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I'm curious why does RealPage get all the blame in media? I think every property management app does the same type of rent analytics.

by gedy 2y ago

Aloha 2y ago
https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-realpage-rent https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-r... Because of the coercion the company puts on its customers for bucking what their software says to do.
- gedy 2y ago
  Just seems like what the other PMA apps do too, e.g. Yardi, Buildium, Appfolio Not saying it's okay, just why do we only hear about Realpage
  - stackskipton 2y ago
    Other apps are not just price fixing but property management and reporting though I've seen Realpage type behavior from them. My guess is since Realpage is biggest and their business is all about price fixing, Feds figure convict them, shut them down and MAYBE send exec or two to jail and rest will fall in line so quickly.
infecto 2y ago
- RealPage has the majority of the market for big property owners. - RealPage makes the price increases opt-out with required justification.
bri3d 2y ago
There are several issues with RealPage versus something like a public-data analytics tool: * RealPage actively suggests a price for each unit without exposing the underlying fundamentals to the customer, rather than displaying aggregate data and allowing the customer to make a pricing decision. * RealPage incorporates private data, including vacancy data, from all participating companies into their pricing model in order to generate a shared agreement about pricing. This information is being voluntarily shared in order to manipulate the market - that is, they broker horizontal collusion between players in a vertical industry. A group of landlords calling each other to say "we're going to make sure the vacancy rate stays at 5.5% this year" or "hey let's make sure we don't let these units go for under market value even though they're empty" would also be illegal collusion, it's just being laundered through an algorithm. This is the big smoking gun that makes it a hub-and-spoke price fixing ring (also called vertically integrated horizontal collusion - ie, a cartel). There's also the part where RealPage bought their main large-scale competitor, Lease Rent Options (who claimed to use only public data, in contrast to RealPage), in a 2017 deal that probably shouldn't have passed antitrust review, so there isn't anyone else to blame (they also own Buildium).

I'm curious why does RealPage get all the blame in media? I think every property management app does the same type of rent analytics.

by gedy 2y ago

I'm curious why does RealPage get all the blame in media? I think every property management app does the same type of rent analytics.

Aloha 2y ago

https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-realpage-rent https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-r... Because of the coercion the company puts on its customers for bucking what their software says to do.

gedy 2y ago
Just seems like what the other PMA apps do too, e.g. Yardi, Buildium, Appfolio Not saying it's okay, just why do we only hear about Realpage
- stackskipton 2y ago
  Other apps are not just price fixing but property management and reporting though I've seen Realpage type behavior from them. My guess is since Realpage is biggest and their business is all about price fixing, Feds figure convict them, shut them down and MAYBE send exec or two to jail and rest will fall in line so quickly.

infecto 2y ago

- RealPage has the majority of the market for big property owners. - RealPage makes the price increases opt-out with required justification.

bri3d 2y ago

There are several issues with RealPage versus something like a public-data analytics tool: * RealPage actively suggests a price for each unit without exposing the underlying fundamentals to the customer, rather than displaying aggregate data and allowing the customer to make a pricing decision. * RealPage incorporates private data, including vacancy data, from all participating companies into their pricing model in order to generate a shared agreement about pricing. This information is being voluntarily shared in order to manipulate the market - that is, they broker horizontal collusion between players in a vertical industry. A group of landlords calling each other to say "we're going to make sure the vacancy rate stays at 5.5% this year" or "hey let's make sure we don't let these units go for under market value even though they're empty" would also be illegal collusion, it's just being laundered through an algorithm. This is the big smoking gun that makes it a hub-and-spoke price fixing ring (also called vertically integrated horizontal collusion - ie, a cartel). There's also the part where RealPage bought their main large-scale competitor, Lease Rent Options (who claimed to use only public data, in contrast to RealPage), in a 2017 deal that probably shouldn't have passed antitrust review, so there isn't anyone else to blame (they also own Buildium).