The Division of Justice and the actual property platform RealPage simply made a deal, and because it doesn’t fully dismantle RealPage, it’s not going to be seen as a complete victory for tenants who hate RealPage. But it surely’s one thing, and it’ll almost definitely weaken the platform’s energy to boost rents, as it’ll now be prevented from shuffling collectively nonpublic data from competing landlords when setting costs.
According to the New York Times RealPage nonetheless denies having executed something fallacious, per statements from Stephen Weissman, an lawyer representing RealPage. The corporate is glad the federal government was prepared to “bless the legality of RealPage’s prior and deliberate product modifications,” Weissman stated, “There was a substantial amount of misinformation about how RealPage’s software program works and the worth it supplies for each housing suppliers and renters.”
RealPage, based in 1998, is a multifaceted instrument for landlords, not only a pricing assist. Its suite of options has been, in response to press protection and the federal costs that led to this settlement, an unseen poltergeist in renters’ lives for years, making life typically extra depressing, even whereas most tenants had no concept it exists. For example, in response to a 2020 investigation by the New York Times and The Markup, RealPage was utilizing flawed algorithms to carry out background checks, and landlords have been denying individuals properties primarily based on nonexistent prison costs.
When it got here to rents, RealPage itself at one level claimed that the landlords who used it faithfully have been “driving each attainable alternative to extend worth even in essentially the most downward trending or sudden circumstances.”
Then in August of final yr, the Justice Division—together with eight state lawyer generals—slapped RealPage with an antitrust suit. The authorized submitting makes for immensely gratifying studying, notably when you understand RealPage settled after being hit with the next accusation:
“At backside, RealPage is an algorithmic middleman that collects, combines, and exploits landlords’ competitively delicate data. And in so doing, it enriches itself and compliant landlords on the expense of renters who pay inflated costs and sincere companies that might in any other case compete.”
The worth advice programs in RealPage, referred to as YieldStar and AI Income Administration, labored by asking customers—landlords—to enter nonpublic information on rental actual property that solely landlords would typically have. That included non-public information from purposes, lease quantities, leases renewed, models sitting unoccupied, and different numbers of this nature that can be utilized to quantify the state of the market in extraordinarily granular element. Not all of this information is a part of the latest model of RealPage’s software program, however it’s the way it labored traditionally.
All this market data was heaped right into a pile and mixed with the information piles of different landlords, who’re theoretically their rivals. The system would course of all of this with an algorithm, and generate bespoke worth suggestions for all landlords in an space, all utilizing each other’s information.
Making its information all of the extra complete was its 80 p.c market share, according to the DOJ. That alleged monopoly standing theoretically meant landlords paid increased costs for RealPage, which have been handed on to renters.
And it apparently made rents go up. A 2022 ProPublica investigation discovered widespread RealPage adoption, and widespread lease will increase to go along with it. In Nashville, costs had just lately gone up 14.5%, and ProPublica discovered that landlords have been thrilled. In a testimonial, an actual property income supervisor stated “The great thing about YieldStar is that it pushes you to go locations that you simply wouldn’t have gone when you weren’t utilizing it,” in response to ProPublica.
So as a substitute of competing with each other to earn rents from individuals who want housing, the lawsuit claimed that, landlords joined forces with different landlords, and turned their aggressive drives in opposition to their tenants. They didn’t really set foot in a room with each other to have interaction in sinister price-fixing conferences. The software program allegedly took care of all of it for them.
If the settlement is authorized by a North Carolina decide, RealPage will now not be allowed to make use of data from present leases to coach its algorithm, or to combine nonpublic information from completely different landlords collectively when making worth suggestions.
Gail Slater, the DOJ’s antitrust division chief was quoted in a government news release as saying, “Competing corporations should make unbiased pricing choices, and with the rise of algorithmic and synthetic intelligence instruments, we’ll stay on the forefront of vigorous antitrust enforcement.”
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