Who you're actually dealing with
A family company, not a franchise with a friendly logo.
House Buyer Dan was founded in Appleton in 2010 by Dan and Diana Ahlborn, long before the postcards and billboards showed up. Sixteen years later it's still a small, family-owned company with deep Wisconsin roots, and when you call, a real, live person from our company answers. Never a call center.
Since 2010 · $4.6M+ paid to Wisconsin homeowners · 5.0★ on Google
The short version
Sixteen years of buying houses the same way
Plenty of companies buy houses for cash. The reason we're still here after sixteen years, in a business where most operations don't survive five, is boring: we tell people the truth, including when the truth is "list it with an agent instead, you'll net more."
That honesty shows up in the details. Every offer comes in writing, and if you want to know how we arrived at the number, ask and we'll walk you through it, because you shouldn't have to guess what's behind an offer. And once a cash offer goes firm, we back the closing date with $5,000 of our own money in escrow at a Wisconsin title company. When WFRV Local 5 in Green Bay featured us, they called us "Northeast Wisconsin's trusted home buyer." We intend to keep earning that.
How we work
Three things we ask our own team to live by
Say the true thing
If we're not the right fit, you hear it on the first call, along with an introduction to someone who is: an agent, an attorney, whoever actually helps your situation.
Respect the house and the story
Every house we walk into belonged to somebody's life. Whatever condition it's in and however it got there, you'll get respect, not raised eyebrows.
Put money where the promise is
Guarantees are cheap when they're just words. Ours sits in an escrow account with a Wisconsin title company before we ever ask you to trust a closing date.
Why the Fox Valley comes first
Plenty of companies say they buy across Wisconsin. Far fewer will tell you where they are actually local, because the honest answer narrows the map.
Ours is the Fox Valley and Green Bay. The office is on Edgewood Drive in Appleton, we live here, and more of what we have bought since 2010 sits within an hour of it than in the rest of the state combined. That is why the Appleton, Green Bay, Oshkosh and Neenah pages read like they were written by somebody who has been in those houses, and it is why we can usually be standing in a driveway here within a day or two.
Everywhere else in Wisconsin we still buy — we just travel to do it. The terms are identical, the offer is written the same way, and we still come and look at the house. What changes is only the drive. Saying we are equally expert in every county would be an easy claim to make and it would not be true, so we do not make it.
We buy the houses. We do not sell your contract.
This is the single most useful thing to know about any cash buyer, and it is worth asking every one of them.
Some companies that make offers are not buying anything. They put a property under contract and then sell that contract to somebody else for a fee. It is legal, and it is also the most common way Wisconsin sellers get hurt — because the person who agreed your number is not the person who has to fund the roof, and when the actual buyer finally looks at the house, the number moves.
We buy the property, we do the work, and we own the outcome. That is why our offers can be firm: we are the ones writing the cheques, so we have to price the work accurately rather than optimistically. The arithmetic behind an offer shows how the repair estimate feeds the number.
Ask us for proof of funds and we will send it the same day. Ask any buyer the same question and pay attention to how long they take.
Questions about who we are
Are you a national franchise or a local company?
Do you buy the houses yourselves or assign the contracts?
Can I see proof that you have the funds?
How can I check your track record independently?
Talk to us like a neighbor, because that's the point.
Thirty seconds to reach out, a real person on the phone, and a written offer within 24 hours. No pressure at any step.
Rather talk to a person right now? Call (920) 259-4326 and a real, live person from our company answers. Never a call center.
Ready when you are
Get a free, written cash offer within 24 hours. No fees, no repairs, no obligation.
Get My Cash Offeror call (920) 259-4326 — a real person answers