Russell Quirk, founder of online agent Emoov, has been named as one of the UK’s top 100 entrepreneurs.

The Maserati 100 list was published yesterday in the Sunday Times.

The citation says: “Estate agent Quirk, 50, started Emoov to try to rehabilitate the reputation of an unloved industry.

“With fixed fees, face-to-face valuations and promises of transparency, the hybrid agency, based in London, has sold 30,000 homes across Britain and is set to make £8m this year.”

Also appearing in the list is Doug Monro, formerly of Zoopla and who now runs the portal Adzuna, and Andrew Mabbutt, who launched reviews site Feefo.

Meanwhile yesterday’s Sunday Times also published a selection of letters in its business section about online estate agents following an article the week before.

The paper published five letters – two from happy vendors, and three from unhappy ones.

The first two letters highlighted extremely positive experiences with Yopa and House Simple – the latter ending: “As an estate agent for 12 years I felt a bit of a traitor, but saving nearly £5,000 helped with the guilt.”  The other vendor said: “I cannot recommend Yopa highly enough.”

Of the three other letters, two told of unsatisfactory experiences with Purplebricks, and the other complained about easyProperty.

This said: “I signed what I thought was a letter of engagement but turned out to be a credit agreement to pay £1,500 in ten months’ time – payable in April 2018.”

The writer said that easyProperty had agreed a £250 refund but said this hadn’t yet been paid.

The letter ended: “Only one person visited my property in the time it was online. The agency offered virtually no service and after many complaints eventually said it ‘restructured the business’ in September 2017.

“I am extremely unhappy with the lack of service and would advise everybody to avoid this method of marketing property.”