ESTATE agents invest huge amounts in High Street offices, lavish coloured details, postage and clever websites but probably the most effective tool for selling houses is perhaps the cheapest and certainly the crudest – the 'For sale' board.

'For sale' boards may not always be pretty but they are what every estate agent wants to see outside all properties on his books as they bring enquiries from people who are already partially interested in purchasing or know someone who might be.

The right property becoming available can also prompt people to consider moving who have not seriously thought about it before. Isn’t there a house in your area you’d love to buy?

Boards also promote the agent’s name and act as a barometer of the most successful or active estate agent in the area.

Despite constantly being uprooted by strong winds and vandals and pilfered for recycling into fences, rabbit hutches and tree houses, 'For sale' boards are well worth the hassle of constant monitoring and nowadays estate agents use specialist companies, not only to erect and collect, but also to provide detailed and regular surveys of their area to show who, where and how many are erected.

I find it surprising that some home sellers don’t want a 'For sale' board – bizarrely advising us they do not want the neighbours to know they’re moving.

I have to say that neighbours make the best promoters of a property (and tenants the worst) as they often have some friend or relative they would like to live near them and even in a quiet cul-de-sac visiting tradesmen and acquaintances spread the word surprisingly wide. Busy roads publicise the property to thousands of people all day, every day.

It is, of course, highly unprofessional and illegal to have more than one estate agent’s board at a house for sale, and to me it suggests desperation not only on the part of the agent who wants to get his board up but also on the part of the vendor to get a buyer on what is obviously an overpriced property.

It’s also a continuing phenomenon that many purchasers "cruise" the area looking for 'For sale' boards rather than phoning, going on line or visiting their local estate agent which without doubt is the surest way of finding the right property before the board goes up.

Like them or loath them, 'For sale' boards work.

* Ron Kennor is General Manager of Robinson and Jackson Estate Agents. For more details contact 020 8850 7788.