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In the weeks following the recent launch of this year's 20for20 Annual Survey, some of the most interesting briefing calls have focused on one central observation: There's a lot of tech.

The year has started with a lot of fresh insight into centralization. First, there was the recent release of the new white paper about how third-party managers are progressing toward a centralized operating model. This week, the focus switches to another big centralization topic: maintenance.

Readers of this blog will know that I frequently study and write about centralization. It has featured heavily in the last four editions of the 20for20 annual survey, and—SPOILER ALERT—it will get more coverage next month when the 2025 edition drops.

A new year is upon us - I hope my readers had the chance to relax a bit over the holiday period. As usual, the holidays provided some breathing space for reading, and one of my favorite holiday reads this year has been "How to Win the Premier League."It's a fascinating book about statistical analysis (stay with me) by Ian Graham that holds a couple of important lessons for multifamily.

Readers of this blog will not be surprised to have learned that, just before the weekend, the DOJ dropped its criminal investigation into RealPage revenue management (RM). The 5 p.m. Friday media slot traditionally reserved for announcements of government policy failure saw one of the more bizarre twists in this tale go out with a richly deserved whimper.

There seems to be a great deal of new content hitting the wires in multifamily right now. Conference season is in full swing, bringing a surge of new ideas and perspectives. There are several topics that are top if mind that will be appearing in these pages this fall. But I'm particularly excited about a series of new podcast interviews will be released over the next few weeks.

There has been a great deal of talk about multifamily revenue management over the last few days. Last Friday, the Department of Justice's (DoJ) long-anticipated "algorithmic pricing" lawsuit affecting multifamily revenue management dropped.

Since then, I have been involved in many discussions about this news, particularly the central problem I see with these lawsuits: the allegations are simply false. What has surprised me somewhat through conversations over the last few days is that good-faith actors in the industry do not understand the gap between the allegations and the reality of how the technology works.

It's been some time since I wrote about the ongoing drama facing multifamily revenue management. The last few months have seen a few developments, attracting what might generouslybe described as a mixed bag of industry commentary. It's getting harder to cut through the (ahem) noise. 

Followers of my writings on multifamily property management have probably noticed that I am in my "multifamily maintenance should work more like single-family" era. The two may be showing signs of converging, as this article will attempt to explain.

The City of Brotherly Love provided a backdrop for this year's NAA APARTMENTALIZE that was fresh in novelty, if not in weather. An energy-packed conference offered new insights into some of our industry's most rapidly changing areas. There's lots to talk about, and it is with some trepidation that I share a recap focused on two of the most buzzwordy topics: centralization and AI. However, these were the biggest stories that caught my eye at NAA this year.