Àlex Seco worked as a salesperson in a real estate company, of which he ended up being a partner. “I saw how the value provided to the client is much lower than what it should be for what he pays”, acknowledges Seco. With this conviction, he began working on his own, first as a freelancer and since December 2022 through the startup Flipme, of which he is the sole founder.
“We help owners to reform their property to be able to sell at a higher price,” explains the entrepreneur. He does it by taking advantage of his knowledge in architecture, a discipline in which he graduated in 2020. He is so sure of the results of a good reform that Flipme offers as a guarantee that if the house, once renovated, is not sold in the expected time , the owner gets the reform for free.
The startup is in charge of carrying out the reform, which is financed through crowdfunding campaigns in which small investors invest. Flipme does not charge any commission for the works or for the sale of the property, but the business model consists of sharing the extra income with the owner of the house thanks to the reform carried out. On the other hand, another of the differential values of the company is that it helps the owners in the whole process, also in bureaucratic and banking procedures.
Before founding Flipme, Àlex Seco was a real estate salesperson and partner in a firm in the sector
Seco has sold twenty properties with this formula, especially in Barcelona and its metropolitan area. The company had a turnover of 180,000 euros last year and the founder expects to reach one million euros in sales this year. To achieve this goal, the startup is supported by the acceleration program of the Girona Chamber of Commerce, Impulsa digital, which it has just entered.
Flipo is aimed at owners of buildings that are old or have never been renovated (or very little), apartments that have been for rent and now want to be sold and need to be adapted, empty homes… Using new technologies, the company carries out an exhaustive analysis to determine what reform the home needs to meet the requirements sought by buyers in the area and minimizing the investment so that it is easy to make a profit. On the other hand, to carry out the reform, Flipme works with a wide portfolio of operators and external professionals (builders, electricians, painters, carpenters…).
Finally, thanks to its program for the management of the database, marketing actions and the portfolio of buyers, the company promises to close the sales in a very short period of time (so far all the properties have been sold in less than 45 days).
