500/month you might really struggle, but if cheap is anything under £1000/month you might have quite a few more options.

Windsor is very touristy although there are quite a lot of shops and restaurants, but as said, it is extremely touristy (especially with Good Morning America there this week!).  Marlow is pretty expensive - it's about 20 minutes from where I live and I read a local property mag that said they are literally running out of rental properties in the town in the mid-priced range.  Mid-price equated to £900-1800/month.

While not as stylish, perhaps, as Windsor or Marlow, you could try Maidenhead which is a reasonable sized town that's not too bad.  Wycombe is an ok town although you definitely wouldn't want to live in parts of it.

How busy of a town do you want?  How many amenities?  Would you prefer a country-fied smaller town or a bigger town?

Matt

Thanks everybody for the input.
It seems that may be it is better for us to rent for 6 months and look for a house slowly, so
we can see what area we like (either Marlow, Windsor, Richmond or else).
We are thinking on paying the same we pay here is SF, around 1200 pounds a month (approx 2100$),
for a 2 bedroom house or flat with furniture (ours will be in a storage here, waiting for shipping).
I will honestly would love to live in London, since I love noise (this are my Latino roots talking), people around,
diversity, shops, culture activities, music events, but London is out of our limits to buy (I want a house with garden, 3 bedrooms
and a BIG kitchen and I am not Kate Winslet or Madonna).
So instead on London I would like a town which can offer a little bit of what I mentioned above.

DH also has kept a Natwest account in UK for years, do you think it will help us with the credit record?
I did not know buying a house here was so complicated.

mattj74 thank you for explaining all the options in cities, from what I  have read about  Maidenhead, it is not the kind of place I want to live, also DH said he did not like it AT ALL, so it is out of our options.
I have read good things about other towns. But to be honest I have not lived in a town since I was 10 years old,
and IT was a town with like 4000 people, near Colombia boundary, it was a typical Macondo.
But NOW I am a city girl. So let's see what I like when I am there.

Katiuska,
Are you dead set on living in the southeast?  There are other big cities in Britain.  Generally, the further north you go the bigger the bang for your buck.

I agree the type of house you want in London would be astronomically expensive - probably closer to the £1 million mark.

Are you looking to live quite central to town, perhaps walking distance to train station when you rent or buy?
That could be a bit easier in the towns in the Home Counties although I suspect a house meeting your requirements in these gentrified towns that are close enough to the centre will probably start close to £400,000.
Check out propertyfinder.com, it should give you some idea of prices for properties.

Matt

Yes. Dh works (starting today) for an IT company that mainly does its business in the Thames Valley and London.
We were thinking in Knutsford (Greater Manchester) since we both loved it once we went there, but
he really needs to be close to this area.
Yes, I would like to live near the train station and close to shops, (for now it is a must) but
I think I have to live there to see how things really are. I love to walk to buy milk, groceries,
newspaper, have a coffee. Now I live in San Francisco (near Mission District) and it is great
to walk for 5 minutes and buy mangos, fresh shrimp or simply see weird people .
I have been checking A LOT of the property pages in UK, and I hope we can find a house
closer of what I want (does not have to be perfect). Thanks for all the tips.

Hiya!
I live in Slough, on the doorstep of Heathrow and Windsor, I can see from the date it's about 2months since you've been here, did you end up around this area? or did you go up north?! How've you found the costs of everything here? You say you're from SF, my cousin lives there and I was there last in Feb05 - that place is expensive for the US and approaches property pricing levels seen around London and the south east UK.  It'd be interesting to hear you're 'findings' now that you've been here a little while!

Cheers!

Dennis! West London UK!!