They definitely are! Price fixing ensures higher rent for the whole cartel (which is comprised of their customers). And enforcing cooperation is decidedly a good thing, because cooperation is required to keep prices artificially inflated.
What Realpage gains from creating a cartel is a really sticky customer base. I don't think it makes sense as a model because it seems to be clearly illegal, but putting that aside they're delivering a lot of value to their customers and are getting paid for it - it's definitely a sensible business model.
Price fixing ensures higher profits for the entire market, not just the cartels. Those outside the cartel equally benefit from the price fixing as cartel members, but that no pressure to constrain supply, which puts them in a strictly better position. For example, OPEC enabled the fracking industry and when OPEC loosened their price fixing, in 2019, many of these companies went bankrupt.
> What Realpage gains from creating a cartel is a really sticky customer base.
So that's why they allegedly threaten to fire their customers when they don't follow their pricing recommendation? It would make much more sense to simply offer the best pricing product.
That's my point. If RealPage were creating a cartel, they would be creating themselves problems without any upside. They aren't receiving the rent. They're receiving money from landlords who are happy with their pricing model. The fact the RealPage does not seem to experience the same problems common to cartels suggests that they aren't facilitating a cartel.
> The reason why I'm skeptical is because "cartel as a service" doesn't make any sense as a business model.
It absolutely does. The challenge with a cartel is communication and coordination: ensuring the members know what prices they are supposed to set, and pressuring them all to follow along. Realpage provides exactly that.