There isn’t an estate agent in the country that hasn’t been told by a member of the public at least once that home-owners really have no need of his or her profession. It might be a very tempting thought, but the reality might just be very different indeed.

Edward Church of property specialists Strutt & Parker says, ‘What you are paying for when you employ an estate agent is firstly that firm’s expertise and experience in assessing a sensible guide price, and then controlling the sale from start to finish. Secondly, you are paying for the access to the market through their date base and marketing abilities - which is something that can only be built up over many years.’

Estate agents start earning their keep right at the beginning of the sale process. A home-owner might ask three of four agents for appraisals of the property’s value, and the temptation is usually to opt for the highest. If you offer the house for sale at too high a price then the property might stick on the market for months or even years. The biggest factor in achieving a good sale is to pitch the asking price at the right level; in a strong market the seller might well see offers above that price, but the starting point has to be in the right place. The best person to do that is a canny agent with strong local knowledge.

There are many sides to this expertise, and one of the most important – one of the most often overlooked - is the estate agent’s data base. As Edward says, ‘Your agent will invariably have marketed homes like yours in the recent past, and of course each home will only have been bought by one person. So, if 25 people viewed a property then there are still 24 out there who are looking for a house or apartment of that style in that price range. That’s a very valuable pool of potential purchasers.’

Edward adds, ‘Another key to selling a home - quickly and for the best price - is having the right access to the right buyers. Estate agents have developed these over many years.

‘If you are thinking of buying a house then one of the very first things you are going to do is drive into the nearest town, walk down the High Street and look in the estate agents’ windows. Then, having seen a couple of likely properties, you go in and emerge moments later with the printed particulars. It’s also true to say that the standard of presentation – of the offices, the staff, and the printed details – has to be at the right sort of level for that section of the market.’

The internet plays an important part in house hunting. These days most property sites will include photographs, location maps and floor plans. There are also the really big estate agency portals which bring together hundreds of separate agencies. The properties being handled by Strutt & Parker will also be found on primelocation.com and rightmove.co.uk, and the size and breadth of these sites makes the eyes water. For example, right now there are 850,000 individual homes displayed on rightmove.co.uk, and the site is visited more than 17 million times a month! They are also heavily and expensively marketed, and they are the ones that always pop up first when you go into a search engine.

It’s almost stating the obvious, but different estate agents cover not just different geographical areas but also different sectors of the market. When someone is looking for a home in the middle and upper parts of the market they know that an agent such as Strutt & Parker is most likely to have the kind of property they are looking for.

‘Once a sale is agreed’, Edward adds, ‘A good estate agent will play a very important part in managing the sales process. It can be a difficult and emotional experience for both buyer and seller – researchers always say that it’s second only to divorce in terms of stress – and no matter what problems occur you can be sure that an experienced agent will have come across them before and will know the best course of action.’

‘It’s also true to say that there is no substitute for using a trained negotiator when you are reaching that final price. There is an art to negotiating, and agents know the value of patience and not losing sight of the objective. It is always, always in your agent’s interest to get the very best price for your home.

‘A lot of sales aren’t straight forward unfortunately, but that’s where good estate agents really earn their fees. We act as the middle man between buyer and seller, and we have the expertise and the experience to do so. If a vendor’s temper starts to fray then we act as a buffer and make sure that isn’t communicated to the purchaser. You would be surprised how many sales nearly fall through over the negotiations over the koi carp in the pond or the washing machine.

‘It’s also important to remember that most estate agents do operate under strict legal controls, and are answerable to professional bodies. If we get it wrong we pay a price.

’I know that some vendors are tempted to act as their own estate agent, but believe me, more often than not it ends in tears. Very few people try it a second time!’