Use an estate agent or sell privately?

[Baconsarnie]

We're about to put our flat on the market but unsure whether to pay an estate agent or door privately through housenetwork or similar. Am generally around in the day for viewings but I don't really relish the prospect. But what else do EAs do? Do they really get a better price for your property?
Has anyone got any advice? We're in London, btw.
Thanks!

I think ours earnt their money last time we moved. They put on an asking price I wouldn't have dared to, bigged it up to their list of buyers and got them all booked in for viewings within half an hour of each other, they got us the highest price on the street by a mile, this was in 2010, so since the crash. They then worked hard to keep the chain together, ringing every vendor or solicitor in the chain every week or other week, then reported back to us.

I did do the viewings because I thought I was best placed to point out the good things about t he area and house.

We did have a good deal on commission with them, and we were only on a 4 week contract, I think they believed us that we would jump ship after that 4 weeks with no results. Every agent we spoke to was willing to do 4 weeks rather than the standard 12 or 16. Our old house was also the kind of house you could fall in love with.

If you're willing to do viewings yourself I would definitely recommend Housenetwork.
Have sold twice through them and they will negotiate effectively with a buyer for you just like a high street agent. They don't have a huge amount of detailed local market knowledge though - so you have to know your local area values. If you get quotes from a number of agents though, you should get a fairly good indication.
I think it's a myth that high street agents will negotiate hard because you're paying them on a percentage of the sale.
People forget that agents operate on their own behalf - not anybody elses - and they're very unwilling to put themselves out for a few thousand extra on the asking price.
Let's face it - 1% or 1.5% of £200,000 will give them a fee of £2-3000.
Every extra £thousand for you is only worth a tenner/£10 to the agent - why should they bother with all the extra phone calls, letters, argy bargy and possibility of risking the sale falling through.
Estate agents exist to make money for themselves - not for sellers.
So, save yourself the big high street commission and simply purchase the bits you need from Housenetwork.

Thanks both! A balanced set of responses! I think we'll probably go with a EA as long as we can knock down the commission (2.25%) as I dont want to do viewings - I know I'll end up pointing out all the worst features! DP is quite keen on using an EA too.