RealPage headquarters in Richardson
lola-gomez
When Dirk Wakeham was announced as RealPage’s new president and CEO, he said it felt like coming home.
Wakeham had been the president of the Richardson-based property technology company after the acquisition of his company, LeasingDesk, in 2007, but Wakeham had gone on to work for other companies, including a private equity firm.
Article continues below this ad
His return to RealPage came during a time of change for the company: RealPage reached an agreement to settle a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice that had accused the company of allowing its software to be used by landlords to coordinate and raise prices.
Wakeham said RealPage wanted a new leadership lens and view on the business as it faced legal headwinds.
Several months into Wakeham’s new tenure, he is leading RealPage as it carries on after the lawsuit, considers its relationship to housing affordability and works with artificial intelligence tools.
Before and after
Throughout most of 2025, RealPage faced a federal lawsuit. However, coming out of November 2025, RealPage had a new president and CEO in Wakeham and had reached a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice.
Article continues below this ad
Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.
Add Preferred Source
The lawsuit said RealPage let landlords collude with competitors by sharing rates through the company’s price recommendation software. An expanded lawsuit accused some of the nation’s largest landlords of participating in algorithmic pricing schemes.
When RealPage settled the lawsuit, the agreement didn’t include an admission of guilt, and the company didn’t pay any fines.
“We’ve agreed to have a federal monitor come in and oversee the application, how the algorithm works,” Wakeham said. “Full transparency — which we totally support — because I think it actually gives everyone comfort that the software is operating in an ethical and above board and legally compliant way.”
Article continues below this ad
RealPage provides recommendations to customers that are aligned with what the market needs, he said.
Richardson-based RealPage has appointed Dirk Wakeham as its president and CEO in November 2025.
Courtesy of RealPage
Part of the settlement also required the company to stop using nonpublic and competitively sensitive data in its software, among other terms. Wakeham said the company is still able to reference publicly available asking rents.
The settlement has the support of the Department of Justice and RealPage, but it is still being processed by the court ahead of a final judgment.
Article continues below this ad
Now that the lawsuit is ending, Wakeham said the company isn’t changing a lot of how it operates and is continuing with business as usual.
“Now that sort of the legal cloud has been lifted from that, it’s a very viable and productive product for our customers,” he said.
Supply and demand
The lawsuit accused RealPage of engaging in a practice that elevated rents. Wakeham said part of the company’s path forward includes talking about why rental prices are rising.
Article continues below this ad
“I think part of it is making sure that people are aware of what’s causing the pricing imbalance that existed,” Wakeham said. “I think it’s back to: How are we being transparent about the way the products work? What data is used in those products?”
Wakeham said the company is being transparent with customers and residents. Following the lawsuit, the company has been working to rebuild trust and shine a light on issues in the market that are causing rents to rise, he said.
“We believe the fundamental problem is there’s not enough housing being built in this country,” Wakeham said. “The stories that are out there and the anecdotes — rents are going up because there’s not enough housing supply in many of these markets.”
Rent isn’t rising everywhere. Dallas is a more vibrant market with more supply and units being built, which Wakeham said has led to rents being flat or declining in many places. He said prices coming down is a function of delivering more housing and sites having to compete for prices.
Article continues below this ad
Dallas is considered to be a “renter-friendly” market heading into 2026. A Realtor.com study showed that rental rates had declined from the previous year. Additionally, D-FW had a rental vacancy rate of 10.5% in 2025, which signals more options and negotiating power for renters.
Of the metro areas surveyed in that study, 22 were renter-friendly, 22 were balanced and six favored landlords. However, the median asking rent in Dallas — $1,410 as of January — is still above 2020 levels.
Products and AI
RealPage has increasingly been using AI to produce products for property owners. About a quarter of the company’s revenue is now enabled by some sort of AI, Wakeham said.
Article continues below this ad
The company’s newest products are its Lumina AI Workforce, which were announced two years ago. The products are a series of agents that perform functions alongside property teams.
For example, one of the products is an AI agent that can receive a call to the leasing office after hours and schedule an appointment. Wakeham said RealPage thinks the products will be able to respond to maintenance requests, leasing services and operational issues.
RealPage will have seven AI agents, three have been released and three more are in beta mode and are expected to be released between now and August.
“I know we talk about Lumina as our newest product, it’s sort of the sexiest one we have out there, but we’ve been using AI in our products for a long time,” Wakeham said.
Article continues below this ad
Property companies have used AI to financially vet applicants and run background checks, he said. Those products have been AI-enabled for a long time, sorting through mountains of data to provide recommendations.
By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy.
Like RealPage’s efforts following the lawsuit, implementing AI comes down to trust.
Wakeham said the company’s software has to deliver the value RealPage has promised to customers.
Article continues below this ad
“We need to make sure that the residents’ personal information stays personal,” Wakeham said. “And in cases where we’re using AI we need to make sure that AI knows its limits and that we’ve got a human in the loop and that we’re not letting the AI sort of drive these decisions exclusively.”