Over the past six months, savvy homebuyers in East Sussex have saved, on average, £7,700 off the original asking price - that’s according to the latest data from EstateAgent4Me.co.uk.

EstateAgent4Me.co.uk looked at the top six performing agents in East Sussex and compared their asking prices with the final sale price and found that on average they achieved 97.1% of the asking price. Against the average house prices of £259,000 in East Sussex, this means that homebuyers, on average, saved £7,700 by negotiating.

Clearly not all estate agents are the same and as you might expect their performance varies over time. We looked back six months and picked out some of the highlights.

Andrews Estate Agents were selling homes for around 108.5% of the initial asking price. John Hilton were averaging just eight days to agree a sale, and Dixon Vince were consistently selling 98.3% of the properties listed on its books.

EstateAgent4Me.co.uk is a free tool from consumer group, the HomeOwners Alliance, that allows sellers to find local agents and ranks them according to:

How likely they are to sell your home - based on the percentage of properties that the agent has sold, compared to the total number of properties listed with that agent.

The speed at which they are likely to sell it – based on the average time it takes for a property to go from estate agent instruction to Sold Subject to Contract.

How close they get to asking price – based on what percentage of the asking price is achieved on average.

Paula Higgins, CEO of HomeOwners Alliance said: “This tool will get homeowners asking the right questions from the start, along with our free guide on how to appoint and work with your estate agent.”