Arizona landlords rent investigation operate apartments in oklahoma

Authorities are investigating nine major apartment owners for allegedly conspiring with a software company to illegally raise rents in Arizona, including three companies responsible for a total of 39 apartment communities with thousands of units in Oklahoma.

The District of Columbia attorney general’s office is also pursuing the software company, RealPage Inc., and 14 D.C. apartment owners and managers for alleged rent-fixing, as fallout continues for what many believe are excessive rent increases related to COVID, attacked by the president. Joe Biden and others.

RealPage helps landlords with a kind of “dynamic pricing,” also called “accelerated pricing” or “peak pricing,” where customers pay more during periods of high demand, with rents reset daily.

Settlements have been reached with some corporate owners, including one in a Tennessee case.

Additionally, in response, US Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Dem. of Massachusetts, recently introduced her American Housing and Economic Mobility Act, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Dem. Minnesota, sponsored the Housing Acquisition Review and Transparency (HART) Act, which would provide more housing, among other things.

They also called on Congress to approve Biden’s 5 percent rent cap proposal.

It is not known if any apartment rents in Oklahoma were set using the software, although one of the companies told The Oklahoman that it had not used it.

Newer apartments are likely to use the dynamic approach to setting and resetting rents, whether they use RealPage or other software, said David Dirkschneider, partner and broker at Capstone Cos.

“It’s more common on newer properties to do what’s called daily pricing, which changes rents daily based on the market,” he said, “Older properties don’t do that as much, but some do.

“Essentially, it looks at what other properties are charging, compares that to the size of units (number of beds and bathrooms) available in the area and at your property, and tells you what rents you should charge to maximize occupancy and rents. They don’t always give them the highest rents. Sometimes they say they charge less because there’s less demand for a certain type of unit.”

Arizona landlords sued over alleged rent-fixing own or manage 8,727 individual apartments in Oklahoma City

The three companies facing the Arizona lawsuit that manage apartments in Oklahoma have 8,727 individual units, according to their online marketing.

Neither Weidner Property Management LLC nor Greystar Management Services LP, two of the apartment companies in Oklahoma, returned inquiries about rents and the rent-setting process here.

Weidner, based in Kirkland, Wash., owns 15 complexes in OKC and five in Tulsa. Greystar, based in Charleston, South Carolina, owns nine properties in OKC and six in Tulsa.

The third, Apartment Management Consultants LLC, of Salt Lake City, Utah, responded in a statement issued in February when Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed suit against it and the others. AMC manages the student-oriented Norman Creek Apartments in Norman, one complex in Broken Arrow and two in Tulsa.

“AMC has not promoted or encouraged any client/landlord in its portfolio of managed properties to use RealPage (rental management) software,” the company said, noting that the owner of one of the 85 properties it manages had contracted directly with RealPage. “AMC is not a party to that contract.”

Sierra Bennett, AMC regional director of communications, added, “AMC does not use the product in question in the management of the four properties located in Oklahoma, nor has it ever done so.”

RealPage Denies Rent-Fixing Allegations, Condemns ‘False Claims’

For its part, RealPage online condemned the legal action, “false claims” and critics’ perpetuation of “an inaccurate and distorted narrative about RealPage, our revenue management solutions and the many benefits we bring to residents and housing providers , including a healthier and more efficient rental housing ecosystem.”

RealPage, which is based in Richardson, Texas, did not respond to an inquiry from The Oklahoman, but the company has posted what appears to be a press kit online outlining its responses to the allegations.

“The purpose of RealPage (the rent management system) is to optimize income – not to maximize rents. It makes rental price recommendations in all directions: higher, lower, or at the current rental price,” the company says.

The criticism is misdirected, says Dana Jones, CEO and president of RealPage online.

“Housing affordability should be the real goal,” says Jones. “RealPage is proud of the role our customers play in providing safe and affordable housing for millions of people. Despite the noise, we will continue to innovate with confidence and ensure our solutions continue to benefit residents and housing providers alike.”

Details of the Arizona Attorney General’s charges against RealPage and its corporate owners

Mayes focused on RealPage as the main cause of excessive rent increases.

“Over the past two years, residential rents in Phoenix and Tucson have risen at least 30 percent in large part because of this conspiracy that stifled fair competition and essentially established a rental monopoly in the state’s two largest metropolitan areas our. RealPage and its co-defendants must be held accountable for their role in the astronomical rent increases imposed on Arizonans,” he said in a press release earlier this year.

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office said its lawsuit specifically alleges that:

“Defendant landlords illegally colluded with RealPage to artificially inflate rents and concealed their conspiracy from the public.”
“RealPage’s conspiracy with the owner co-defendants violates both the Arizona Uniform State Antitrust Act and the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.”
“Defendants’ illegal practices artificially inflated rent prices and caused Phoenix and Tucson area residents to pay millions of dollars more in rent.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and government watchdog group are calling for more investigations into apartment companies that use RealPage

Recently, Warren, Bharat Ramamurti, the former deputy director of the White House National Economic Council, and representatives of the government watchdog group Accountable.US held a virtual news conference about what they called big landlord profits, including alleged illegal collusion regarding the rental price using RealPage. algorithmic software.

They have called for state investigations into large landlords using RealPage, promoting Warren and Klobuchar’s bills as well as Biden’s 5 percent rent cap proposal.

“While the main long-term solution to rising rents is a more affordable housing supply, short-term steps to prevent collusion and price gouging by large landlords would provide relief to renters in many markets across the country,” Ramamurti said in during the briefing.

On the call, Accountable.US reviewed recent analysis, finding that the six largest publicly traded apartment companies — none of which operate in Oklahoma — collectively brought in nearly $300 million in increased profits in the first quarter of 2024 , “many because of rent increases. .”

All six owners named in the report have faced lawsuits related to their use of RealPage.

“Large corporate landlords are looking to tenants for higher returns,” said Caroline Ciccone, president of Accountable.US. “Many of the same CEOs who claimed they had no choice but to raise the rent for ordinary Americans came back and bragged to shareholders about rising profits.”

Apartments in the Oklahoma City area managed by Weidner Property Management LLC

35 Degrees North Apartment Homes, 371 units, 2800 NW 192
Aviare Arts District Apartment Homes, Unit 303, 301 N Walker Ave.
Brookwood Village Apartments, 1,144 units, 9401 S Shartel Ave.
The Edge at Midtown Apartments, 250 units, 1325 N Walker Ave.
Encore Apartments, 396 units, 3916 NW 164
Indigo Apartments, 896 units, 12601 and 12701 N Pennsylvania Ave.
Liberty Pointe Apartments, 324 units, 6600 SE 74
Lincoln at Central Park Apartment Homes, 708 units, 500 Central Park Drive
Metropolitan Apartments, 329 units, 800 N Oklahoma Ave.
Quail Landing Apartments, 216 units, 14200 N May Ave.
Stoneleigh on May Apartment Homes, 244 units, 14300 N May Ave.
Sycamore Farms apartments, 398 units, 14900 N Pennsylvania Ave.
Residence at North Penn Apartments, 276 units, 14520 N Pennsylvania Ave.
Villas at Countryside Apartment Homes, 360 units, 9501 S Interstate 35 Service Road, Moore.
Weidner Property Management also manages apartments in Tulsa: 71 at Tulsa Hills, The Enclave at Brookside, Lincoln Villas on Memorial, Memorial Creek and Woodland Park.

Oklahoma City Apartments Managed by Greystar Management Services, Charleston, South Carolina

Quail Springs album, 140 units, 14201 N Kentucky Ave.
Magnolia Row, 87 units, 6300 W Memorial Road
Muse Apartments, 302 units, 700 NW 4th
OKC pure, 150 units, 3300 S Mustang Road, Yukon
Boulevard de la Norman, 302 units, 3301 12th Ave. SE, Norman
The Haven, 65 units, 601 Robert S Kerr Ave.
The Residences at OAK, 320 units, 5200 Oak St.
West Village Apartments, 345 units, 835 W Sheridan Ave.
trails in the forest, 543 units, 12401 N MacArthur Blvd.
Greystar Management Services also manages apartments in Tulsa: Cascades at Southern Hills, Coventry Park, Eagle Point Apartments, NOMA Apartments, Parc 1010 and The Laurel.

Oklahoma Apartments Managed by Apartment Management Consultants, Salt Lake City, Utah

Norman Creek Apartments, 300 Hal Muldrow Drive, Norman
Heights at Battle Creek, Broken arrow
Stonehaven Villas, Tulsa
Vantage on Yale, Tulsa

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Senior business writer Richard Mize has covered housing, construction, commercial real estate and related topics for the newspaper and Oklahoman.com since 1999. Contact him at [email protected]. Subscribe to his weekly newsletter, Real Estate with Richard Mize. You can support the work of Richard and his colleagues by purchasing a digital subscription to The Oklahoman. Right now you can get 6 months of subscriber-only access for $1.

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