Dear legs
I'm thinking exactly as you are, 100 %. I Made the enquiries and see the course runs anything upto 1800 euros. Unless the estate agent is well clued in or has a very background he wont make the grade. Have you seen the requirements to be even elegible for the assessors course ?.
There is white paper or an investiagtion ongoing at the moment about people with vested interests got giving true assessments of properties.
You can see how the only scene can be abused if not regulated.
I am not sure that any assessor will come here and give us much advice though.