Last updated: June 2026 | By Drew Heberer
I buy houses for cash in Iowa. That has been my main business for years. So when I tell you the smartest thing a seller can do is request multiple offers and compare them side by side, I am telling you something that makes my job harder, not easier.
I am telling you anyway because it is true, and because the alternative is what most sellers actually do, which is take the first offer that lands and lose money they did not need to lose.
This is the story of why I built FrontPorchOffers, how it works, and what I want sellers to do before they sign anything.
The problem I kept seeing
Most cash buyer search results in 2026 look the same. You search “we buy houses Des Moines” or “cash home buyers Cedar Rapids” or whatever your city is. The top of the page is paid ads. Below that is a mix of national franchise sites (HomeVestors, We Buy Ugly Houses), iBuyer landing pages (Opendoor, Offerpad), and aggregator directories that take a referral fee from every buyer they send your information to.
None of that is illegal. Some of those buyers are legitimate. But none of it is editorial. The “top buyers in your city” lists you see are almost always pay-to-play. Buyers who write the biggest check appear at the top. There is no quality bar beyond ability to pay for placement.
This is bad for sellers because it means the buyer you end up matched with may not be the one who would pay the most for your specific house. It may just be the buyer with the biggest marketing budget that quarter.
What I wanted to build instead
The mental model I had was a Consumer Reports style directory for cash buyers. Not the buyer paying for placement, but the buyer being vetted on merit by someone who actually knows the industry.
That meant a few things had to be true.
First, no pay-for-rank. Buyers pay a flat directory listing fee after they pass vetting. They do not pay more to appear higher, and there is no referral revenue based on which buyer gets picked. That removes the entire incentive that distorts existing buyer lists.
Second, real editorial standards. Every listed buyer is verified for a real business address, working website, working phone, BBB standing where available, and operational track record. Buyers who fail any of those do not get listed, regardless of what they offer to pay.
Third, multiple offers per seller. The directory is built around routing each seller’s request to multiple vetted buyers in their city, not one. The seller compares offers in one view and picks. The lowest offer does not have to win, and neither does the buyer with the most aggressive sales pitch.
That is the cash buyer directory at frontporchoffers.com. It covers 17 cities across 8 states as of this writing, with 131 unique vetted buyer companies and 186 active buyer-city listings. Growing.
Why competing offers matter more than the offer itself
I want to be specific about why this matters. Take a Des Moines house worth around $250,000 retail.
Three legitimate cash buyers walk that house in the same week. One offers $170,000. One offers $180,000. One offers $195,000. All three are using honest math. They just have different comps, different rehab cost assumptions, and different target margins.
The seller who takes the first call locks in at $170,000. The seller who runs the same property through a directory and waits 48 hours gets all three numbers and picks $195,000. Same house. Same week. $25,000 difference in net proceeds purely because of the comparison process.
This pattern repeats in every market. The spread between best and worst legitimate cash offer is usually 10 to 20 percent of after-repair value. On any house worth more than $150,000, that translates to real five-figure money.
The seller who knows this asks for multiple offers. The seller who does not gets one and signs.
How to know if the buyer in front of you is legitimate
Even with a directory, you still need to vet the actual buyer who shows up to your closing. I wrote a guide on how to spot a cash buyer scam that covers the specific red flags I have watched ruin transactions over the years.
The short version is: a legitimate cash buyer welcomes scrutiny. They will let you use your own title company. They will give you 24 to 48 hours to read the contract. They will put real earnest money down (1 percent of purchase price, not $100). They can give you the name of the LLC they are buying through and that LLC will show up in your state’s secretary of state records. They will give you references if you ask.
A scammy buyer pressures you to sign today, insists on their title company, puts trivial earnest money down, and gets cagey when you ask basic identity verification questions. The pattern is consistent enough that 30 minutes of upfront verification eliminates the vast majority of bad transactions.
What I want every seller to do before signing
If you take one thing from this post, take this list.
Before signing any cash sale contract, you should have done all five:
- Requested cash offers from at least three different buyers. Use frontporchoffers.com or call them individually.
- Asked one local agent for an honest CMA so you know what listing would actually net.
- Verified the buyer’s legal entity name on your state’s secretary of state site.
- Looked the buyer up on BBB and Google reviews.
- Read the contract end to end, ideally with a $300 attorney review for first-time sellers.
That entire process takes about three hours of your time. The math on those three hours is usually somewhere between $50 to $500 per hour in better net proceeds. There is not a lot in life with that kind of return.
Where to find me
I am Drew Heberer. I run Heberer Homes here in Iowa and I am the editor of FrontPorchOffers. If you are in the Des Moines metro and want to talk through your specific situation, I am happy to. My office number is on every page of FPO.
If you are outside Iowa, the directory covers Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Iowa City, Waterloo, Chicago, Rockford, Aurora, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Denver, Las Cruces, and Albuquerque as of this writing. New cities get added every few weeks.
The Des Moines cash home buyers page is a good starting point if Des Moines is your market. Whatever you do, do not sign on the first call. The seller who gets multiple offers and verifies the buyer wins. The seller who does not, loses money they did not need to lose.
That is the entire reason this directory exists.