I'm not saying that WILL happen, but people are not always ethical.  

There's also the flip side, that you have more recourse, higher ethics (which I would hope you would anyway), because your realtor had can't come off.  

My good friend and I have plans to get an apartment anyways so would it be ethical to charge him 300-400 a month even though id be living for free?

Using this approach borders on the unethical and the National Association of Realtor Code of Ethics Article 15 SoP 16-2. 

Mainly it goes over laws and ethics.

This relates to ethical, moral as well as legal decisions.

Since the seller is also acting like a broker, I wonder if there's any ethics issues with a broker trying to prevent a buyer from performing due diligence?

Some of those developers are now bankrupt.Any ETHICAL contractor and/or developer will need to know this information before any ACM is disturbed to protect the health and welfare of both workers working on the project, people that are exposed to the project, and ultimately the general public when they start using the project.To continue, all of the steps required AHEAD of developing this project represent a significant capital investment along with extended time on market.  

Because going around the agent is just asking for issues and litigation since he is entitled to his/her commission through the contract, not to mention it would raise ethical issues...with this said it will automatically disqualify some of these deals because the seller needs to much to cover outstanding debts and their agents seller commission.

Option 1 is to get a hold of the original provider and if they are reputable and ethical they’ll step in and fix this issue.