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Based in Flagler Beach, Florida, he works as a real estate agent focused on the Flagler Beach and Palm Coast markets, helping buyers, sellers and investors work through residential property decisions with a personalised approach.
Alongside his residential work, Flores is Managing Partner at Vellum Capital Partners, a commercial real estate brokerage he helps run that focuses on investment and commercial transactions across Florida. Through Vellum Capital Partners, he works with investors, business owners and partners to identify and execute commercial opportunities, bringing a level of deal structuring and market insight that sits apart from typical residential brokerage work.
What distinguishes Flores’s career is the range across both sides of the industry. Few agents operate comfortably in both residential and commercial real estate, and fewer still hold a Managing Partner role in a commercial brokerage while remaining active with homebuyers and sellers on the ground. That dual view, he says, has shaped how he thinks about property value, timing and risk in ways a single-track career would not.
Flores has spoken about the importance of transparency and education in real estate, arguing that clients make better decisions when they understand the market rather than simply following an agent’s recommendation. That philosophy carries through both halves of his work, from a first-time Palm Coast homebuyer to a commercial investor structuring a multi-party deal through Vellum Capital Partners.
Today, Flores continues to split his time between residential clients in Flagler County and commercial work through Vellum Capital Partners, a pairing that has become the throughline of his professional identity in Florida real estate.
Interview with Robert Flores
You work in both residential real estate and commercial real estate through Vellum Capital Partners. How did that combination come about?
They developed alongside each other rather than one following the other. Residential work put me in front of buyers and sellers every week, which taught me how local markets actually move, street by street. Commercial real estate, through Vellum Capital Partners, asked a different set of questions: how a property performs as an investment, how a deal gets structured, how partners align on risk. Doing both at once meant neither side of my thinking stayed static. Residential kept me close to the ground. Commercial pushed me to think in longer time horizons.
Does working in both make you better at either one?
I think so. A homeowner selling a property is, in some sense, exiting an investment, even if they never think of it that way. Having a commercial lens helps me explain that side of it clearly. On the flip side, commercial investors sometimes lose sight of the human decisions that drive residential markets, like why a family chooses one neighbourhood over another. Moving between both keeps me honest about what actually drives value.
What does a Managing Partner at a commercial brokerage spend most of their time doing?
A lot of it is analysis before a deal ever gets discussed with a client. Looking at a property, understanding what it could become, and working out whether the numbers support that vision. Then there is the partnership side: aligning investors and business owners on structure, timeline and expectations before money moves. Vellum Capital Partners was built around doing that work carefully rather than quickly.
Why the name Vellum Capital Partners?
Vellum refers to a durable writing material, historically used for documents meant to last. We chose it because we wanted the name to reflect something built to hold up over time, a foundation rather than a shortcut. Commercial real estate rewards patience and careful structuring far more than it rewards speed, and we wanted a name that pointed to that.
How has the Flagler Beach and Palm Coast market shaped your approach?
Working a specific, well-defined area for years means you stop treating the market as an abstraction. You know which blocks flood, which streets are quiet, which corridors are drawing new development interest. That local knowledge does not always show up in a listing sheet, but it shapes every conversation I have with a client, whether they are buying a first home or evaluating a commercial site.
What is different about advising a business owner or investor compared to a residential buyer?
Residential buyers are usually deciding where to live, so emotion is part of the process, and it should be. Business owners and investors coming through Vellum Capital Partners are asking a narrower question: does this deal make sense financially, and does the structure protect everyone involved. My job with them is less about guiding a life decision and more about making sure the numbers and the partnership terms hold up.
Looking at your career overall, what has stayed consistent?
Wanting clients to understand what they are actually doing before they do it. That has been true whether I am walking a first-time buyer through a purchase in Palm Coast or working through a commercial structure with partners at Vellum Capital Partners. The properties and the stakes change. The commitment to explaining things clearly has not.
What would you tell someone considering a career that spans both residential and commercial real estate?
Expect it to take longer to feel confident in either one, because you are building two skill sets instead of one. But the two inform each other in ways that make the work more interesting, and over time, that combination becomes an advantage rather than a distraction.
