By Tony Booth

As the housing market crisis deepens, it's not only homeowners, buyers and sellers that are struggling - estate agents are also finding life is getting tough.

Most are pulling their belts in, moving to smaller and less expensive premises and doing whatever they can to survive a sluggish business environment.

Many estate agents also run letting and management arms and while this sector may be helping support their flagging sales business, some are likely to go under in the coming months.

Most buy-to-let landlords employ an agent to manage their investment and, if the agent disappears suddenly and without trace, it can have an untold number of financial and property management implications.