Spotlight Realty

What do they actually do

Spotlight Realty is a full‑service residential brokerage for NYC and Long Island that runs most leasing operations through an AI‑first platform, with licensed agents supervising and stepping in for exceptions. The system handles lead intake, 24/7 inquiry responses, showing coordination, applicant screening, and lease generation with e‑signatures, while clients retain final decision authority (homepage, enterprise, Terms of Service).

Landlords and property managers onboard via a short questionnaire and consult, then Spotlight arranges photography/virtual tours, syndicates listings to MLS and marketplaces like Zillow, StreetEasy, and Realtor.com, and runs targeted social ads. An AI assistant pre‑qualifies leads, schedules showings, can host virtual tours, and summarizes applications using integrations like Plaid; the team then generates leases and coordinates move‑in, with owner dashboards for analytics and logs (homepage, landlords, enterprise).

Pricing today includes an advertised 4% leasing fee for landlords and a 1.5% seller commission listed in the Terms of Service. The company has publicly marketed a 90‑day vacancy‑fill guarantee as part of its landlord/PM outreach (landlords, Terms of Service, YC profile, LinkedIn).

Beyond individual landlords, Spotlight also sells an enterprise version of its platform to property‑management firms to offload inbound lead handling, screening, and scheduling, with humans available for oversight as needed (enterprise, Terms of Service).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Small, single‑property landlords and owner‑operators in NYC/Long Island: They need to fill vacancies quickly without spending hours on inquiries, showings, and applicant paperwork. They want lower fees than traditional brokers and a clear, hands‑off workflow (landlords page).
• Small‑to‑mid property‑management firms (dozens to a few hundred units): They need to reduce per‑unit labor on lead handling, scheduling, and screening, and prefer predictable, scalable processes over hiring more agents. They want a system that plugs into their leasing workflow and bills on results (enterprise page).
• Owners looking to sell units: They dislike high listing commissions and slow, opaque sales processes, and want straightforward listing support and paperwork at a lower fee (Terms of Service).
• Landlords/PMs focused on tenant quality and compliance: They need reliable income verification, background checks, and compliant leases without building in‑house legal or underwriting teams. They want human oversight on AI outputs to mitigate risk (enterprise, Terms of Service).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Direct, high‑touch outreach to NYC landlords via the website funnel, YC/founder networks, and targeted LinkedIn, paired with the 4% leasing fee and a 90‑day fill guarantee to remove friction and build initial case studies (landlords, YC profile, LinkedIn).
• First 50: Outbound to local PMs with short pilots (3–10 units) billed on close or with refund/guarantee terms, plus in‑person demos and small sponsored meetups; reuse early landlord case studies to shorten sales cycles (enterprise, LinkedIn).
• First 100: Hire a small field sales team by borough, offer white‑label/licensing and volume pricing, and close integrations (e.g., Plaid, MLS/media vendors) to make pilots turnkey; standardize contracts and onboarding using performance data from earlier pilots (enterprise).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

NYC has about 2.324 million renter‑occupied units, per the Rent Guidelines Board’s summary of the 2023 Housing and Vacancy Survey. Recent data put citywide median asking rent around $3,676/month in late 2024 (NYC RGB, NYT citing StreetEasy).

Bottom-up calculation:

Assuming 15% of rental units turn over annually (~348k leases) and Spotlight earns a 4% leasing fee on annual rent at the $3,676 median (~$44,112/yr), revenue per lease is ~$1,764. This implies a NYC leasing TAM near $0.6B per year (348k × $1,764 ≈ $615M).

Assumptions:

• 15% annual turnover of renter‑occupied units (NYC‑specific turnover varies; this is a conservative planning assumption).
• The 4% leasing fee applies to one year of rent at the median asking rent; median is used as a proxy across neighborhoods and unit types.
• Scope limited to NYC leasing revenue; excludes sales commissions and non‑NYC expansion.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Avail: DIY landlord platform with listing syndication, online applications, screening, and lease templates—competes for single‑property owners who might self‑manage instead of hiring a low‑fee brokerage (features).
• Zumper: High‑traffic rental marketplace with landlord tools, sponsored listings, screening, and online applications—competes on demand generation and intake workflows (Zumper Manage, Apply).
• Buildium: Property‑management SaaS for small‑to‑mid PMs offering listing syndication, screening, e‑leasing, and accounting—an alternative for PMs standardizing leasing operations in‑house.
• RentRedi: Landlord/PM platform for listings, applications, rent collection, and maintenance; has added AI onboarding—targets independent landlords and smaller PMs moving to automated workflows (AI onboarding).
• Doorstead: Full‑service tenant placement with vacancy/rent guarantees—competes for owners who prefer a single vendor promising a filled unit with minimal effort.