Overview
You sell Rely's document AI platform to multifamily real estate firms that need to process due diligence faster. You're talking to asset managers, acquisitions teams, and deal leads at firms doing conventional multifamily, student housing, affordable housing (LIHTC), and SFR portfolios. You own the full sales cycle from prospecting to close.
Role Snapshot
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Role Type | Full-cycle AE (prospecting through close) |
| Sales Motion | Outbound-heavy (80%+), building inbound channels |
| Deal Complexity | Consultative - workflow change, multiple stakeholders |
| Sales Cycle | 4-8 weeks (faster with active deals, longer for cold prospects) |
| Deal Size | $30-100K ACV (estimated based on enterprise AI tooling for RE) |
| Quota (est.) | $400-600K/year |
Company Context
Stage: Seed (7 employees total)
Size: 7 people
Growth: Week-over-week deal volume just exceeded all of last month - clear acceleration
Market Position: Category creator in real estate due diligence automation. No direct competitors doing institutional-grade multifamily DD automation with this level of AI sophistication.
GTM Reality
Pipeline Sources:
- 10-15% Inbound - mostly referrals and word-of-mouth from early customers
- 80-85% Outbound - cold LinkedIn, emails, intro calls to multifamily firms
- 5-10% Warm intros from investors/advisors in real estate
SDR/AE Structure: No SDRs. You source everything yourself.
SE Support: Founder-led demos initially. You'll do most product walkthroughs once you learn the platform.
Competitive Landscape
Main Competitors: Manual processes (Excel, analysts), generic document AI tools (not purpose-built), legacy real estate due diligence software
How They Differentiate: Purpose-built for multifamily DD workflows. Handles messy, inconsistent documents that break generic AI tools. Cuts 90%+ of manual work.
Common Objections: "Our team already has a process," concern about AI accuracy on financial documents, integration with existing tech stack, cost vs. junior analyst labor
Win Themes: Speed (compress DD timelines dramatically), accuracy (source-linked data reduces errors), scalability (handle more deals with same team size)
What You'll Actually Do
Time Breakdown
Prospecting (45%) | Active Deals (35%) | Product/Internal (20%)
Key Activities
- Cold Outreach: Spend mornings researching multifamily investment firms, finding asset managers and acquisitions leads on LinkedIn, sending personalized outreach. Most messages get ignored. You're aiming for 3-5 qualified conversations per week.
- Discovery Calls: Walk prospects through their current due diligence process - how many deals they review, how long DD takes, what bottlenecks exist, who does the manual data entry. You're learning their workflow to position the product correctly.
- Product Demos: Show how Rely ingests their actual documents (rent rolls, operating statements, lease files) and outputs structured data. You'll do screen shares walking through document uploads, AI extraction, and export workflows. Technical questions come up often.
- Deal Progression: Chase stakeholders for next steps. Real estate deals move slowly - people are busy with active acquisitions. You'll send a lot of "circling back" messages. Most deals stall at contract review or budget approval.
The Honest Reality
What's Hard
- Real estate moves slow. Decision-makers are focused on live deals, not evaluating new software. You'll wait weeks for responses.
- You're educating a market. Most firms haven't considered AI for due diligence yet. Lots of "we're not ready" or "let's revisit next quarter."
- No playbook exists. You're figuring out messaging, ideal customer profile, and sales process from scratch. What works changes weekly.
- Technical learning curve. You need to understand multifamily real estate terminology (NOI, T-12, rent rolls, LIHTC compliance) and document workflows to have credible conversations.
- Founder-stage chaos. Priorities shift, product features change, you're wearing multiple hats beyond just selling.
What Success Looks Like
- Close 6-10 deals in your first year as the company builds repeatability
- Build a pipeline of 25-30 qualified opportunities (firms actively evaluating)
- Help define ICP and sales process that the next AE hire can follow
- Get 2-3 strong customer case studies and references
Who You're Selling To
Primary Buyers:
- VP/Director of Acquisitions at multifamily investment firms
- Asset Managers overseeing portfolio due diligence
- Heads of Asset Management at larger RE firms
What They Care About:
- Speed to close: Can they evaluate more deals or move faster on competitive opportunities?
- Accuracy: Will AI mistakes cost them in underwriting or valuations?
- Team leverage: Can they handle more volume without hiring more analysts?
- Cost vs. labor: Is this cheaper/better than junior analysts doing manual entry?
Requirements
- 2-4 years selling B2B software, ideally SaaS to mid-market or enterprise
- Comfortable with full-cycle sales (prospecting through close) with no SDR support
- Not afraid of cold outreach and high rejection rates
- Quick learner - need to ramp on real estate terminology and workflows fast
- Thrives in ambiguity and early-stage chaos
- Bonus: Real estate, fintech, or PropTech sales experience
- Bonus: Experience selling AI/ML products or workflow automation