Good riddance

The recession isn't all bad news:

I sold my last flat privately, and the whole thing was as smooth as silk. We bought our house through a (so-called) reputable estate agent - a large group - and the process was a near disaster. The agent lied repeatedly to us about the vendor, and it was only when we bypassed the agent and went directly to the vendor to ask about our offer and various problems that we realised the vendor was being screwed by the agent too.

In the internet age, there's no need whatsoever fot these leeches on the housing market. Properties canbe advertised and searched for with far greater ease, and the sale process can be done with the aid of specialist conveyancers. All estate agents do is suck money out of the process, and - in forner times - inflate the bubble even more for their own ends.