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Comment by rufus_foreman | Hacker News Reader

They are looking at what competitors are charging before setting their own prices. That should be illegal?

Does anyone think that software developers should be prohibited by law from looking at what other software developers are charging before deciding how much money to ask for? I don't believe that. Why would it be illegal for landlords to do it?

The article shows no evidence of price fixing. It shows companies doing absolutely normal things that every company does in order to determine what price to charge. Yes, that means looking at what other companies charge for the same service. Yes, for landlords it sometimes makes sense to accept a higher vacancy rate in exchange for higher rents. Sometimes it would also make sense to accept a lower vacancy rate in exchange for lower rents. Yes, landlords are going to want to look at market data to determine what the vacancy rate is that makes them the most money.

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> They are looking at what competitors are charging before setting their own prices. That should be illegal?

That practice isn't what's illegal. What people are having issues with is that RealPage which is used by a large number of landlords (from private landlords to megacorps), recommends prices to the landlords when it comes to marketing a unit. This data is pulled from other rentals on the market and what other RealPage users are charging. A majority of the time, landlords just use that number to advertise. That's why some apartment communities have prices that change daily, since RealPage changes their numbers daily. As such, this is a roundabout way of price fixing as RealPage is in a position that artificially raises rents across a wide location range.

This isn't a case of companies looking at what other companies charge for the same service. This is one company that's comparing their pricing against themselves. This results in cases such as a primarily affordable apartment community can see rents shoot up $300-$400/month all because a luxury apartment opened on the other side of town and both management companies just so happen to use RealPage.

It's removing relevant comparisons from the actual pricing schedule, which in some cases can be seen as price fixing as the prices no longer reflect the actual market.

To jump in and even clarify a little...

> A majority of the time, landlords just use that number to advertise.

It isn't even that loose, RealPage REQUIRES landlords use their price 80% of the time, and requires landlords to get approval FROM REALPAGE to not use it.

> Specifically, every morning, RealPage provides participating Lessors with recommended price levels. Lessors typically must communicate to a RealPage “Pricing Advisor” that they have “accept[ed]” or “confirm[ed] the “approved pricing” within a specified time frame. If Lessors wish to diverge from the “approved pricing” they must submit reasoning for doing so and await approval. RealPage encourages participating Lessors to have daily calls between the Lessors’ employees with pricing responsibility and the RealPage Pricing Advisor.

> If there is a disagreement between the participating Lessor and the RealPage Pricing Advisor, the dispute is often elevated to the Lessor’s management for resolution, and specific reasons justifying a departure from RealPage’s pricing level are usually required. But RealPage emphasizes the need for discipline among participating Lessors and urges them that for its coordinated algorithmic pricing to be the most successful in increasing rents, participating Lessors must adopt RealPage’s pricing at least 80% of the time.

Thanks for the clarification! I haven't used RealPage since 2017 back when I was a property manager and I never got to officially use that part of the system.

I’m not sure what other evidence a court needs when that last paragraph is the definition of a cartel.

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