Re: asking about neighbours - they won't tell the whole truth of course, but it can give you some idea about community and occasionally any issues. E.g. One vendor talked animatedly to us about the house next door on the right, two doors down, the two houses opposite etc, but was much more reticent about the house on the left.
For the house we just bought the vendor gave us a real sense of the nice community on the street. They knew names, jobs children etc (one of DDs secondary school teachers lives two doors down which was a nice surprise for her 
). One of the neighbours was holding a key for them so when the vendors were working away they could show viewers round, another neighbour was feeding the dog for them. When we went round again just to show my mum the outside of the house, the neighbours were coming back from the shops and let us show her the garden from their garden and gave us a cup of tea!
I would add that sometime things that look easily fixed are not always as easy and simple as they seem, especially if you don't have many DIY skills. Our current house that we have just sold had lots of easy things to fix, but it took 7 years and three times our initial budget to fix them all, mostly because once the job was started other jobs were revealed!
I flicked the taps on briefly on first viewings under the guise of admiring them, usually when the vendor had moved on to another room. When the agent was there I did it in front of them, having grown up washing my hair under a dribble of a shower that was something important to me!
Having said all that if you know you know. We were looking for a four bed but have fallen in love with and bought a three bed that doesn't fit all of our criteria! Very excited about moving into it though, it felt so right even when we viewed it quickly and in the dark!