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> Realpage goes beyond this by pressuring landlords to accept their recommended price, and that's probably what got them in hot water, but they could probably h

> Realpage goes beyond this by pressuring landlords to accept their recommended price, and that's probably what got them in hot water, but they could probably have gotten away with it if they didn't do that. Yes, but it seems like that would miss the point of Realpage entirely. Which is that if all landlords pay for it and are pressured to follow its recommendations they all make a lot more money. Using algorithms to set your prices is fine. Using a shared algorithm to align your process is not. That's quite easy to outlaw. The "pressuring" part here is extremely clear.

gruez 2y ago
>Yes, but it seems like that would miss the point of Realpage entirely. Which is that if all landlords pay for it and are pressured to follow its recommendations they all make a lot more money. This would entirely hinge on what you think "the point of Realpage" was. Some argue it's collusion as a service, but it's also plausible that they're offering pricing research.
- crazygringo 2y ago
  > but it's also plausible that they're offering pricing research. It's not plausible when they strongly pressured landlords against accepting rents lower than suggested. That pressure wasn't an accident, and it wouldn't make any sense in a product that was merely pricing research. Now RealPage has been around for 26 years and didn't start out doing that. But at some point they transitioned into illegal price fixing as a service, because their pricing determinations were not treated as optional recommendations.
anticensor 2y ago
Or, do the opposite, and force everyone to publish (not privately share!) their pricing strategy well ahead of time, but prohibit including competitors' prices or proxies thereof as decision variables. The most resilient strategy possible is the one that works even when everyone else knows and everyone else also publishes theirs but still engages in competition.

gruez 2y ago

>Yes, but it seems like that would miss the point of Realpage entirely. Which is that if all landlords pay for it and are pressured to follow its recommendations they all make a lot more money. This would entirely hinge on what you think "the point of Realpage" was. Some argue it's collusion as a service, but it's also plausible that they're offering pricing research.

crazygringo 2y ago
> but it's also plausible that they're offering pricing research. It's not plausible when they strongly pressured landlords against accepting rents lower than suggested. That pressure wasn't an accident, and it wouldn't make any sense in a product that was merely pricing research. Now RealPage has been around for 26 years and didn't start out doing that. But at some point they transitioned into illegal price fixing as a service, because their pricing determinations were not treated as optional recommendations.

anticensor 2y ago

Or, do the opposite, and force everyone to publish (not privately share!) their pricing strategy well ahead of time, but prohibit including competitors' prices or proxies thereof as decision variables. The most resilient strategy possible is the one that works even when everyone else knows and everyone else also publishes theirs but still engages in competition.