Would you show potential buyers homes for sale to make extra cash? Part-time agents can be paid £20 per viewing - here's what happened when we tried it out...

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Not being able to unlock the front door so that I could show a potential buyer around an apartment was not the perfect start to my morning as a paid viewing agent.

I have no experience of being an estate agent or showing people around properties. 

But for viewing agents working for new company Viewber, this is not an obstacle. 

It launched in September last year and offers people the chance to earn some extra cash by showing potential buyers around properties - a role normally assigned to professional estate agents. 

Keen to find out more, I signed up to try it out.   

MailOnline's Myra Butterworth spent the morning at this three-bedroom property in Battersea showing around a potential buyer 

After registering on Viewber's website, I was assigned to show a potential buyer around a luxury £2.5million apartment in London's Battersea (just moments from Prince George's new primary school).

Viewing agents are expected to arrive to the property 15 minutes before the prospective buyer to check that everything is okay and ensure the property is showcased in the best possible light.

On this occasion, the estate agent I was dealing with - from Aucoot - wanted to meet me at the property beforehand as it was my first time doing a viewing.

The agent and I checked through the property, opening the balcony doors to show off its potential and putting on a few of the lights to make it feel more homely.

We also went the extra mile and tidied up a bit, including making the beds to make it look more presentable - something that is not in the Viewber contract.

The agent gave me his card and a copy of the property's advertising, and then left the building. I was on my own.

Shortly after, the buyer arrived - a kind woman named Catherine who wasn't fazed by my inability to get into the building due to the lack of a code for the communal front door (eventually solved by pressing a neighbour's door buzzer).

She was looking at properties on behalf of her daughter who was moving back to Britain from overseas.

So did she find it uncomfortable that an estate agent was not showing her around?

'No, it doesn't bother me,' she said. 'It was good to get access to the building and to look around without an agent's sales pitch. You know as soon as you walk in if you are going to like the property and so a heavy sales pitch is unnecessary.'

I am not an estate agent and I was not expected to answer questions about the property.

With the buyer aware that I was not an estate agent, I could leave her to look around the property and make her own assessment. 

Any questions she had, I pointed her to the property's advertising material that I had given her. She was also able to make contact with the letting agent after the visit. 

Viewber can be a strange concept to get your head around, and certainly raises some questions when you first come across it.

For example, if you're the person who is selling their property, you may have concerns about Joe Public showing potential buyers around your home.

But Viewber addresses such security issues with a strict vetting service that includes a two-way £1 bank transfer, and people who apply to do the viewings are asked to provide a copy of their passport or driving licence, a utility bill and a landline telephone number. 

All of this information needs to be provided by a viewing agent at the point of registration via Viewber's website.

Once you've signed up, you receive requests to do viewing via phone or email.   

For new viewing agents, Viewber has written a guide to help you know what is expected. 

The three bedroom Battersea property is on the market for sale for £2.5million via estate agents Aucoot

A series of double doors at the Battersea apartment open out to a south facing terrace

The new property service called Viewber hires members of the public to show potential buyers around homes for sale

And what about the agent, are they concerned that such viewing agents could make their own job redundant?

'Not at all,' said John McDavid, the owner of Aucoot. 'It means that we have support if we have requests that we can't accommodate for any particular reason.'

The very nature of property viewings (people tend to look at potential new homes out of office hours etc) mean that the type of people likely to be viewing agents will be stay-at-home Mums (who can do viewings once the children are at school) and retired individuals.

And so onto the all important question of how much you can expect to be paid as a viewing agent. 

The polished concrete flooring at the Battersea property continues into the open-plan dining area and kitchen

Viewing agents get paid between £10 and £20 per viewing, which means you can't make a living out of it. However, it is ideal for these types of people who are looking for some extra pin money. 

There is also a travel allowance, which is up to £4 per viewing in London and up to 25p a mile for the rest of the country. 

However, in order to reach the equivalent of a reasonable hourly rate, you would really need to do viewings that were in your own neighbourhood or in places you are likely to be anyway.  

There is also the possibility of viewing agents getting paid £30 or more if the estate agent decides to have an 'open house' where multiple viewings take place.

This is all made possible because the agent pays Viewber £30 per viewing, with a discount for multiple viewings at the same property.

Totally chilled! The designer kitchen at the Battersea apartment includes a substantial wine fridge and breakfast bar

The Ransome's Dock property in Battersea has a walkway that leads to the River Thames

The property has three bedrooms, each with views across Ransome's Dock in Battersea

Viewber was founded by Ed Mead, who was an executive director at the multi-million pound London estate agency Douglas & Gordon.

After 25 years at the agency, he saw a gap in the market to help support agents to do property viewings - so he left D&G and launched Viewber.

The open-plan living area at the Battersea property includes concrete floors and a curved feature wall clad in solid oak

Viewber began as nothing more than a fledgling digital idea to help support estate agents. But it quickly evolved into something more serious and clearly has potential, not least for those acting as viewing agents who want to earn some extra cash.

Mr Mead said: 'The key is that we are using local people to do the viewings, meaning they can choose to do work locally when they want. The viewings are offered on a first come first served basis.'

He added: 'We will complete 3,000 viewings in May and the business is growing and we have some great testimonials from estates - some of whom have grown their business off the back of our service.' 

Viewing agents are paid at the end of the week and I gave the money to the charity Envision, which works with young people.