What to do when the compensation line on a designated agency addendum is left blank

Wren, because he's under contract and the clock is running, so refusing anything has a cost. Anchor, on the substance: the split between designated agents inside a firm genuinely is internal, but the total compensation and who pays it is the part you're entitled to see documented, and how that's enforced varies by state. Ask for the listing agreement's compensation page rather than the split. Sellers redact splits all the time. They rarely refuse the total.

Separately, 71,400 on 610k is 11.7 percent gross. On a 1971 building I'd want to know what the sewer lateral looks like before I got excited about 190 of rent upside.

The incentive you named is the actual issue and it isn't about the money. Their agent is the person telling you where the seller's floor is. In a designated setup that agent is supposed to owe that duty to you, so put it to the test: ask him in writing whether the seller has rejected any prior offer and at what number. His answer, or the shape of his non-answer, is worth more than the commission figure.

Two separate mechanisms in your post and they have different answers.

The compensation disclosure. The post-settlement framework generally requires a written agreement with a buyer's agent, specifying the compensation, before touring or writing, and it bars the amount from being open-ended. An addendum that points to a document you can't read sits badly against that. How it's enforced depends on your state's rules and your local MLS's participation requirements, and both change, so confirm the current requirement with the broker of record in writing rather than with the agent.

The designated agency structure. Assigning two agents inside one firm is the standard workaround to true dual agency, and it does move the fiduciary duty to individual agents rather than the firm. What it does not remove is the firm's economic interest in keeping both sides in-house. Your framing of that is right. The firm's gross take is unchanged, and the marginal value of routing you internally is the cooperating broker's share it doesn't have to pay out.

On the deal: 71,400 gross on 610k is 11.7 percent gross yield, and at a 1.28 stabilized DSCR your whole margin depends on the expense ratio you're assuming. If you're modeling 42 percent on a 1971 six-unit with two units 190 under market, that number is doing all the work in your underwriting. Pull two years of actual water, insurance, and repair invoices before the appraisal. If real expenses land at 50 percent, the addendum stops being the interesting problem.

Studying for the license now and the compensation disclosure piece was drilled hard in my material. The written buyer agreement with a stated amount is presented as non-optional, not as a form of words. A pointer to another document with the figure withheld would not have passed the practice questions I've been doing, which doesn't make it illegal, it just makes me think somebody in that office is reusing an old template.

Six units, 1971 build, is a common age to find original galvanized supply lines on three of six, with a previous owner who repiped only what leaked. That kind of surprise often runs 14k unbudgeted. Rena-expert is right that the expense ratio is where this lives. The 190 under market on two doors is 4,560 a year, and one repipe eats three years of that. On the agency question, the standard advice is to sign nothing with a blank in it. Not out of principle. Because the moment one blank gets accepted, another one follows.

Run the sensitivity before deciding anything about the addendum. At 610k, 71,400 gross, 45 percent expenses, that is 39,270 NOI, a 6.4 cap. At 50 percent it is 35,700 and 5.85. Add the 4,560 of rent upside at 45 percent expenses and it moves to 41,778, 6.85. That is the whole range of outcomes and it is about 100 basis points wide, which is more variance than any commission argument is worth. So the real question is whether the deal survives the bad end of that range at the quoted debt terms. If it does, get the total compensation in writing, sign, and move. If it only works at the good end, the addendum is a convenient reason to walk away from a deal that should be walked away from regardless.

The reused template theory that halyard raised is the likeliest explanation and it also tells you something about the firm. Ask for the broker of record, not the agent, and ask in writing. Agents send the forms they've always sent. Brokers are the ones who get letters about it.