Multifamily Marketing

Latest · Rules & compliance

MAA and JBG Just Wrote DC a $9.3M Check

MAA and JBG are paying Washington DC a combined $9.3 million to settle the attorney general's lawsuit accusing them of using RealPage's software to coordinate on rent. No admission of wrongdoing, case closed, check written.

Here's the part that should land on your desk, not just legal's. This wasn't a rogue revenue manager or a shady side deal. It was a pricing tool operating exactly as sold, at scale, across multiple landlords in the same market. That's the whole allegation, and it's why AGs keep filing these instead of letting it drop after the first few settlements.

If your properties use any algorithmic pricing tool, RealPage or otherwise, this is the week to ask legal a direct question: are we exposed in any market where competitors use the same platform, and what does our data-sharing setup actually look like on the vendor's side. Not "we use software," the actual mechanics. You don't need to know the antitrust law. You need someone who does to sign off before your city's AG decides your metro is next.

Marketing usually inherits this fight after the fact, when a reporter calls asking why your rents track a competitor's within a few dollars. Better to have the answer ready than to build one under a subpoena deadline.

The dollar figure here isn't the headline. The pattern is. This is the second and third settlement of its kind, and nothing about the underlying software has changed.

Source: Multifamily Dive, September 14, 2026

A weekly for the people who run apartment marketing.

Get it Tuesdays