We bought our house on a complete snap decision. We'd seen it listed for sale for ages (at least a year) at an out of whack price, just decided one day to actually go look at it, and put an offer in same day.
I don't think we asked the agent much ... he was quite forthcoming. He gave us a copy of the HIA order as he was legally obliged, told us some previous offers had a clean pest and structural inspection, told us it had *had* several previous offers but none as low as ours, told us the size of the block (he hadn't realised it was subdivisible, it wasn't in the ad) and warned us that the vendor was notoriously slow.
We had a look at another house the same day. That agent is brilliant - we were looking around the other house boggling at the amazing state of damp, mould, salt damp, staining and general disrepair. One internal wall was covered with a curtain - I asked why and he wordlessly pulled back the curtain to reveal MASSIVE salt damp to about 5 feet up the wall. He told us about the large drainage easement on the block (which precluded dividing it into 4 despite being advertised as a potential subdivision), that he had been recommending the owner demolish the house and sell it as vacant land, and he told us he thought the owner had the price far too high (it was about $70k - 60% - overpriced). Probably too honest for his own good, but he didn't need to say anything really - the condition of the house spoke for itself. It was since condemned by council and withdrawn from the market.
Incidentally we have two main agents in this town, and *this* agent sets his prices lower but his listings sell much faster and closer or at exactly what they are listed for. He does better ads too. The other agent's prices are all over the place, as are his sales, which can be up to 50% different to his original asking price.