So software that grabs comps and does the inflation math is anticompetitive? Yikes.
The thing that might sink them is that the software uses actual rental rents from competing properties (anonymously). So, in the past if a property manager looked up the published rates of a competing property or called them up, they wouldn't know that the unit listed at $1,200 a month was really being rented for just $1,050 per month. That sharing of non-public information among competitors (even anonymously through an algorithim) could probably be construed to cross the line into collusion and price fixing.
I ran into this several years ago as a commercial real estate appraiser. I would have to determine market rent for the various units in an apartment complex and half the competing properties would use this software. So, I had to ask the property manager not only what the software was telling them, but what the realistic rate for that unit. The way it would work is if a complex had 200 units but only 10 3-bedroom units, when the last 3-bedroom unit was available it would jack up the rent from a normal rate of $1,300 to $1,500 or $1,600 - well above market. The property manager still had the discretion to ignore that but maybe offer it at $1,400 and see if they could get a tenant willing to pay that. Once that happened it set a new floor and the cycle would continue. It also eliminated the typical model of offering existing tenants a smaller rent increase because you avoided the cost of turning over a unit (lost rent for a few days or weeks of vacancy, new paint/carpet, etc.). So on paper the software may show higher revenue, but it may not have fully accounted for those turnover expenses. Well-managed apartment complexes that kept turnover low and occupancy high were more valuable than those that always pushed the limit of the market and had higher turnover and higher vacancy.
