School Spirit: If specialization is the key to success in real estate, Eric Leightman has unlocked a lucrative niche: student condos. Since 2005, he has sold more than $50 million worth of real estate, almost all of it to students at the University of Florida at Gainesville. His busy season is somewhat atypical for real estate. Almost 90 percent of the business happens between January and August.
Homegrown Gator: Leightman, who grew up in Gainesville and has a degree in finance from the university, knows the students’ priorities well.
Giving Back: During the off months, Leightman is active in a number of social causes. For the last two years, he has spent a month every fall living and working in Malawi, an impoverished African country, as the president of Gleanings of the Harvest, a nonprofit aid organization that works to alleviate hunger.