Over the last four years, rents have skyrocketed by an average of over 30% nationwide and are a major factor in the overall inflation rate. There are a variety of factors behind the increases, including an overall housing shortage. But the Department of Justice is investigating another potential cau...
Specifically, RealPage employs "pricing advisors" who "meet with landlords to ensure that properties are implementing RealPage’s set rates”
You’re describing price fixing. You are literally describing the crime you are committing.
You either have to be impossibly stupid to do this and/or extremely evil - also confident your government is so broken they won’t come after you with antitrust laws.
Obviously many landlords do price fixing, but you're not meant to say it out loud. You're definitely not meant to EMPLOY a price guy on the books, whose only job is to do the price fixing.
Arizona's lawsuit alleges that RealPage "puts significant pressure on participants to ensure they adopt RealPage’s prices." Specifically, RealPage employs "pricing advisors" who "meet with landlords to ensure that properties are implementing RealPage’s set rates." This is described by Arizona as "policing the conspiracy to make sure no one cheats by lowering prices and trying to gain market share." RealPage training materials, cited in the DC lawsuit, advise that landlords "should be compliant" with the software's pricing recommendations. The Arizona lawsuit claims that landlords "agree that if they fail to consistently implement RealPage’s set rates, their contract with RealPage will be terminated." Jeffrey Roper, who created the RealPage algorithm, explained that if "you have idiots undervaluing, it costs the whole system"
Remember when there were a few of them uncomfortable with the "lord" part of landlord? Persons of property? Land people? Whatever fucking shit they came up with?