Flat

Flat (flat.mx) is a Mexico City-based property technology company founded in July 2019 by Victor Noguera and Bernardo Cordero, who met while studying at the University of California, Berkeley. The company launched with an instant-buyer (iBuyer) model modeled on Opendoor: it visited sellers' homes, measured and documented the property, produced its own valuation, made an instant purchase offer, managed renovations and handled the notarized transfer of ownership, paying sellers within 72 hours. Its core inventory focus was middle-income homes priced between MX$1 million and MX$6 million in Mexico City, the State of Mexico and Guadalajara.

Over time the company built adjacent products around the transaction, describing itself as a real estate "super app" for Latin America: a listings database substituting for Mexico's absent Multiple Listing Service, a third-party marketplace, a contractor marketplace, broker technology, home maintenance services and financial products. Other offerings included a guaranteed-sale product (a commitment to sell a property within six months or pay the owner a fee), a property-exchange program called Intercambio Flat allowing owners to trade a property for another and pay the difference, and Flat Score, a rating indicating whether a property represents a good investment given its price and characteristics. Certified remodeled listings were put through a 200-plus point inspection and a full legal review.

The flat.mx site currently presents a mortgage-lending proposition aimed at foreign buyers of Mexican property, with an online loan calculator (property value, loan-to-value, term of 5 to 20 years, estimated monthly payment, annual interest rate, CAT and origination fee of 2-3% varying by property zone), a pre-qualification questionnaire covering nationality, property value, monthly income and location, and bilingual English/Spanish support through closing. Target property locations listed include Mexico City, Riviera Maya/Cancun, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, San Miguel de Allende and Merida.

Founding story

Co-founders Victor Noguera and Bernardo Cordero met at the University of California, Berkeley, where both earned MBAs from Berkeley Haas, and founded Flat in July 2019 to bring the Opendoor instant-buying model to Mexico. Both had previously founded STARTegy, a seed fund/venture builder that invested in Worky, Klar, Belvo, Covela and Moons; Cordero was also a co-founder of the Latin American e-commerce site Linio and of AMVO, Mexico's e-commerce association, while Noguera had been a management consultant at BCG in New York and Barcelona.

Business model

The company originally operated as a principal in home transactions: buying middle-income residential properties directly from owners, remodeling them and reselling them, supported by both equity and debt capital, with additional seller options including a brokered sale, a guaranteed sale backed by a fee if unsold within six months, and property exchange. Management described healthy unit economics on each home sold. The current site presents mortgage origination for foreign buyers, with an origination fee of 2-3% of the loan depending on the property zone alongside interest charged on the loan.

Margin on the purchase, renovation and resale of homes, fees on seller products such as the guaranteed sale, and, in the mortgage offering, an origination fee of 2% to 3% plus interest on loans.

Traction

As of September 2021 the company reported sales growing 70% quarter-over-quarter, a 10x increase in inventory over the prior year, headcount rising from 30 in mid-2020 to more than 85, thousands of home valuations and more than 100 completed transactions. In November 2021 it reported roughly 500 properties for sale, mostly in Mexico City. The current website states more than 1,000 credits granted over three years.

Latest developments

The flat.mx website now markets mortgage loans to foreigners purchasing property in Mexico, citing over 1,000 credits granted in three years and providing an online quote calculator and eligibility check. Co-founders Bernardo Cordero and Victor Noguera are listed as active founders of Clau, described as a real estate super app for Mexico combining a marketplace of more than 20,000 properties, a broker CRM, financial services including mortgage brokerage, renovations and a residential real estate data layer; that company was founded in 2019, is based in Mexico City, went through Y Combinator's Summer 2020 batch and reports a team size of 90.