real estate agent due diligence?

[Jay Garrison]

Hello everyone,

I have been looking at two flats with my real estate agent, and I am not sure if everything that is supposed to be happening actually is. This is my first real estate transaction, and I am working with a friend of my aunt's. Recently I looked at a two flat in Englewood, Chicago, which was listed at $160K. One of the units was vacant and had been very recently rehabbed with new stove and fridge, but we hadn't seen the other unit yet, nor had we seen the basement. It has been on the market for months. 

When I asked about the price, she suggested 155K, and we started the paperwork for making an offer, and she put me in contact with a lawyer and a home inspector. The lawyer sent me out a contract, but I haven't signed it yet. Yesterday, my agent and I got in to see the unit that is rented, and it is a mess. It is really really cluttered, an elderly couple has been there for what looks like decades. In one bedroom was a man who appeared bedridden and wasn't responsive at all when we walked in. I thought, and my real estate agent told me, that without removing all of the tenants things, it would be impossible to do a thorough home inspection. Dismayed, I decided to cancel the deal. When I got back home, I looked online at the Zillow estimate, and it was nearly $50k less than what the asking price was. I know that the Zillow estimate isn't going to be 100% correct, but based on what the first floor looked like, the sales price of other two flats in the area and my own knowledge of the area, I now feel like we should have either offered quite a bit less or walked away. At the very least, we should have waited to see the first floor before putting in the offer. I feel like I dodged a bullet here, and I am wondering if we shouldn't have seen the first floor before making the offer, or before I contacted the lawyer and had her draw up a contract?

We have been to look at 4 or 5 houses so far, and I also get the feeling that, since she lives far away from Englewood, she just wants to kind of get this over with. She complains about coming to see the properties, and yesterday, before I asked her to come with me, was going to send me alone to see the occupied first floor unit. She knows that I am pretty green about the real estate process and she has many years of experience doing this. 

What are your thoughts on this?