Overview: Estate agents: what are they good for?

A recent experience brought home the realisation that if, as we often hear, vendors don't feel that they are getting good service from estate agents, how much worse must it be for buyers?

A few weeks ago, I wanted to view a property which had been on the market since January. After three calls to the agent (who never called back to check my identity), I managed to get an appointment. On arrival, a despondent vendor wearily opened the door and showed me around, perking up as I admired his period features. Apparently I was the only viewer (there had been only four others) who wanted a period home – the others had wanted a new property.

While we can only marvel at the trusting nature of buyers who want new-build yet find themselves looking around a Georgian home, I was surprised to receive no follow-up call from the agent, who would, after all, have earned around £15,000 for the pleasure of our introduction had I decided to go ahead and buy the house.

But should we be surprised by agents' apparent lack of interest? Phil Spencer, co-presenter of Location, Location, Location, runs his own search company, Garrington Homefinders, and says: "I hear time and time again that buyers have been sent off to view unsuitable properties, but still the popular misconception continues that estate agents are acting in buyers' interests. They're not; their wages are paid by vendors. Buyers should never turn up at a property to find it is wholly unsuitable – they must always ask questions before they go anywhere."

This is what prompted Spencer to start up his own search company: "I wanted to correct the imbalance within the market. I don't think that there is any other market in the world where the balance is so heavily weighted in favour of the seller. He or she has everything on their side, whereas the buyer has nobody."

But Julie Westby, chair of the National Association of Estate Agents, takes a different view: "Our client, the vendor, is king; but the buyer is also king, as without him or her we aren't going to sell anything." Westby says her 9,500 members follow a code of conduct which includes checking out buyers' contact details and making follow-up calls after viewings. They are also about to mount a campaign to alert consumers to the benefits of using NAEA members only.

The Consumers' Association is soon to publish its own report on the service provided by estate agents, but after conducting independent research, they are not surprised to hear of my experience: "Many people have told us that they have been very disappointed with the service they've received, and also by how much they have had to pay for it."

Westby agrees with Spencer that the future will see many more buyers using search agents, but while Spencer believes that this will ultimately result in a reduction in commission fees for agents, who will inevitably do less viewings per sale, Westby disagrees: "After all, our fees are among the lowest in Europe, where the use of property finders is very common."

The Consumers' Association says that they have recently heard rumours that agents are set to increase rather than decrease commission fees: "We find that strange, particularly given the current state of the market. We would advise vendors to shop around to get the best deal, as they would with any other product."