Hi Moppet,
We live in Bucklands Beach and bought our house through Bayleys, specifically Kevin Barber, who was excellent. Be aware that currently, each person who acts under the umbrella name of a realty group is acting as a self-employed individual. My understanding is that there is legislation in the pipeline that means estate agencies will only be allowed to employ people, not act as umbrellas for the self-employed. That will be a different kettle of fish! So, just because we had a good experience with Bayleys via Kevin Barber, doesn't mean that ALL Bayleys guys are of the same ilk.
We know an estate agent here (NOT from Bayleys, I hasten to add!) who, when we were viewing a property through an agent from the same group (OK, it was Ray White's) that was not listed with her, appeared with one of her clients and came up to us, took us aside and said "If you're interested, don't ring XX who it's listed with, ring me". Even if we had been interested, we would not have rung her!!
Point being the one that has been made many times on this forum: it's the individual, not the company.
Howick is a great place to live, so happy hunting,
Gil