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Comment by jeffbee | Hacker News Reader

Landlords are completely capable of leaving units vacant all by themselves and there isn't any evidence that realpage clients were more likely to do that.

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My source was this article which broke the RealPage story three years ago:

https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-r...

> For tenants, the system upends the practice of negotiating with apartment building staff. RealPage discourages bargaining with renters and has even recommended that landlords in some cases accept a lower occupancy rate in order to raise rents and make more money.

...

> Apartment managers can reject the software’s suggestions, but as many as 90% are adopted, according to former RealPage employees.

Yeah I mean I don't know how to tell you this but that's not a source. Rental managers leave units vacant all the time, hoping for an unrealistic price. It's certainly possible and even consistent with those claims that realpage clients were no worse than general property managers in this regard. They may have even been more willing to accept lower prices based on the realpage recommendations.

Your rebuttal is literally "nuh uh." You asked for a source, you were given a source: documentation that shows RealPage discouraged landlords from negotiating, and landlords admitting to not negotiating. COULD they have negotiated? Sure, and a unicorn COULD be orbiting Saturn with 5,000 homes in tow, trying to figure out the optimal thrust vector to come to Earth. Anything COULD happen, but we know what DID happen: RealPage and services like it have enabled landlords to collude with dubious legality on rent prices, and rent prices went up as a result. The most predictable outcome.

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