RealPage Buys Fee-Based Utility Billing Service

RealPage, a leading technology provider for the multifamily industry, has picked up the utility billing platform of the five-year-old Pleco Group, its 100,000-unit portfolio and the entire 15-member staff. The acquisition closed for $2 million to $3 million in cash and stock in the buyer's company, Steve Winn, RealPage CEO, tells GlobeSt.com. Going forward, the fee-based service will be called Velocity and will be headed up by Ashley Chaffin, former vice president of Form Genus LLC and senior manager with the local firm, McKinsey & Co.

Winn says the utility billing platform will be an add-on component for RealPage's proprietary OneSite, a licensed software for property management that's used in more than 20,000 multifamily properties with nearly four million apartments in the US. The software integration means one bill for rent, utilities and any extra charges between landlord and tenant--but it doesn't require users to buy into OneSite.

"Velocity interfaces with any property management system," says Chaffin, president of Velocity Cash Management Systems. "There are no plans to discontinue supporting our customers."

From Winn's perspective, he says the buyout isn't aimed at "displacing the property management system" that's in place. The end goal is to be the first lease accounting business in the industry to provide one bill for all charges related to renting an apartment. Besides the utility billing service for all-bills-paid and metered apartments, RealPage picked up a five-member team and a network of subcontractors that install water, gas and electric meters in multifamily properties.

Winn says the Velocity team will burn off its lease at 15032 Beltway Dr. in Addison, where it has 18 months left on the term. Then, the staff moves to RealPage's headquarters at 4000 International Pkwy. in Carrollton.