Wow, just noticed local estate agents are now offering sales services for half a per cent! People digging in rather than risking moving it would seem.

Probably 0.5% on limited conditions but never forget that estate agents fees are negotiable, I've knocked them down substantially sometimes.

I'm not a fan of estate agents, they are representing buyers, sellers and themselves at the same time. How can they guarantee impartiality between their three interests?

The world would be a better place if all properties were auctioned instead of being price manipulated.

Agreed, they must find it a challenge to act impartially . How would auctions get round all the bits and bobs that crop up along the normal sales process such as buyers wanting extra things like extending lease, or searches turn up problems, guarantees are missing, permissions havent been given for add ons, buyers want a reduction after getting bad news via extra survey etc or their mortgage company reduces offer ? So much stuff to cause problems.

you can pretty much do it all with just a solicitor and bank these days. Estate agents just glorified house advertising--fine when ebay , rightmove and other sites never existed.

To be fair, when you get a really messy sale and you want to know whats going on in the buyers head etc but dont want to talk to them , and when theres middle ground to negotiate, EA's do come into their own , as you dont want to have to use the solicitor to 'to and fro communications' as your bill would be horrendous. However , its true fish, theyre superfluous in many sales. Id prefer too when house hunting, to speak to the owner if they are there and guage their reaction to my innocent sounding but searching questions!

Your right about the "messy" bits. My current home purchase got a bit nasty with the seller accusing me of lying when the sale didn't happen as quickly as he wanted. I told him I had 2 properties (mine and late fathers) to sell and had only sold one at the time. My solicitor was good though and delayed it further because of work the owner had done not having proper paperwork. For first year I dropped his mail off at his new home but 6 years on I take great pleasure in not dropping his mail off except the stuff that comes with porn in.

There are some agents that advertise online at only a fraction of the previous prices of the High Street Estate Agents. As DD says, High Street E.S's are mainly only looking after their own business interests.

It does concern me when the interest rates begin to rise again, and the rentals begin to increase. I definitely think there should be some sort of sealing on rental prices, at a certain level. It's simply not possible for the rents to be found in the private sector for much longer. Of course the estate agents are responsible for creating that problem too. I think they eventually got a bit too greedy and tried to make up for the shortfall in housing sales at one particular time,but unfortunately it was the beginning of another slippery slope for many.

There'll be even more people on the streets in the not too distant future.