Greystar, the largest corporate landlord in the United States, seems willing to do anything to pump up profits – even if that means trying to rip off a 93-year-old mother or carrying out deceptive advertising about its rent prices. That relentless drive for more and more money has resulted in a shocking track record that includes settlements with the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice.
Greystar, based in Charleston, South Carolina, and run by CEO Bob Faith (pictured above), owns more than 119,000 apartments in multiple states, including California, Texas, Colorado, and Georgia. It also manages more than 1 million rental units. According to the National Multifamily Housing Council, Greystar owns and manages the most apartments in the U.S.
Greystar’s disturbing track record started years ago in California: the corporate landlord and other major real estate companies collectively shelled out millions in campaign cash to finance a massive misinformation campaign to stop Proposition 10 in 2018. The measure, supported by a broad coalition of housing justice groups, social justice organizations, and labor unions, sought to repeal statewide rent control restrictions. Raising far more cash than the Yes on 10 campaign, Big Real Estate successfully killed Prop 10.
The same scenario played out for Proposition 21, in 2020, and Proposition 33, in 2024. The measures aimed to reform and repeal statewide rent control restrictions, respectively, and Greystar and other corporate landlords spent millions to divide and confuse voters through expensive TV ads. Again, the initiatives were defeated. (AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the parent organization of Housing Is A Human Right, sponsored the propositions.)
Greystar CEO Bob Faith and other corporate landlords were willing to shell out whatever was necessary because they feared that if the measures were approved, they would no longer be able to charge excessive rents and rake in eye-popping profits.
Then, in 2022, Greystar was cited in a major ProPublica investigation about RealPage, the Texas-based company that offered a software program that helped corporate landlords to allegedly collude and charge wildly inflated rents no matter what was happening in the rental housing market. That exposé set off a firestorm of outrage, with politicians demanding investigations and tenants filing antitrust lawsuits.
“The software’s design and growing reach have raised questions among real estate and legal experts about whether RealPage has birthed a new kind of cartel that allows the nation’s largest landlords to indirectly coordinate pricing, potentially in violation of federal law,” wrote Heather Vogell of ProPublica.
By August 2024, the Department of Justice and a group of state attorneys general filed an antitrust lawsuit against RealPage. The suit eventually expanded to include a number of corporate landlords who were clients of RealPage. One of them was Greystar.
Around the same time, the Federal Trade Commission and the state of Colorado investigated Greystar for alleged deceptive advertising. The corporate landlord would advertise one price for rent, then once a tenant moved in, Greystar would charge additional hidden fees that would increase the monthly rent.
“According to the complaint filed by the FTC and Colorado,” a Federal Trade Commission press release stated, “these hidden fees have cost consumers living in Greystar properties hundreds of millions of dollars since at least 2019, and consumers often have not discovered the fees until after they have signed a lease or moved in.”
Very sketchy.
With all the bad press it was receiving, Greystar CEO Bob Faith settled with both the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission in 2025. Put another way, it took two powerful federal agencies and a number of state attorneys general to finally rein in Greystar’s predatory business practices that cost hard-working tenants millions.
Who knows what else Greystar and Bob Faith have done over the years, and those settlements haven’t stopped the corporate landlord’s shady ways.
Just recently, in Las Vegas, a 93-year-old mother was being charged junk fees at her Greystar apartment, including $25 per month for a parking space, even though she hasn’t owned a car in years.
“I sold my car when I turned 90,” Norma Elliot told Darcy Spears of KTNV.
After Spears’s segment was broadcast, Greystar refunded the parking fees Elliot paid and bogus charges for not having renters’ insurance – Elliot said she always had renters’ insurance.
Elliot may want to contact Bob Faith, who writes on the Greystar website that he’s “personally committed to providing all residents with an exceptional experience” and urges people to reach out to him with feedback. Greystar tenants can email him directly.
Much of Greystar’s predatory business practices, though, would have been curtailed if tenants were protected by rent regulations, such as rent control or rent stabilization. It’s why housing justice activists continue to call on politicians in states across the country to pass strong tenant protections, including rent regulations. Rent control is the only tool that will urgently rein in Big Real Estate’s predatory greed.
Patrick Range McDonald is an award-winning investigative reporter and advocacy journalist for Housing Is A Human Right.