To add some of my observations:1.

Will they allow me to attend and just observe an auction to learn?

@Jason Coyle - just came across this thread and interested to get your observations around what's changed if anything given recent events? 

When walking a house you want to be observant to anything that looks out of order, in particular structural issues.

I will also do a periodic inspection of both units to get a new baseline of the property condition and to have "eyes" on the ground to observe what is occurring.If they share with me that something is occurring that is a danger to a person's personal safety or property is being destroyed, I tell them to immediately call 911 while such is occurring and followup with a call to me.

Of course, the agent wants to get paid, so he's going to push for the deal that guarantees he gets his commission.As I said, I was an agent years ago, and one thing that always struck me when observing the actions of other agents was how much some of them would manipulate transactions and steer their clients to ensure that the agent got paid the most and/or the fastest, despite all the talk about fiduciary responsibility and treating the parties in a transaction ethically.

Study it, Research it, attend and observe. 

We observed the lack of a multiple listing service - are you using agents to find properties?

I'm not in commercial real estate (although I've definitely thought about it), this is all from my observations as a former resident and landlord.So... there are quite a lot of attractive properties that I've seen, but a disturbing number of them are partially or even mostly vacant.

In my observation they are way less uptight and rude and actually show signs of politeness compared to BoA and them.