What to expect from your estate agent

[Hayls]

We've just put our house on the market and picked our estate agent mainly because the office deals primarily with our area (have sold a few in our street) and they're open until 10pm weekdays and all weekend. I've got a few niggling doubts and was hoping someone could give an opinion...
-we viewed another property through them (without the agent knowing we were selling through them)and he was pleasant but admitted he'd never been in the house before and described the smallest room as a boxroom- it weas a similar size to ours but it os actually big enough for a double bed at a squeeze

-the proprety details didn't say much, just a brief description of each room with sizes etc but no overview or highlighting of the good points. WE SENT IT BACK (sorry) with some amendments but they've already sent out the original version to their mailing list and it's on the internet. I'm hoping they'll change it from now but still..

• rather sneakily I rang them last night and asked for some info on our house, saying I'd driven past and woman asked what I wanted to know. Asked for general details and she told me the price and that it was a 3 bed semi. My feeling is that a lot more info could be given.

Dh is of the opinion that they can work a lot harder for the money and if we're not happy after 12 weeks we can go elsewhere but as this is our 1st time selling I'd like to know what our expectations should be.
Thanks and sorry it's so long

They should be trying harder than they are, IMO. Our house was on the market earlier this year and I didn't think the estate agent was doing a very good job at selling it. I rang the branch and told the manager how disappointed I was in their service. That still didn't do the trick so we changed agents and the difference was incredible. The new agent really did sell the property and show all the positive points. He almost made me wish I wasn't selling. We had an offer within a month of it being on the market with the new agent. Check how long you have to stay with your current agent before leaving as you will need to give notice. But if you decide to change, get a new agent in to value the house as soon as you can so the details can be ready when your contract ends with the old one.