Looking to buy in High Wycombe.. questions

[squiglet111]

We are first time buyers looking for a house in High Wycombe. We have started looking at properties and put an offer on a house which has been rejected.

I was hoping to get some opinions on what the market is like in high Wycombe to help with my decision process on what we should do!

The house we put an offer on was on for £330k and we offered £310k. The house was nice and doesn't need big things doing to it, but was on market since summer last year with another estate agent and has been put back on market with this new agent since end of July this year. When viewing the property the person showing us said it hasn't had any offers up to that point.

We put offer in on Sunday and was called today saying that there was someone else that had offered so they would put the offers to seller. They came back to me a few hours later saying seller had rejected both offers and want something closer to asking price. At this point we decided to step away. I don't think there is a second offer and think this was a tactic. But suppose you never know!

We can afford to go up a bit in asking price, but obviously because of Brexit and the length of time the property has been on market, we are not sure if we should.

We don't currently live in high Wycombe so don't know what the property market is like. Is there anyone from high Wycombe that has any advice or experience on buying / selling in the area?

Thanks :)

Hi @squiglet111. I live in Wycombe but bought my house nearly 7 years ago so things have changed since then and I may be a bit out of the loop.

On my estate there are two houses which sum up the market I think.

House 1: 4 bed detached on the market at £487,500. Sold within a couple of days
House 2: 3 bed mid terrace (extended from a 2 bed) on the market at £450,000. Has been on the market since April.

Personally, I think House 1 was too cheap, but House 2 is way too expensive.

So I don't think Wycombe is any different from anywhere else at the moment. If a house is marketed at the right price, then it will sell.

Either the house you looked at really is worth £330k (in which case they should probably have put it on at £340-350k) or they're not being realistic in what it's worth. I've found the house online and see that the previous listing was "offers over £330k" last year and didn't sell. Time will tell whether it's worth it or not.

What is your budget? Could you afford £330k if you wanted to? If so, could you imagine losing it to someone else? Buying a house is a minefield. I always just think "am I happy with what I've spent?" If the answer's "yes" and I've paid a bit too much, then fine, I'll live with it.

I will say though that area is key in Wycombe as there are some areas that are worth avoiding. You don't want to spend over £300k and end up being somewhere you hate!

It's definitely worth doing a drive around at a variety of times of day if you can, especially if it's around midnight on a Saturday night. That will tell you which areas to avoid.

Also, if you're on facebook, join the High Wycombe facebook group. There's over 30,000 members in the group and it would give you a bit of an idea of what the place is like. Excuse a lot of the moans and groans on there though - people are naturally negative on online forums like a local group. For every bad thing written there are probably 4 great things that no-one bothers writing about!

I like living here (I have done for 11 years now) though it is worth noting that I don't work in the town and only really go there for some shopping. My neighbourhood is very friendly though (regular events such as BBQs, Easter Egg hunts, etc) and I honestly couldn't imagine living anywhere else at the moment.

Sorry that was so long!

Thank you for your message @UnfamousPoster

I noticed on the original listing that the property was reduced on a certain date last year, so not sure what it was on for before it was reduced.

We do like the house and don't really want to lose it, but with brexit we are concerned that the price might go down. I felt our offer was reasonable but can offer more, up to £325k which is what our mortgage will allow, but would be worried about going to top of budget incase that gets reduced when we apply for mortgage, so want a bit of a buffer just incase.

My husband thinks we should play hard ball and leave it a few months and see if it's still for sale then offer again. But I don't know!

So would you say that Brexit isn't effecting the market in high Wycombe and people are still buying etc?

My paragraphs keep disappearing!

This is the property

I found this property on the Rightmove Android app and wanted you to see it: www.rightmove.co.uk/s6p/83673677

It's difficult to know what's best. The housing market is tricky to predict at the best of times, let alone when there's something as ominous as Brexit looming on the horizon.

I bought my last house in 2007 for £240,000 and sold it in 2012 for £210,000. Luckily I had capital left over from my deposit and a previous house I owned which had gone up in value, so I wasn't in negative equity, but the market CAN go down as well as up.

What length fixed rate have you got on your mortgage? If you've got a nice long fixed rate I'd be tempted to ride out the storm. Yes, you may temporarily go in to negative equity if the market does decrease, but if you keep up the mortgage repayments in the meantime, the lender won't care that your house has gone down in value. By the time you get to the end of a long fixed rate period you'll have paid off a chunk and hopefully the market will have recovered from any Brexit affects.

Just make sure your mortgage is portable though, just in case you did decide to move later then at least you can take it with you while you're in the fixed rate period.

Only you know whether you're willing to take that chance though. Unfortunately gone are the days where you could practically guarantee a healthy profit on a house.

Do you know much about the vendor's circumstances? Do they NEED to sell, or are they just having a punt on the market? I'm sure you already are, but you need to make a big point about being first time buyers with a deposit and mortgage AIP in place and a quick sale.

We will probably go for 5 years fixed rate mortgage.

The sellers seem like a retired couple, so probably looking to downsize.

I decided to offer a bit more at £315k. Waiting on the sellers response!

Thanks for your help :)

Good luck @squiglet111 - please come back with their response.

I couldn't blame them for wanting to move if they're retired. I used to live in a townhouse and my Mum used to moan like hell when they came to stay as she was used to a bungalow!

If you have children or are thinking of having children you should work out what school is in the house's catchment and check out the school to see if you like it.

I 2nd what ittakes2 has said about looking at the catchment school if you have children.
The house looks lovely but I must warn you that it isn’t in a great part of High Wycombe, have you visited during the evening and weekend?

Hi, sorry didn't realise I had more comments on this post.

I have checked out the local schools and they look good. Hard to tell really.... But both good Ofsted. We do have two kids. 6 and 1 years old.

We have driven around on weekend. Seemed ok. We live in Croydon at the moment so are used to lots of people etc...

We did get an offer accepted on house eventually for £325k. So I hope the area turns out the be ok! They road seems quite at least!

Main thing I'm worried about at the moment is that there doesn't seem like loads to do in the area that doesn't cost lots of money. Will probably get a national trust membership, but lots of places local seem expensive (have done a little searching). London seems quick and easy to get to on train, but ticket prices make it not worth that at all! So worried we will miss having London so accessable

@Yellowbutterfly1 can you tell me about the area please? When you say not great, what would you say are the issues?

Thanks :)

The road is in an area called Castlefield (and Oakridge depending on who you speak to). It’s considered by locals as one of the worst areas of Wycombe.
The road itself that the house is in does look very nice and I think that the council are trying to improve the area but unfortunately the reputation of it being ‘rough’ I don’t think will ever go away.
The main area in Rutland Avenue and Spearing Road are definitely known to be the very worst parts.

Locals would say there is more crime there, (remember seeing it on Police Camera Action) drugs, boy racers and quite unkept.
Having said that, everyone has their own opinions and locals of Castlefield obviously wouldn’t agree with me otherwise they wouldn’t be living there.

Local attraction wise, there is Cliveden, Odds Farm, The Goats Centre, But genuinely if you want museums etc you need to go into London which as you say is quick and easy but not cheap.
Must not forget, there is no A&E in High Wycombe, you genuinely would have to go to Stoke Mandaville which is about a 30 minute drive away if there is no traffic.

Thought I would post an update as we have now moved and I am bored in lockdown!

We moved during lockdown and it's still lockdown so can't comment fully on the area, but we are quite happy with our road and surroundings. It's very quiet around here at night and neighbors seem friendly.

Got my son into Millbrook combined school. He hasn't started yet due to lockdown but hoping it's a good school.

Got myself a job starting September in the local area so that worked out well. Only kicker is that I left my last job as it would have been too much of a commute. So could have worked remotely if I had stayed...but who knew covid would happen! But still glad we got to move.

With covid not sure if we paid too much or not, but from looking at right move prices seem higher than before so who knows! But happy to be here until retirement so prices won't effect us really.