I’m Shawn McVicker. I’ve been buying houses since 2013, starting in Oklahoma and now also throughout Western Wisconsin and Eastern Minnesota, including the St. Croix Valley and Twin Cities region.
Over the years, I’ve bought all kinds of properties and worked through all kinds of situations: inherited houses, major repairs, difficult tenants, foreclosure, probate, title problems, and plenty of homes where the house itself was only part of the problem.
That experience has taught me something pretty simple: most people who call us aren’t looking for a sales pitch. They’re trying to figure out their options and decide what makes the most sense.
That’s how I try to approach it.
How I got started
Before real estate, I was driving trucks in the Oklahoma oil field. I had gone to college thinking I might get into computer programming, but I never really found my direction there.
What did come naturally to me was buying and selling things. I had done it with cars for years: finding something rough, figuring out what it needed, improving it, and eventually selling it to someone else.
Then a friend gave me an ebook about a guy in Connecticut who was buying houses. It explained the business from beginning to end, and it immediately clicked with me. Houses were obviously a much bigger undertaking than cars, but the basic idea felt familiar.
A couple of months later, I bought my first house.
That was in 2013.
The first house taught me a lot
The owner lived in Florida, while his son and his son’s family had been living in the house in Oklahoma for years.
By the time we connected, the situation had become complicated. The property was deteriorating, there were family problems involved, and the owner had reached the point where he simply wanted to be done with it.
We talked for several weeks before we ever signed anything.
That deal taught me early on that buying houses isn’t just about figuring out what a property is worth. A lot of the time, there’s a bigger situation surrounding it. The best solution has to work for the person selling it, not just for the buyer.
That lesson has stuck with me ever since.
Why Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Minnesota?
In 2021, my wife Casey and I moved to Western Wisconsin, where she’s from, after our first daughter was born.
At that point, Oklahoma was home to our business and the St. Croix Valley was becoming home to our family.
For the first couple of years, we continued running the Oklahoma operation remotely before ever buying a house up here. Eventually, we began buying throughout Western Wisconsin and across the river into Eastern Minnesota and the Twin Cities region as well.
Today, those are the markets we focus on.
We could expand into a long list of states, but that has never really interested me. I’d rather work in areas we know, stay close to the properties we buy, and build a reputation in the communities where we actually spend our time.
Oklahoma is where the business started. The St. Croix Valley and Twin Cities region are home now.
Sometimes the solution goes beyond the house
One of the things I like about this business is that no two situations are exactly alike.
Years ago, an older woman contacted me about selling a house in Norman. Her adult daughter was living there and needed to relocate to Florida to be closer to family.
Selling the house was only one part of what needed to happen.
We ended up helping coordinate the move, getting her belongings packed, arranging transportation, and finding someone we trusted to drive the U-Haul to Florida with her and her pets.
None of that was technically required to buy the house.
It was simply what needed to happen to make the solution work.
That’s the way I’ve always preferred to approach these situations: understand the whole problem first, then figure out whether there’s a practical way to solve it.
What you can expect from us
If you contact us, the first conversation is usually pretty straightforward.
We’ll ask about the house, what’s going on, and what you’re hoping to accomplish. From there, I’ll tell you what I think.
Sometimes selling directly to us makes a lot of sense.
Sometimes listing the house with a Realtor is probably the better move.
Sometimes there are title, probate, tenant, or other issues that need to be worked through before anything can happen.
Either way, you should come away with a clearer understanding of your options.
There’s no obligation to sell us anything.
If we can put together a solution that works for both sides, great. If not, I’m still happy to point you in the right direction.
If you have a house in Oklahoma, Western Wisconsin, the St. Croix Valley, or the Twin Cities region and you’re trying to figure out what to do with it, reach out and tell us what’s going on.