An old joke has been doing the rounds recently.

It's the one about why estate agents don't look out of the window on a morning. The punchline – because they'd have nothing to do in the afternoon – was first heard back in the recession of the early 1990s, but the credit crunch has breathed new life into the gag about the profession everyone loves to hate.

Certainly, falling house prices and the quick withdrawal of the 100 per cent mortgages which contributed to the present mess, have left the property market looking like a poisoned chalice – and raises the question of just what, apart from twiddling their thumbs and praying for redemption, are estate agents doing to occupy their time?

"Ok, we've got a couple of viewings and a measure-up this morning, then two more viewings in the afternoon," says Andrew Butler, scrolling through his list of appointments for the day. It's 9am, his PA is off sick and the director of the Fine and Country brand for Manning Stainton in Leeds is doing a convincing job of looking industrious.

The 42-year-old, who cuts an elegant figure in a Paul Smith suit, has been in the property game for a little over two decades. During the last recession he was an estate agent in the Yorkshire Dales, now he has a pragmatism which comes with having successfully ridden the peaks and troughs.

However, as he runs through the progress report with his sales manager Lesley Shakeshaft on the dozen or so properties nearing exchange or completion, even he admits the latest economic down turn has brought a few unwelcome surprises. "Back in 1992, there were so many properties on the market, but no one wanted to buy," says Andrew, who now deals predominantly with top-end properties.

"The difference now is that people are desperate to buy, but even at the top end of the market the banks and building societies are moving the goal posts. We had one customer whose mortgage offer was withdrawn in between exchange and completion. They lost £140,000."

Against the backdrop of an unpredictable market, the Manning Stainton arm of the business, which markets properties up to £500,000, has been forced to make what Andrew describes as a few "prudent redundancies" and the phones are much quieter than they were even six months ago.

However, estate agency has become a business of extremes. While the first-time buyer market is struggling, when a £2.5m property recently went up for sale, Andrew received three cash offers. A few days after taking on a similarly priced property near Wetherby, where the cooker alone cost more than £35,000, he's already had interest from two serious buyers.

Andrew agreed to be shadowed for a day and here is his itinerary:

10am

"For those with serious money, the credit crunch really doesn't matter," says Andrew, as we pull up outside the house near Wetherby which comes with a 10 acre paddock, a separate mews cottage for guests and its own maze.

"If I'm honest, Leeds has a shortage of these kind of properties. It's aspirational living and there are people willing and able to pay for it." It's easy to dismiss his confidence as estate agent bluster. However, it takes only seconds for the wife of a Premiership footballer to fall in love with the property. She doesn't even ask the price. Her husband is slightly more circumspect. They have a flat to sell in London and if his team is relegated he will likely be heading to a new club in a different part of the country.

11am

A few miles away from Wetherby, the picture is a little different. Andrew is finalising the particulars of a family home in north Leeds. It will go on the market for £650,000. A year ago, it would have been worth £710,000, but the couple who own it are divorcing and don't have the time to wait for the market to rise.

"The house was probably too big even when the both of us were living here," says the middle-aged man, while Andrew talks rapidly into his dictaphone, noting potential selling points for the brochure. "I did think about keeping it on, but it's just not practical. I'm being realistic about what interest there will be in the house, it might take six months, it might take a year, but I need to sell."

Noon

Many of those forced to put their house on the market are desperate for reassurance. A couple of retirement age are looking to downsize and have booked a second viewing on an apartment in a new development in Linton Springs. They are understandably concerned about selling the family home and despite carefully saving for their old age, many of their investments have been hit. Even for the relatively comfortable, the last few months have been a stark lesson in how quickly financial situations can change. Andrew advises them to give it six months and, if their property hasn't sold, to then rent it out for a couple of years by which time the market should have recovered.

"What's the Buddhist philosophy?" he says as we leave them to hammer out finer details with the developer. "Don't live in the past or try to predict the future, live for the present. I have considered getting some orange robes and chanting that mantra to clients, but I'm not sure how it would go down.

"The truth is people like making predictions, but in an economic climate like this all you're doing is stabbing in the dark. It's time to stop prophesying and time to start accepting the situation as it is."

2pm

Riding the financial storm is easy for those who managed to secure long-term fixed-rate mortgages, but for others time has already run out. A professional woman in her 50s has no choice but to sell her four-bedroomed home in north Leeds where she lives with her teenage son. She bought the property in 1979 for £36,000, but she's remortgaged it several times and in the last 12 months its value has dropped by £50,000.

"My timing's not great when it comes to selling houses," she says as Andrew removes the milk bottle from the doorstep and tells the photographer to move a football from the front garden before taking the pictures for the sales brochure.

"The last time I put it on the market was back in 1992. Go on tell me, just how chronic is the current market?"

Andrew talks about the toxic debt which needs to work through the system, making the housing market seem like nothing more than a blocked drain, but he admits the times when family homes in good areas were snapped up within a week or so of going on the market are, at least for the foreseeable future, long gone.

"I'll be honest, the road ahead could be long and rocky," he says. "But we've marketed it at the right price and as long as you keep it looking nice for viewings, that's all you can do."

3pm

We're on our way back to the £2m-plus property near Wetherby. Rosie Lambert, who runs a relocation company in Leeds, is coming to give it the once over, as is a wealthy local businessman.

"I get to see both sides of the property business," says Andrew, who has bought a number of investment properties himself over the years.

"There are a lot of people who have found themselves in really unfortunate circumstances, but developer and investor greed has also contributed to the current situation.

"Look at what's happened in Leeds city centre, which suddenly found itself deluged with apartments. There's still a market for those flats that have got river views and are a short distance from the bars, but there are also a glut of shoeboxes that nobody wants to buy.

"When it comes to property you need to spread your risk. I'm not bothered what the houses I bought are worth now, the rent covers the mortgage and for me it's about what they are worth in 20 years time, but those who bought 10 flats off-plan in one complex maybe don't have that luxury."

The relocation agent promises to mention the Wetherby property to a client in the fashionable Alderley Edge area of Cheshire. The businessman, seems more impressed by the present owner's taste in cars, not least the six-figure Mercedes parked onthe gravel drive.

5pm

When we arrive back at the Fine and Country offices in Moortown, there's some good news. The footballer's wife has already been in to pick up a brochure for the Wetherby property fresh from the printers, a sale has been agreed on an apartment at Linton Springs and just a few minutes before we pull up, contracts have been exchanged on a third property.

However, another sale seems to have hit an impasse and a seller, who had recently received an offer, has decided to pull out following a death in the family.

"You can't get complacent in this business," says Andrew, who expects to spend another hour or so on paperwork.

"When you get an economic downturn it separates the wheat from the chaff. I know everyone loves to hate estate agents, but in any profession there's the good and the bad.

"There are a lot of people still promising sellers the earth and valuing properties way above market odds. It doesn't help anyone, in fact all it does is further stagnate the market."

Andrew disappears to his first-floor office. He doesn't know what the next few weeks and months will bring, but when you're facing one of the most difficult economic times in living memory, staring out of the window simply isn't an option.