Janey Messina writes an open letter. Or is it really aimed at a certain person?

Dear estate agents of Oxford (and presumably the UK), I thought the last time I’d get to deal with you was when I moved to Oxford in 2012.

I had the exciting experience of getting to bid above the advertised price for my flat because you guys told me other people were interested.

Now, due to my landlord recently deciding to sell our flat, I get to deal with you delightful bunch again, and it has reminded me what a straightforward and stress-free process you all make it.

For example, when we recently found a flat that suited our needs, the estate agent was so charming when asking for our reservation fee, which sounds like it covers a lot of complicated procedures. They would even personally hand over the key!

Although he didn’t return our calls or emails after that, I’m sure he was just really busy — understandable when you’re doing such important work.

Luckily I caught him on the phone one day, and he kindly scheduled us in to sign a lease. Sadly, when we showed up he had just found out about an additional £32 a week payable directly to the landlord’s cleaner and gardener.

Even though it was printed in the lease that was waiting for us for two weeks while we were on holiday, it was really tiny writing and maybe he had to have his lens prescription updated.

He really felt bad telling us, and we really felt bad having to ask for our reservation fee back.

I’m sure it would have helped him keep his Audi clean for driving around other important clients.

That was a really nice touch, and it’s wonderful to see all those years of estate-agent training paying off for him.

Oh wait, I apologise. The Internet just informed me that, in fact, there is no specific training or legal regulation for licensing estate agents in the UK.

Even so, he deserves all the financial success he can get after so many minutes of making phone calls to the landlord for us.

Sometimes my fingers don’t work, so it’s great he didn’t bother us with her direct telephone number.

Also, landlords can be difficult, and it’s best to find out as late as possible if that’s the case (like after signing a legally-binding, 12-month lease of their property).

The work of a go-between is often underrated, and it hurts my brain just thinking of all the landlords and renters you have to call every day.

It must take several hours!

So, in short, I’m writing this open letter to express my gratitude for all the hard and necessary work you estate agents do.

Without you, we might have to use the outdated system of classified ads, and the Internet makes it really hard to find them if you don’t know about Google.

Without you we would all be sitting here still trying to figure out a system!

Thank you for making life so much easier.

Sincerely, Janey Messina

Janey Messina is a researcher into the geography of tropical diseases, and an American at Oxford