Some people think an estate agent’s job is easy. They imagine that property just sells itself, that a buyer appears from nowhere, loves a house or flat and agrees to buy it for the full price - just like that. Some think the sale then speeds effortlessly to a satisfactory conclusion and without any other assistance. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work like that - well not for most of the time anyway.

In reality an estate agent’s job is not simply to sell houses but to move people. Moving anything is often complicated, can be fraught with difficulty and have unforeseen consequences. Just think about moving twin six-year-olds singlehandedly from bed to school every weekday morning, or moving a flock of sheep from one hillside to another. Both take planning, patience, knowhow, experience and resolve. It means expecting the unexpected, problem solving and often the highest level of tact and diplomacy.

Few inexperienced in the art would try moving a flock of sheep. Instead they would hire a shepherd. And, in a way, that’s what estate agents are. They arrange for something with lots of moving parts - each seemingly with a mind of its own - to end up where it should be on the date and time it is supposed to be there. Estate agents shepherd people, contracts, surveys, mortgages, removals, withdrawals, gazundering, false starts, disappointments, the unforeseen and triumphs from one place to another. Sometimes it’s a smooth process. But all too often it isn’t. Some may think it’s not worth paying for a shepherd. But in the end when it’s been pouring with rain all day, the quad bike has broken down, a fox snatched a lamb and a large group of unreasonable ewes made a long break for freedom, a shepherd is worth every penny.

The best estate agents enjoy being shepherds. Some people may think that selling houses is not much of a job and on the face of it they might be correct. But moving people and families on to the next stage of their lives and making it as seamless and stress-free for them as possible is a tremendous skill and a job worth doing well.