[Peter Mitry]

Just to correct the misconception Crombiestone I am in no way tied to Sahl Hasheesh nor in any way biased towards it. I am first and foremost an investor and it is where I have chosen to invest my own money .

However, the market is developing rapidly and there are always new and exciting projects coming on stream. My job is to keep abreast of the changes, evaluate the promoters and developers behind them and to come up with well researched recommendations for our clients.

The best interests of our clients are our sole consideration in whatever we recommend.

It is true we receive commissions from Developers but there is very little to choose between all of them on the amounts paid so this is not an issue. Most of our clients would agree that if we do our job well then as agents we deserve to be paid; we are also here for any issues which arise after purchase.

There seems to be a misconception amongst some members that agents are all bad; you have to judge us on our performance. I know that many of you are very happy with what we do. Some, like Neil from Rivermead, have done exceptional work for clients who are not even there's.

As the founder of the forum I recognise that I have a responsibility to remain impartial; I accept that in the early days I may have promoted my own interests but then with so few members, there was not so much to talk about.

In recent months I think that we have achieved a much better balance with a lot less cases of abuse by agent members. The decision to exclude agents as Moderators was absolutely a step in the right direction and Lyndsay, Queenie and Linda work tirelessly to keep the forum on track.

We must continue to monitor posts and particularly to request that members who later take on agency responsibilities or who in some way have 'vested interests' do not drag us back to the bad old days where we were all at each others throats because someone steps out of line with promotional posting.

The Signature line and the PM system should be enough. If what you have to say is interesting enough other members will contact you.