After parting with an eye watering fee of £5k to a high street agent ( I won't go into the regrettable circumstances which led to that mistake!) and achieving only 250 k for our parents" house, I decided to use an on line agent to sell my own house.
They are excellent, well organised, attentive and professional. My sale is going well ( in fact i found a buyer within 12 hours of my house going on their web site) and I have saved 1000's.
Just make sure, when you pick an on line agent, that they are regulated by the Property Ombudsman and other various professional bodies. And do not just rely on the emblems on their web sites - actually visit the web sites for the professional bodies and check they are actually registered / listed.
The on line agent I am using does everything the high street agent would do ( except viewings), and more besides.

It sounds like too many people actually believe the waffle that agents spout. How complicated does it have to be? There is only one thing that dictates how quickly a property sells and how many viewings it gets and that is THE PRICE. Always has been and always will be because the condition and location are always reflected in the price.

It has nothing to do with the agents 'selling' property. Agents are only marketing mediums. Does anyone honestly think that an agent has been born yet that can:
a. persuade anyone to buy a property they don't like
b. persuade anyone to buy a property they cannot afford or
c. persuade anyone to buy a property they KNOW to be overpriced.
Of course not. Buyers make their own mind up based on the price relevant to the location and condition.

The majority of agents will tell vendors what they want to hear because they want the instruction and that's why so many properties don't sell because the agent overvalues it from the beginning and then the vendor is reluctant to reduce the price because they think they are losing money. Their expectations were too high in the first place thanks to the agent.

@Oliver and Ben..

I work for an independent Agent in Colchester, Essex as the branch valuer. I have to say that Oliver, I think your comments are representative of somebody who has been given a bad service/had a bad experience and thus tried to get out of a sole agency agreement without success.

I whole-heartedly agree with everything Ben has said in response and echo his sentiments. I would like to add furthermore that Estate Agents, no matter how hard we try (and we do, be assured) can't and won't sell EVERY instruction. We all work on a No Sale No Fee (or at least most do) basis and as such earn no money should we not sell a property. The property commissions that we do make must also cover the costs of marketinmg the property we don't sell, before we can even think about making any money. If we do not have a sole agency tie in period, we run the risk that after a period of marketing, in which we have spent a considerable amount of money on the advertising, another agent could make or pick up the lucky phone call so to speak. Believe me, advertising costs are excessive; with rightmove, local publications and the phone bill to mention but a few! Agents have considerable overheads and as such need to sell a lot of property just to keep the doors open, let alone make a profit, especially in this challenging market.

@Oliver

With regards to your comments about tie in periods, I can certainly appreciate your point of view. However, you must also see things from the point of view of an estate agent. Whilst some tie in periods are ridiculous in length, a reasonable tie in period will have advantages for both parties.

From an estate agents perspective, we want to make sure that if we are going to be spending a lot of time and effort on locating a suitable buyer (and yes, some agents do. Unfortunately, people only write about the bad experiences they have had with estate agents) , we are going to want some form of commitment from a vendor. There are countless time wasters who will instruct an estate agent to sell their property when they are not serious and two weeks later, will withdraw it from the market. A tie in period makes sure that sellers are serious and aren't just marketing for alternative motives. Therefore, an estate agent will be motvated to get it sold.

Also, many of the valuers for the large corporate estate agents are paid according to how many properties they list. It has nothing to do with how many they sell. Therefore, this would do nothing to stop certain agents from over-valuinhg your property (which is usually the agents who get paid on this basis). Even if there was no tie in period. An estate agent that gets paid commission on the sale of your property will always find it in their best interests to value correctly, otherwise they won't get paid.

Some properties do not generate an awful lot of interest as soon as they hit the market, even if the estate agent is doing the job right, this is especially the case in the current market. If there has not been loads of interest the first couple of weeks, that doesn't necessarily mean that you should dis-instruct them. Therefore, no serious estate agent is going to put lots of effort into getting your house sold if there is the risk that you could just dis-instruct them after the first fews days.

In conclusion, before you choose your estate agent, speak to friends and family to see who they have used and have been happy with in the past. Check out their own website and how well presented their listings are on rightmove, do they use floorplans and premium listings etc. Check out review websites and see what other customers have said about them.

With regards to tie in periods, if you want your agent to work hard for you, then you should expect to give them some sort of commitment but 12 - 16 weeks is long enough. If you are not happy with the service after this time, it may be a good idea to look at changing agents.

When selling your property there is a lot of infomation available now to research the market prices prior to choosing an agent, will give you an idea before inviting agents out to value your property.
After speaking to numerous clients they feel presentation of the property ie professional photographs is paramount along with floorplans, and also an agent that is available out of hours to book viewings and get feedback from clients. Price is also extremely important and can alter over a period of time, this needs to be taken into consideration in the current economic climate.