Why I built FlipMedellín

I built FlipMedellín because I was looking for a good property deal in Medellín for myself.

That sounds simple, but I kept running into the same question: How do I know whether an apartment is actually a good deal?

Whether I'm buying an investment property or a home for myself, I don't want to overpay. Nobody does. But Medellín is one of the most difficult real-estate markets I've encountered when it comes to understanding what a property is reasonably worth.

There is no Zillow or Redfin estimate giving buyers a quick reference point. Portal listings show asking prices, but an asking price is not a valuation. Formal appraisals exist, but they are not always part of the early buying conversation—and requesting one too soon can sometimes create friction with a seller.

So I started with price per square meter.

I wanted to identify the apartments asking the lowest prices per square meter in each neighborhood, then investigate them individually. A low number might point to a real opportunity. It might also mean the apartment needs a complete renovation, the building has no elevator, the usable area has been overstated or there is another problem that explains the discount.

The number gets your attention. The investigation tells you whether it is a deal.

As I went further down the rabbit hole, I realized that finding an inexpensive listing was only the beginning. I also wanted to understand the property's history, how many times it had changed hands, the recorded price the owner paid and whether the available records revealed any obvious title concerns before I invested more time and money.

I began adding those checks to the system. Then I added the work I had been doing manually: estimating a realistic rental range, accounting for management and operating costs, modeling different rental strategies and comparing the potential return with other places I could put my money.

None of that eliminates the need for a qualified attorney, inspector or licensed appraiser. It gives a buyer a better starting point—enough information to recognize what deserves a closer look, negotiate more intelligently and know which questions still need answers.

Eventually, I realized I probably wasn't alone. Buying a home means committing hundreds of millions of pesos, even at the more accessible end of the Medellín market. A buyer should not have to make that decision using attractive photos, an asking price and someone else's sales pitch.

That became the idea behind FlipMedellín: a cost-effective buyer's tool that helps you understand whether a property's asking price is within a reasonable range, investigate what sits behind the number and avoid walking into a purchase blind.

The goal is straightforward: help people buy with more confidence, negotiate with better information and, ideally, find a genuinely good deal.