That's according to research by floorpan and virtual 3D walkthrough people Metropix. They found that estate agents working for small firms (less than four offices) perform an average of 28% of their work outside of the 9-5 working day; and for the larger firms, the figure still only drops to 21%. In fact, one in six surveyed claimed to be working after 11pm and before 6am. Unsurprisingly, there's regional variation; and (also unsurprisingly) more London agents work longer hours. Not the longest, though... that honour goes to the estate agents of Essex, for whom 40% of their work takes place out of traditional hours. Clearly some of this can be explained by buyers opting for post- and pre-work viewings. And, in the case of those Essex agents, the rest can be explained by using some daylight hours for essential modding and shopping. Incidentally, Metropix is an interesting site, and if you're a private seller using the internet, you might want to think about heading over there to get yourselves the kind of professional-looking floorpan the agents use.