05/10/2026
The idea started as a solution to a warehouse problem. In 1906, Sears manager Frank Kushel was handed responsibility for the company's struggling building materials department, which was losing money and sitting on excess inventory.
His solution was to bundle everything together and sell entire houses by mail. Two years later, Sears issued its first Modern Homes catalog, featuring 44 house designs priced between $360 and $2,890.
The cheapest was a three-room cottage with no bathroom. The most expensive came with French doors, art glass windows, and sleeping porches.
When a customer placed an order, a railroad boxcar arrived at their nearest station sealed with a small red wax seal, which the new owner broke on arrival.
Inside were roughly 30,000 individual pieces, including pre-cut and numbered lumber, 750 pounds of nails, 27 gallons of paint, flooring, doors, windows, hinges, doorknobs, and a 75-page instruction manual with the homeowner's name embossed in gold on the cover.
Brick, cement, and mortar were not included, as they were cheaper to source locally. Sears promised that a person with basic skills and no carpenter could assemble the entire house in under 90 days.
For buyers who wanted professional help, the average carpenter charged $450 for the job.
Between 1908 and 1940, over 70,000 of these homes were sold across North America, in more than 370 different designs.
Sears also offered mortgages from 1911 to 1933, making them one of the earliest companies to bundle home financing with home sales.
