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by arrosenberg 949 days ago
The whole point of pro-competition laws is to stop large corporations or a cartel from using market power to control pricing, which is the scheme you just laid out. So, yes, that would be illegal. You can say "no collusion", but you (the operator) have effectively organized a cartel. Each individual landlord may escape liability, but you will not.

Commodities exchanges (I believe) work on a competitive bidding system, which is basically the opposite - you have willing buyers and sellers with roughly equal power/information.
1 comments
arcticbull 949 days ago
> The whole point of pro-competition laws is to stop large corporations or a cartel from using market power to control pricing, which is the scheme you just laid out. So, yes, that would be illegal.

How is a Zestimate or Redfin home value estimate legal then? Or a Redfin rental estimate? [1] Would it become illegal - or a cartel - if too many people started using it to set rents?

Should we forbid tools to help landlords figure out how much their places should rent for?

[1] https://www.redfin.com/rental-estimate

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arrosenberg 949 days ago
It might be. RealPage's definitely is because they've clearly accrued market power in order to control pricing. In Redfin's case it seems like more of a marketing gimmick, but if you could prove it had a meaningful effect on driving prices up, then yes, the FTC should order its' removal.

> Should we forbid tools to help landlords figure out how much their places should rent for?

It depends? Playing moneyball (i.e. charging the maximum the market will bear without a serious, violent response) with a necessity like rent should be illegal, and many of these tools seem designed to do that using market power, which is explicitly illegal. If the tool just gave some local averages based on things like amenities, that might be ok.

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sinistersnare 949 days ago
Yes, if it causes harm to people. Being a landlord is a job (so I'm told), do some math, figure out how much is fair (cost:labor calculation) then ask on the open market if people want to pay that. The problem is that the underlying system here did NOT do this calculation, hence price-gouging. It is the lack of free market that is the problem, thanks to this price centralization.
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