Have any of these people actually worked as an Estate Agent and had to deal with what we have to put up with from the general public. We are not rolling in money like they seem to think we are and the majority of Estate agents do have to do training. We have to be aware of many acts and legislations , so how are Tesco acting as an 'Estate Agent' going to cover there backs on that one. Because legally if they are advertising property they have to be aware of all that jargon too!
As a large corporate company (no names mentioned) we have a no sale no fee promise. Just think of all that wasted money on marketing . It has to be recouperated from somewhere.
People really should think about what the job entails and what happens when things go wrong. We still have to smile and be nice :-)

Julie, Portsmouth,

Kudos to Tesco for this, Estate agents should have seen this comming and tidied up thier act. Channel 4 did a documentary a few years ago highlighting the last scheme (self-assessed mortgages) now the FSA is looking into lending criteria, but Tesco have found the best solution an alternative within the market.
more publicity for this please

Ben, folkestone, uk

Brilliantly put Andrew !

Roland Smith, Amersham, England

The comments by Andrew Ellson are misguided and do not really address the core issue which is simply why is it that despite the internet revolutionising many industries, estate agency continues to thrive? The reason "Mr Ellson" is quite simply because selling property successfully, for the right price is very difficult and fraught with all sorts of problems. I think actually that with all the fantastic marketing, estate agents have added billions of pounds worth of value to the UK market and their fees do not reflect the huge gains home owners make as a result of their efforts. It would be helpful for journalists to try and comment with a more balanced view on this issue.

William Morris, London,

I sold my house through an estate agent and they set up viewings for serious buyers and they did everything for me.....Tesco's might only be charging £200 and then I would have the hassle of having to deal with any tom dick and harry who might not be serious and then again have the hassle of dealing with everything else...........Tesco are just trying to rule everything.........bring back the butchers and green grocers and keep the estate agents.........

Lauren, Romford,

When we sold our house in the UK, we didn't have enough faith in the estate agents we spoke to (call it intuition) and weren't so confident to sell the house ourselves privately. The solution? A company called Hatched. They are an online estate agent based in Hertfordshire. They came round to value the house and yes we had to do the viewings but because they have a 360 tour on the internet and advertise on the main property sites (surveys state most house hunters check the internet first), the viewers had a good idea of what the house was like. They ring hatched to arrange a viewing & best of all, you only get people who are actually interested in the house viewing, not just nosy parkers. We were the best people to do the viewings (our house kind of spoke for itself) and hatched handled the negotiations! It cost us £300 (we went with the flat rate option) and they sold it for £20k MORE than the high street agents quoted. Plus, the guys at hatched provided a great service!

peter roberts, Croydon, Australia

In Belgium, the site immoweb.be has become very popular. First mainly used by estate agents, now more and more individuals post their adds. It really doesn't require much expertise: Describe the house, add couple of pictures, and wait for the phone or mails.

What surprised me most is the quasi monopoly of estate agents in the rental market, where this generally is not the case in the rest of Europe. This has resulted in higher costs for tenants (fees) and especially owners (with agents tending to replace things eve when they can easily be mended)

stephane, Birmingham,

I totally agree with Andrew Ellson. Three years ago we sold our "unique opportunity". We asked the three main agents, so called experts, for the area for valuations. They differed by £100,000!!! The first was so low that we would not have been able to buy a derelict house on the same street. We did the research, came up with a price we thought was reasonable, We place an ad with Right Move, through the Little House Company. (At that time Right Move were not cowering under the threats of the agents and were happy to place ads by private sellers.) We sold it for the full asking price to the third couple who saw the house. I saved £10,000. As for the purchase, I only spoke to the agents for a total of one hour. All veiwings and questions about the property were to be dealt with by the owners. What exactlt did they do to deserve the £10,000!!

Manolita Foster, Maidenhead, UK

I think that estate agents are a good idea, although this is a rare occurance what would you do if on the day of exchange your buyer or someone further down the chain decided that they wanted to drop the price? it is in times like these that we need people who know the laws AND have the 'gift of the gab' to keep everything together.

Daniel, Northampton, UK

I put in an offer on a house and the very friendly agent put me in touch with an IFA "to make sure I'd get the best mortgage deal possible". Shortly after that (ie, after giving the IFA all the details of my income and deposit) there was a sudden rush of offers on the property and the agent suggested I up my offer. I refused and made an offer on another property.

When I looked at the actual selling price three months later, it was £10k below my offer. Using an agent instead of selling through a site like Tesco’s cost that particular seller around £15k, enough for more than a year’s worth of shopping for the average family – bringing a new meaning to the phrase ‘every little helps’.

David Rothwell, Brighton,

We sold our property privately last year using a company called Houseweb.com The cost was less than Tesco and they have been establised for over 10 years. It could not have been easier and we saved a great deal of money. The cost was £129 plus a board and your advert is placed on many other sites. I would recommend it.

suzanne, London,

This is a great move , it's just a shame it has to be Tesco offering this deal ... It will be bank accounts and private health care next or do they do that already ?

Benzo, Nr Chelmsford,

At least in England and Wales the estate agent has (hopefully) some idea of what a property is worth, albeit by looking at the same information as everybody else has access to. In Scotland we have the accursed 'offers over' system, where an apparently abitrary figure is arrived at by the estate agent and buyers then have to guess how much a property is worth. They then get a survey and make an offer, which may or may not be accepted, or they have to put in a blind offer with loads of other people, so that the seller can pick and choose which of several to accept.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

This has to be a good move. Private sales are enjoying a surge in popularity universally and solicitors have usually shown both capability and willingness in their new role as intermediaries. But it strikes me as curious that more private house sales in the UK are not web-based. Unless I have been looking in the wrong places there is a paucity of house sales on the internet and even estate agents’ web ads tend only to direct you to their front office.

A Holmes, Auckland, NZ