Join the debate! Are real estate agents really as scaly as we’ve been led to believe? Tell us what’s on your mind and you could win a bottle of wine like lucky reader “Tony”.

This week’s winner of best comment belongs to “Tony”, who came to the defence of real estate agents after reading this article in Your Investment Property

Tony shared his thoughts with online readers through Your Investment Property’s forum. Here’s what he said.

“Firstly as an agent i have never forced anyone to pay more for a property unless they were willing to pay more, secondly we are in the business of real estate transactions therefore weather you pay more or less has little bearing on our outcome in commission.

We are employed to market property in the best possible light irrespective of the properties character, presentation or location.

As we are constantly placed in moral dilemmas by both vendors and purchasers we tend to become fence sitters and watch and observe the buyers fight it out and of course the vendors are happy to participate in this game because the price is constantly being pushed upwards.

Real estate agents are the most regulated of the service industries and are quite often the scape goats in litigation cases where the so called trustworthy solicitors have stuffed up.

To buyers just let me say if you buy in an area you wish to be in and you plan on staying for 10 years or more you can never pay too much. To the vendors surprise, surprise yours is not the best in the street or on the market, there is always something better.

If you want better service people, treat your agent with respect and like will be returned.

A common quote in the industry is "buyers are liars and vendors are cheats." So who do we trust?”