My trailing 12 on a 14-unit in Akron just came back at 6.1 percent cap and the seller is calling it an 8.

The gap between 6.1 and 8 is meaningful, but the assumption doing the most work is the management add-back. If you're going to self-manage, the broker can technically argue the 8 percent line shouldn't be in the expense stack, which is how sellers justify that move. The problem is that a commercial appraiser will put it back in regardless, because they're valuing the asset on its income as a business, and a business-dependent on the owner showing up is a discount, not a feature. Your lender's appraiser is almost certainly going to load in a market-rate management fee and current insurance replacement cost, full stop. That means your 6.1 isn't just your read on value, it's likely close to what the appraisal comes back at, and the deal either reprices or it dies there anyway.

On the seller question: the insurance figure being from 2021 is telling. A current owner paying a repriced premium would see that number on every monthly statement. If the T12 still shows the pre-repricing figure, one of two things happened. Either the broker built the proforma from old records and the seller signed off without checking, or the seller knows and handed it to the broker to present. The first scenario gives you a softer retrade conversation because you're correcting an honest error together. The second means the seller has already mentally spent the gap, and you'll get resistance regardless of how clean your math is.

I'd go into that conversation with the appraiser outcome as your anchor, not your own underwriting. "My lender's appraiser will apply current insurance and a market management fee" is harder to argue with than "I think your expenses are wrong."

One thing you didn't mention: what does the debt service look like at 6.1 on current commercial rates? At 1.54M with a compressed cap, the DSCR exposure is the number worth checking before you invest in the retrade.

What's the current vacancy picture on the 14 units, and is the PM contract month-to-month or term?

The PM line getting scrubbed out is the one that kills me every time because it's not even aggressive, it's just dishonest. Owner uses a PM, you price it like they don't, and suddenly your proforma looks like a different asset. On the seller-knows question, I'd look at whether the OM went out fast or sat for 90 days, because a broker who had to reprice once already and is still using 2021 insurance probably built the whole thing and the seller signed off without running it himself.