Building a home from the ground up offers more agency at the cost of time and often a higher price tag than their catalogue counterparts.

While everyone needs a home, not all are excited by the prospect of designing it themselves. Due to circumstance or simple preference, some homeowners want the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

For those who find the creative process more stress than it’s worth, a modular home may suit their needs better.

Customers select their chosen floor plan from a catalogue and expect to receive all of the materials required to build it on their property. These homes have the advantage of convenience; their ready-made nature makes them a quicker build, which in turn leads to lower prices.

Those interested in these quick and easy homes have a few more custom options at their disposal. That said, potential buyers of a modular home should look carefully at the materials provided in the kit they’re purchasing. While there are some companies willing to ship and assemble houses top-to-bottom, there are many more that work in providing “frame homes” which include the basic structure of the house but not the inner workings. These alternatives require the customer to purchase their own wiring, plumbing and HVAC systems. Each home is built to attend to different needs, so it’s essential to clarify what services are being paid for before signing that check.

An old concept

The concept of mail-order homes isn’t new; the Sears, Roebuck & Co. kit home in particular is gathering quite the following online. While Sears discontinued its kit home service long ago, their products still stand, and have become the interest of many. Facebook groups, blogs, and databases have been created to help track down some of these homes across the country.

Though their heyday has long since past, many still look on these homes with fascination. Fortunately, many of the old catalogues have been uploaded and can be accessed online. Early ad campaigns from the Sears days focused on the financial aspect of the product, the homes being framed primarily as a better alternative to renting with similar prices.

Today their appeal is novelty. The prospect of their homes coming from a vintage kit has sent many peeking in corners, looking through basements, and counting their windows to find a match. The possibility of historic value helps maintain interest in older homes instead of jumping to newer models.

“We’re keeping things out of the landfill by reusing what we already have; we’re not having to cut down any more trees. We’re not going to have to throw away hazardous materials that we didn’t know were hazardous a hundred years ago,” said Lori Jackson Black of the Fairfield Foundation regarding her own interest in old homes and their preservation.
Homeowners would do well to approach the possibility of their houses coming from a kit with extreme caution. In the excitement, many have falsely described their houses as a Sears home.

Occasionally, it’s a kit from a different company; often it’s simply a case of erroneous information having been attached to the house at some point in its life, and then passed on through the ages. Or, it’s simply a Craftsman design house, and people think that means it’s a Sears house,” said Judith E. Cabot, a member of the research team at SearsHouses.com. The confusion comes from an abundance of look-alike houses that were built to match the trends of the time. The authenticity of a home can come down to the most minute of details, from window size to a roof’s angle. Even if a house was built from a kit, that’s no guarantee that it’s a Sears product. There were a few different companies that dealt in kit homes in that time period, including Aladdin and Wardway.

Even without the kit companies of old, there are plenty of options left for those who find these products appealing, in a process made even easier with the rise of the internet and advancements in phone technology.