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RealPage

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RealPage
Company typePrivate
Nasdaq: RP (before acquisition)
IndustrySoftware
Founded1998; 26 years ago (1998)
HeadquartersRichardson, Texas
Key people
Dana Jones (CEO)
OwnerThoma Bravo
Websitewww.realpage.com

RealPage, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that provides property management software for the multifamily, commercial, single-family, and vacation rental housing industries. Its services are used to manage more than 24 million housing units worldwide.[1] Dana Jones is Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer.[2]

History

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RealPage was founded in 1998 with the acquisition of Rent Roll, Inc.,[3] a provider of on-premises property management systems for the conventional and affordable multifamily rental housing markets.

RealPage moved its corporate headquarters to Richardson, Texas in 2016, and in 2017 acquired four companies: apartment market data provider Axiometrics; utility and energy management company American Utility Management; revenue management and pricing provider Lease Rent Options; and On-Site, a leasing and marketing platform company.[4]

In 2018, RealPage announced an agreement to purchase electronic payment platform company ClickPay, located in Hackensack, New Jersey.[5]

In July 2019, RealPage acquired utility management company SimpleBills.[6]

In December 2019, RealPage acquired Buildium.[7]

In January 2020, RealPage has agreed to acquire Modern Message, Inc.[8]

In September 2020, RealPage acquired real estate IoT startup Stratis.[9]

In December 2020, private-equity firm Thoma Bravo announced it would acquire RealPage for $9.6 billion, paying $88.75 per share for the company, a premium of 31% for their closing prices at the time. Its shares were reported up 26% that year.[10] The acquisition completed in April 2021.[11]

In January 2021, RealPage acquired bulk Internet provider WhiteSky.[12]

Reactions and lawsuits

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RealPage has been accused of antitrust violations and price fixing in the rental market.[13] Lawsuits against RealPage make the claim that if it is illegal for an individual to engage in price fixing, then it should be illegal when it is done by software or algorithm.[14] The lawsuits also accuse RealPage of pressuring its customers to comply with their pricing suggestions.[14]

Lawsuits

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In October 2022, ProPublica reported that landlords use RealPage's asset optimization algorithm called YieldStar (later rebranded as AI Revenue Management) to increase rents throughout the United States, naming its users an illegal cartel that encouraged participants to withhold rental units from the market. Overwhelmingly, approximately 90% of property managers/landlords approve price change suggestions by the software. RealPage's software strongly discourages landlord users from negotiating asking rent prices with tenants.[15]

In November 2022, the United States Department of Justice's Antitrust Division opened an investigation into RealPage, which is accused of contributing to higher rent prices throughout the United States. The company's YieldStar software is alleged to use an algorithm to "help landlords push the highest possible rents on tenants."[16]

In November 2023, Attorney General of the District of Columbia Brian Schwalb filed an antitrust price-fixing lawsuit against RealPage and more than a dozen of the largest apartment building landlords in Washington, D.C., accusing them of illegally conspiring to set rental prices artificially high by sharing competitively sensitive data using RealPage's revenue management platform.[17]

In April 2023, more than 20 private civil antitrust lawsuits against RealPage, which had been filed primarily on behalf of renters of multifamily apartments and which alleged that the company illegally conspired to keep prices above market rates, were consolidated in federal court in Nashville, Tennessee.[18] In November 2023, the US Justice Department filed a "statement of interest" in support of the lawsuits, arguing that the use of shared data and algorithms must "be subject to the same condemnation" as other price-fixing schemes.[19][20] In December 2023, Chief US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw denied RealPage's bid to dismiss the consolidated lawsuits.[21]

Bans

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In July 2024, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an ordinance banning landlords from using software or algorithms, such as those offered by RealPage and Yardi, to set rents or manage occupancy within the city; a final vote on the ordinance is scheduled for September 3.[22]

References

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  1. ^ Rodriguez, James (April 10, 2024). "Landlords are using a popular software tool to jack up your rent". Business Insider. Archived from the original on June 8, 2024. Retrieved August 3, 2024.
  2. ^ "Management Team". RealPage.com. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
  3. ^ "Rent Roll, Inc. and RealPage Communications, Inc. Merge". Business Wire (Press release). December 11, 1998. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved February 24, 2016 – via Thefreelibrary.com. Three years later, they released their first on-demand property management product and since then, expanded the on-demand software solutions to include a number of value-added services from property management to renter's insurance and more.
  4. ^ Lane, Ben (August 2, 2017). "RealPage continues expanding, agrees to buy On-Site for $250 million - Acquiring leasing and marketing platform for rental properties". housingwire.com. Archived from the original on June 28, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  5. ^ "BRIEF-Realpage To Acquire Clickpay For $218.5 Mln". Reuters. April 20, 2018. Archived from the original on June 28, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  6. ^ Womack, Brian. "RealPage makes another purchase – and this time it's a Texas technology firm". Dallas Business Journal. Archived from the original on February 1, 2024. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  7. ^ "RealPage to Acquire Buildium". realpage.com. Archived from the original on July 10, 2020. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
  8. ^ "RealPage to Acquire Modern Message". Business Wire (Press release). Archived from the original on February 6, 2020. Retrieved February 6, 2020 – via finance.yahoo.com.
  9. ^ Lardinois, Frederic (August 31, 2020). "RealPage acquires real estate IoT startup Stratis". techcrunch.com. Archived from the original on September 4, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  10. ^ Gottfried, Miriam; Lombardo, Cara (December 21, 2020). "Thoma Bravo Agrees to Buy RealPage for $9.6 Billion". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on December 21, 2020. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  11. ^ "Thoma Bravo Completes Acquisition of RealPage" (Press release). Business Wire. Archived from the original on April 23, 2021. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  12. ^ "RealPage® Acquires WhiteSky Communications" (Press release). Business Wire. January 4, 2021. Archived from the original on January 4, 2021. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  13. ^ Hoover, Amanda (July 17, 2024). "RealPage Has Been Accused of Price-Fixing Rents. Now It's on the Offensive". Wired. Retrieved August 11, 2024.
  14. ^ a b Karma, Rogé (August 10, 2024). "We're Entering an AI Price-Fixing Dystopia". The Atlantic. Retrieved August 11, 2024.
  15. ^ Vogell, Heather; Coryne, Haru; Little, Ryan (October 15, 2022). "Rent Going Up? One Company's Algorithm Could Be Why". ProPublica. Archived from the original on October 15, 2022. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  16. ^ Roth, Emma (November 26, 2022). "The DOJ is reportedly investigating rent-setting software company RealPage". The Verge. Archived from the original on November 26, 2022. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  17. ^ Scarcella, Mike (November 2, 2023). "DC sues tech company RealPage, landlords over rental prices". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 3, 2023. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  18. ^ Scarcella, Mike (April 10, 2023). "RealPage antitrust lawsuits over rent prices consolidated in Tennessee". Reuters. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  19. ^ Scarcella, Mike (November 16, 2023). "Renters suing RealPage get US backing in pricing lawsuits". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 18, 2023. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
  20. ^ Vogell, Heather (November 16, 2023). "DOJ Backs Tenants in Case Alleging Price-Fixing by Big Landlords and a Real Estate Tech Company". ProPublica. Archived from the original on November 16, 2023. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  21. ^ Scarcella, Mike (December 29, 2023). "RealPage must face renters' price-fixing lawsuit over multifamily housing". Reuters. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
  22. ^ Brodkin, Jon (August 1, 2024). "San Francisco to ban software that "enables price collusion" by landlords". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on August 1, 2024. Retrieved August 3, 2024.
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