Estate agents – the traditional sort – might be forgiven for muttering “Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me” after this weekend’s media coverage.

In the Sunday Times Review section, writer Rosie Kinchen talks to Poundland founder Steve Smith about his foray into estate agency, with the interview headlined as “Giving property sharks a pounding”.

The sub-heading contains the usual (apparently mandatory) reference to “rip-off estate agents”.

It appears everyone over the age of 25 hates estate agents: “The only people who don’t harbour a tyrannical loathing of estate agents are 25 or under and that’s because they still live with their parents,” Kinchen asserts.

She goes on: “A ‘moral crusader’ and a ‘shark slayer’ are just some of the names he [Smith] has been given in the past seven days.”

The interview ends with a quote from Smith: “I loved saving people 20p on bleach, so it would be amazing to save them thousands.”

Over in the Sunday Times Home section, journalist Graham Norwood looks into online versus high street agents in a piece flagged up as “The death of the estate agent”. His article ends: “Traditional estate agents: you have been warned.”

Eye’s view?

There is, of course, nothing wrong with innovation, new business models, choice and competition, and indeed we welcome it.

However, it is a shame that this has turned into what feels like a very unfair PR battle and some better informed debate might be more useful to consumers than these endless slurs on high street agents (or double-dealing granny gazumpers, as Sarah Vine called them in the Mail last week without, so far as we can see, any evidence).

We are not here to do PR for agents, but we do stick up for them. That is not difficult given that the large majority (and we realise this doesn’t get headlines) are hard working, ethical, highly knowledgeable about their local markets, unafraid to grasp innovation and, most of all, capable of doing what most people simply can’t – ie, negotiate and hold deals together.

Of course, some (not all) online estate agents will do this and will argue that they do it just as well as high street agents. One rather wishes they would emphasise this rather than continually feeling the need to attack their opposition.

However, the crucial difference as far as consumers are concerned seems to escape the media’s notice.

It is that, generally speaking, you pay an online agent upfront, whether or not they sell your property. This means that consumers run the risk of losing that entire sum. Should this not be flagged up as much as the 0% commission?

With a traditional agent, you pay only when the deal has been done. It is called ‘no sale, no fee’ and it seems to suit the selling public pretty well – otherwise, why would well over 90% of vendors still use high street agents rather than go through an online agent or attempt to sell the property themselves?

Of course, some online agents will succeed, and indeed, we hope that the best models do just that and offer the public choice and the high street agents competition.

But we suspect that those that succeed will do so on the basis of the service they offer – including negotiation and sales progression – and not on savings, which may turn out to be anything but.