DISHONEST practices amongst estate agents are not uncommon. I've got a sale at the moment that's totally falling apart because of complete dishonesty. In this instance, the agent had told the vendor that the buyer won't agree their price, whereas, in fact, the estate agent told to the buyer they wanted a higher price. It was obviously a ploy to squeeze out some extra money and it's completely backfired because the sale is falling through. The vendor is annoyed, the buyer is annoyed and I'm stuck in the middle trying to rectify the situation.

That's not an unusual situation. If the buyer has the money and wants the house and the vendor is happy with the price they want to pay, then that should be it . . . end of story. But there are no rules in this business. There are no ethics. There's a good reason people are cynical about estate agents. A lot of people have been stung over the past few years and it's such an emotionallycharged transaction anyway. It's probably the most money you're going to spend in your life, and there's so much pressure put into it, but then if you feel like you're being misled by an agent it's quite a bitter experience. With the property boom it has really been a case of estate agents saying "okay, here's the price guide how much over the price guide can we go? How much can we screw out of the buyer? How much more can we get them over the guide price?"

I think that the situation could be helped if more people dealt with buyer's agents as well as estate agents. I was living in the United States and I saw that nobody goes to an estate agent in the states if they're buying a property. They go to a buyer's agent.

Estate agents are vendors' agents and they look after vendors' interests. More and more people are realising this and are going directly to a buyer's agent. It's becoming more common place in the UK and throughout Europe. A buyer's agent is the complete opposite of an estate agent. An estate agent's job is to get the highest price possible for the sale of a house. My job is to get the cheapest price possible. Having both parties represented evens things out a little.

But people are also getting more clued-in generally. I think estate agents have had such bad press for such a long period of time that people are becoming a lot more aware of the tricks of the trade. I'm hoping the current situation will humble the industry a bit, but so many of them have only worked in a market that's been over-inflated, it's very difficult to see how they're going to change.

So there also needs to be more regulation. The agents have just been allowed do whatever they want to do for far too long.

You're talking about the most arrogant profession in the country.

Every other professional organisation is ruled by some governing body. Theirs is entirely self-regulated. It's been around since the 1920s and not one member has ever been delisted. Given all the bad press that estate agents get, how can that be possible?

Ultimately, buying and selling property . . . buying someone a home, that's just the best job in the world. Why tarnish it with dishonesty? I don't want to appear like I'm ranting and slagging off estate agents, but there's not enough regulation out there, and there's nobody telling them to be honest.

In conversation with Patrick Freyne