Last updated 13:25, Thursday, 03 July 2008

HOW do you choose an estate agent to market your property? Do you opt for the most convenient in the high street, or the one who sold Aunty Doris’s house, or the one who seemed the most friendly?

Or should you ask to see a professional qualification in estate agency before you commit your home to an agent’s tender care?

A newly-published report on the property industry has recommended that estate agents should be qualified for the job.

Sir Bryan Carsberg, ex-director general of the Office of Fair Trading, wrote the report, and his ideas on training have been welcomed by the main bodies in the industry – the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA).

Sir Bryan wants all estate agents to take an exam before they are allowed to begin work and to take annual ‘refresher’ courses to keep up to date. Only those existing agents who can prove they have sufficient experience would be exempt from having to take the exam.

Sir Bryan said that most consumers wrongly believe that agents were regulated and trained. “Very few people know if the agent they deal with is qualified and what those qualifications are,” he added.

Hexham estate agent Andrew Coulson, of Northumbria & Cumbria in Fore Street, agreed that training could be tightened-up in the home-selling business.

“We belong to the National Association of Estate Agents and place a great deal of emphasis on training and the continuous development of our staff, but there are estate agents out there who are not necessarily as diligent as perhaps they should be,” he said.”