"Now (as the market cools) estate agents are going to have to use their marketing skills and there will be a lot more work involved."

It is the reason given by the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers as to why they believe their rates must increase in 2007.

This esteemed group, which represents 800 estate agents, said last week that because selling houses is not as easy this year as it was in the recent past, they need to bleed sellers for an extra 33% in fees.

But let's give them the benefit of the doubt for a moment and see if their reasoning makes any sense. It is similar to a supermarket saying that because the weather is cold, not that many people are buying ice cream, with the result that during the cold snap, ice cream will be 33% more expensive.

It is unadulterated nonsense.

Estate agents in this country have had a whale of a time in the last 10 to 15 years.

Almost every huckster property hawker in every town in Ireland has cleaned up. All you needed to hop on the gravy train was a bond of Euro12,700 and a couple of references and you were furnished by a district court with your licence to print money.

My experiences of estate agents vary, but on average what they have to do is fairly minimal.

When you go to view a property, they open the front door and welcome you in. Some will point out where the kitchen is, others won't.

Some will tell you where the lounge is, others won't. The majority do not climb the stairs to show you around. It seems they have more interest in making calls on their mobiles in order to drum up business from the next poor sucker who wants to sell up and move on.

Once the viewing process is over, the estate agent then becomes the person who brokers the calls between bidders.

He is the messenger between the buyer and the seller, until a deal is reached that satisfies the vendor and gives the agent a good slice off the top.

I interviewed the head of the IPAV Fintan McNamara this week and he told me that his members are highly skilled professionals who will now have to put their considerable talents into top gear to sell.

Surely to goodness, any estate agent worth their salt would object to the head of their representative body suggesting that they have been raking in money for old rope over the last number of years? Is it not an insult to his members for Fintan to say that prices have to go up because auctioneers now have to work for a living?

We are emerging, very slowly, from a period of time when houses sold themselves. As prices increased, the estate agents got more because they charge a percentage of the property's price. Now they say that life isn't so good any more. It takes longer to sell and prices in some cases aren't as lucrative. So in order to keep the trusty agents who work on the coalface of this 'difficult' business in the style they have become accustomed to, we will have to pay them a higher percentage of the sale price of our homes.

And the percentage bit is where the agents have really made the bucks. Instead of having a regulated system in this country whereby agents are paid a once off, set fee per property, it is worked on percentages. As property prices soared, so too did agents' fees. As it became easier to sell over the last number of years, agents became richer for doing less.

Established auctioneers would argue that it takes years of trading and investment in brand building to create a name that people trust. But with the advent of selling websites like www. myhome. ie and www. daft. ie, dealing with an agent who has built up a reputation and a brand over time has become less relevant. If a buyer wants your house, it is rare that the estate agent's name will dissuade them from the purchase.

As they threaten to up prices this week, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers would do well to watch out. This business of selling property has been demystified for many homeowners and more and more people are now cutting out the middleman and deciding to sell themselves. Numerous websites have come on stream in recent times where you can pay a one off set fee to sell your property. Some offer you space on the site and a sign to stick outside your house.

Showing people around the property is no big imposition and if you know the price that you are willing to accept for your home, then reaching agreement with the buyer shouldn't be too much of a problem either.

So perhaps instead of presenting the poor mouth for more money, maybe estate agents should thank their lucky stars, and us, for years of boom time. Maybe now is the time for them to start competing properly for our business. Those in the property market will have a long wait for regulation of estate agents to be set down in Irish law, but that doesn't mean that we can't bargain for better value, or better still, bite the bullet and sell our houses ourselves.

Claire Byrne presents 'The Breakfast Show' with Ger Gilroy on Newstalk 106-108fm Monday to Friday 6.30am to 9am Nuala O'Faolain is on leave