A strategic alliance between Rent. — a Redfin company that is a rental marketing platform and marketplace — and online reputation management firm Reputation shows a natural evolution of how residential rental CRE has to make greater peace with the online world.

"Reputation will power the RentRep. sentiment dashboard, enabling clients to monitor and manage their online reputation and social presence from one easy-to-use application," the companies said in a press release. The system "empowers clients to manage their online presence with FHA-compliant reputation, social management and monitoring, as well as online review management designed for multifamily. RentRep. clients can drive leads, improve SEO and reduce risk from the convenience of a single dashboard."

Buzzwords aside, the story behind this concept is basic, if you look at the multifamily industry from some distance. Most everything is online these days, to one degree or another. That's true of multifamily, where people look for properties on websites and through social media, recommendations, reviews, and more.