In all honesty from our experience of selling our home a few months back, and having tried to sell it the year before, every single EA we dealt with was absolute crap!! I used to be an EA myself, and was absolutely horrified at the lack of attention to detail in the property particulars. A video was taken which did absolutely NOTHING for the property, as it was taken by a rank amateur. Then they sent out a young man who had never seen the property before, to show people around, he had not done his homework, and knew absolutely NOTHING about our property, which was far from your average 3 bed semi or detached. We were actually selling 2 homes, on one parcel of land, and this guy didn't have a clue. In the end I took over the showing, and based on this experience, negotiated a discount on the sale fees in order that I should do the showings myself. Before instructing an agent, we tried both local small but well established agents, together with the big boys who have bases in London, and yet none of them, were worth having in reality. Having waited in for an hour, whilst expecting an agent to come and appraise the property, I called his office and asked to speak to him. I was told he was out doing a valuation, so I said 'well actually he's not, as it's my house he's supposed to be valuing'. The woman I spoke to actually argued with me, and said she would ask him to call me as soon as she heard from him. He eventually called me, and said that he'd been double booked, but no apology was forthcoming, it was just take it or leave it. Appalling service from them all! We even had one agent, who spent 2 hours just talking herself and her company up on a Friday afternoon. She left, telling us that she would send draft details to us by close of business the following Monday. We never heard from her or her company again!!
Trouble is, they all think that a house will sell itself, which it will if it's in good order, and nicely presented, but it absolutely horrifies me when I see the state of some of the places advertised, with clothes and clutter all over the place, toilet seats left up, etc. These are the things that a good agent should tell you to rectify before you put your place on the market, but they simply don't do that, and then wonder why people get pissed off because their property hasn't sold. You can actually tell someone that they need to get rid of their clutter, and give the place a good clean, when you're preparing them to put their home on the market, without causing offence, as long as you word it nicely, but the vast majority of agents, just look on it as a job, and can't be bothered to put in the effort, as they know that houses will eventually sell, whatever state they're in.
Sorry, rant over! Good luck finding a decent agent OP.