Mail-Order Wonder: Kit Homes Aging Gracefully

It’s like finding a prize in your cereal box. You do a little research and discover the house you just listed is an old kit home, one of the thousands that were built across the country from the early 1900s to the 1940s, when do-it-yourself homes were in their heyday.

Considered historically valuable, the houses can command a nice little premium in the marketplace and give you a super selling hook.

“Most of the people who’ve bought kit homes from me are thrilled to learn what they are and are very much aware of their history,” says Peggy Speaker, GRI, a salesperson with Long & Foster Real Estate, Washington, D.C. “And their historical value definitely adds a premium to the price.”

Kit homes continue to be built today, particularly specialty products such as log homes, but the numbers are a shadow of what they once were, when the big suppliers--including Sears, Montgomery Ward, Lewis Homes, and a Bay City, Mich., company called Alladin--sold thousands per year. About a half million kit homes, also known as mail-order houses, were built during the first half of the 20th century.

One reason for their enduring popularity is quality. The kits included top building materials and were often meticulously constructed by their owners.

Betsy Little, broker-owner of Betsy Little Real Estate, Norfolk, Conn., says construction quality was a key factor for the buyers of a 1938 Sears home she sold in May. “They liked that it was made of good materials and had a reputation for quality construction.”

In the first sentence of her newspaper ad, Little highlighted the home’s status as a kit product, and she included that fact in all the promotional material. “It really stimulated people’s interest,” she says.

Want to know whether your listing is a kit house? Here are a few clues:

• Numbered markings on joints and rafters in the attic or basement
• Numbering or a product label under moldings, baseboard, or window frames
• Blueprints or bills of lading in the basement

More info on kit homes is available from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Contact the National Trust Librarian at Hornbake Library, University of Maryland, College Park, Md.; 301/405-6320.