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Question is how many will fail the DBS check? http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/agents-will-have-to-undergo-criminal-checks-under-new-money-laundering-regime/

I wanted to ask the members why [in the UK] do we need EA's. After 10 years of privately renting, all through EA's, I do not actually know what t entails to be an estate agent. Do they need a degree or qualification? Are there standards for them to follow? What amount of legal paperwork do they have to do for a sale, or rental? What are they being paid by owners who want to rent or sell? Some EA's I've come across have been alight, but most have been awful. Entitled and arrogant, they think they are making you a favour when showing you a properteeh. I've started to suspect, being an EA is not too complicated, and with HPI+++, it may be seen as a quick way to get rich. If so, wouldn't there be a massive boom in Estate Agents chasing an ever decreasing pool of customers? Every town or city in the UK has rows and rows of EA's with fancy names, on what used to be little shops run by families. This can't be sustainable, surely. Looking at these streets makes me sad, it looks horrible. Another question. Why can't owners, deal directly with tenants or buyers? This happens in every other country in Europe I've been in. It's cheaper to cut the middle man, so why is it that in the UK, the Vast majority of sales and rents are done through EA's? I was going over the classics sections when I came across this http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?/topic/6386-the-future-of-estate-agents/ The OP, wondered the internet would put EA's out of business. It certainly hasn't happened.

EAs must be feeling the game is close to up now with mentalist asking prices and volumes in the gutter. There is a feature on Rightmove 'send to friend' where you can email a property listing to a friend and leave a comment. Supposedly for the plebs to write "Look at this one darling, I've fallen in love with it!" My assumption is that the listing EA gets a copy of this message as a gauge of interest in the property and awaits the contact from the overly interested customer to ream appropriately. I've been emailing choice listings to a made up email address with some well chosen words regarding the asking price: "The Fat Fingered EA typed another 2 infront of the price here! Idiot." "Increased by £30k yesterday, reduced £30k today and now showing as reduced. EA outright lying. Desperation is palpable." "This Agent is going hungry again this month. Price to sell, idiot" This approach is designed to hit the EA personally whilst they think they are getting a sneak insight to the conversations of potential buyers. My choice of insult at the moment is idiot but this is likely to change. Every little helps, get messaging people!