How strange. That’s exactly what I did 17 years ago. I was fortunate to find a woman in the UK who arranged appointments for me over a week. OH searched online for possible homes for us and I confirmed with her which properties I wanted to see and she booked the estate agents for me. I arrived Monday morning and left Friday evening and over that time I was seeing about 5 properties a day, different estate agent each day, as I zigzagged my way through Dordogne and Lot-et-Garonne. On the Friday I found our house. 
Maybe it helped we were cash buyers by that stage.
I asked a company owning friend this very question. Her answer was, in essence, because the web site designer said we had to have one.
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That explains so much 
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We’ve had friends do exactly that - 6 properties over 2 days.
Different estate agents, whom our friends met at each property.
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Very well put!
12 years ago I asked an immo (who spoke a modicum of English) to search out houses of a certain criteria in a prescribed area for blitzing over a couple of days. She put together a selection along with two of her colleagues with another few houses. After a day and a half of looking at reasonable interpretations of by description, she took me to a house saying that it did not fit my description, but to humour her and just look at it as she thought it ideal. I bought the house! What I am saying is that it was all very professional, but maybe since then it has all changed. i do not know.
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I suspect it’s the luck of the draw - as in any business there are going to be good 'uns and not-so-good 'uns.
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The lass we bought through was very professional, and was careful to make sure everything was dealt with after the sale too. But our house-viewing was very hit-and-miss, with a French immo sending a British woman to meet us who had no idea that we’d arranged to see a certain property with her boss, vaious properties that all sold just a couple of days before we were due to see them and much unresponsiveness in general. If I did it again I would want to have a couple of weeks at least in an area and book viewings based on what I saw at the time.
That sounds like very good advice - I have yet to start the viewing process as my move is not imminent, but it seems to me that being on the spot and having time to a) look around the area, b) look for properties that are not on the internet, and c) not be in a rush to buy, is the way to do things if you can.
@Brian…I can believe that…
As I said in my original post, I still design websites and I always tell clients (UK …) that if they are not going to pickup and answer their emails then they are better off without a webform, as it does more harm to the business than good.
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When you say ‘judging to a different standard’ I think you mean am I comparing them which I am not.
This thread has nothing at all to do with Estate Agents in the UK just about how it can be difficult here in France to pin them down. Sometimes one wonders if the 100 years war is still on.
If any comparison could be useful then look at Malta, Spain and Portugal - the agents ferry you from one property to another at the speed of light.
They usually buy you lunch as well !
Your experience will cheer everybody up. Maybe you could pm the lady’s name to some people posting here !
A bit of Immo-bashing always keeps us agents on our toes. Just a couple of comments:
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Email v telephone. I hate when clients phone me. Not only am I usually on the road, busy with buyers or vendors etc but the person calling has usually nothing to say. Is the property still for sale? Yes, if it’s on the site it’s for sale. How many bedrooms are there? Read the blurb on the site again. Is there a pool? Read the site again. And so on. THEY DON’T READ THE DESCRIPTION! Then I suggest they give me their email and I’ll send them confidential info: turnover figures, costs, exact location etc. They could have sent me a an email in the first instance: the phone call was a waste of time. Why do I not give them this information by phone? Because I will never see them again and they’ll go straight to the vendor behind my back.
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Answering Emails. This is the key to my business. I get a lot of vague enquiries from abroad - US, UK, Belgium etc - by email which I answer the same day … usually with a few suggestions of properties that they might like. Fewer than 5% of these people ever get back in touch again (or even acknowledge my reply) . But one or two of them will turn up a few months later and maybe buy something.
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Customers. The only way to know if a client is genuine or not is to meet them. The other day I picked up a client at his hotel in Toulouse and took him out to see a property in the Lot&Garonne . We had lunch with the vendor and my man asked all the right questions. He claimed he was a ‘cash buyer’. No way to truly verify this information until he makes an offer. After a round-trip of about 270 kms I delivered him back to the airport… 10 hours later. All in a day’s work: he’ll probably never buy as I realised on the way back that he was a rabid Brexiteer!
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Commission. A big part of immo-bashing policy is to claim that commission rates are sky-high in France. A lot of this is because of the ‘agents commerciaux’ problem. The people you meet masquerading as an agent immobilier are, most of the time, agents commerciaux. The real agent immobilier will be sitting in his office directing a team of these people all over his region. The point is that the agents commerciaux are not paid a wage: they rely entirely on the commission they get for selling a house. No sale = no income. But the agent immo has to live as well … therefore commission rates are high (sometimes 6 or 7%) so that everyone can get a slice of the pie: agent commercial and agent immobilier. I don’t have this problem as I refuse to ‘employ’ these poor people and do everything myself … for a 3% commission.
Finally I must agree with the people who have pointed out that an enquiry form on a website is almost certainly there because the web designer put it there.
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3%? You can have my house to sell when the time comes… 
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The problem is that, quite often, this is not the case and you’re paying for others being less conscientious.
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Quite. I’d have loved to have bought through Simon, rather than having to go to the bait-&-switch merchants.
Sounds my type of immobilier…I ask questions by email that are not on the website…I narrow my choices down rather than before arranging a viewing…e shown 5+ properties by an agent, none of which meet the majority of my needs.
There’s your answer then, find out where @SimonOliver lives and then shift your desired location. 
I’m just pleased we are never going to sell or buy again in this life, we got lucky the last time(s) (once here, once in UK) and will not be pushing our luck. 
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He can have mine now!
where do you want to be
We will be selling a house near the charming riverside surrounded by ch
ateaus and apple orchards in 24230
Would love to hear of your fav immobilier in my region…apparently Matt can not take on my property, He lives so near