A house with a past is a gift to a copywriter and a hazard to an agent. The past is where character lives: the family who built it, the renovation that changed it, the street it was part of when the street was new. It is also where unverified claims accumulate. Houses collect stories, and many of them have been told so often that nobody remembers whether they were ever checked.
This article is about how to write a house's history so that it adds to a brochure and cannot come back to cause trouble. It applies to a nineteenth-century Victorian and to a house built in the nineteen sixties alike.
This is not legal advice. Some disclosure and advertising questions about a property's history have legal dimensions. Confirm anything you are unsure about with your managing broker before you publish.
Why history copy goes wrong
Three patterns account for most of the trouble.
The inherited anecdote. A previous owner told the current owner that a notable person once lived in the house or visited it. The current owner repeats it, sincerely. The agent puts it in the brochure. No one has seen a document.
The confident round number. "Built in the 1890s" when the house is simply old and the date is a guess. A year is a claim. A decade is a claim. If you do not have a source, you are estimating, and the copy should say so or say nothing.
The upgraded attribution. A house is described as designed by a named architect when it was actually designed by a builder working from a pattern book, or by a firm with a similar name, or by an associate. This is the most serious and the most common, and it is covered at more length in our note on architecturally significant homes.
All three come from the same cause: a story was treated as a record. The fix is a habit, not a rule. Ask where each statement came from. The wider habit is covered in writing listing remarks that describe the house, not the buyer.
Where verifiable history lives
You do not need an archive. For most houses, a small number of sources settle most questions. A worked example is marketing a Prairie School house in Oak Park.
- The seller's own file. Original drawings, previous surveys, inspection reports, renovation contracts, letters. Ask for the whole folder. Many owners have never been asked.
- Municipal records. Building permits, certificates of occupancy and zoning files are kept by the municipality, usually the building department or village hall. The details available vary by place and era, so ask what exists rather than assume.
- County records. The recorder of deeds and the assessor hold ownership and parcel information. A chain of title shows who owned a property and when. It does not tell you who designed or built it.
- Local historical societies and libraries. Many Chicagoland communities have a historical society or a library with a local history room. They often hold photographs, maps, directories and house files. Staff are generally generous with questions.
- Published sources. Architectural surveys, landmark nominations, walking tour guides and books about a neighborhood or a designer. These are secondary sources; cite them as such and check them against primary documents where you can.
- Historic district or landmark records. If the house is designated, the designating body holds a file. That file, not a summary of it, is the source for what the designation says.
Keep a note of each source. When the brochure goes to a printer, you should be able to say where every date and name came from.
Phrasing what you know and what you do not
Good history copy uses a small vocabulary of honest phrases. Learn to choose the right one.
Documented fact. State it plainly. "Built in 1926 for the first owners, according to the original building permit." The attribution can be short and still carry weight.
Seller's account. "The sellers understand that the cottage was added in the 1950s." This is accurate: it describes what the seller believes. It is also honest about its source.
Tradition or local lore. "Local tradition holds that..." is acceptable only if the seller wants the story told and you have made clear it is tradition. Many agents will prefer to leave it out. If included, keep it modest.
Style or era. "A house in the Tudor Revival style, typical of the 1920s." This is observation, and is safe provided the house does look that way.
Unknown. "The original architect is not recorded." This is a perfectly good sentence. It tells a buyer you looked.
Before and after
Original draft:
Built by a famous local builder in 1902, this home hosted gatherings for the city's leading families and retains every original feature.
Revised, assuming only the permit and the seller's account are available:
The house was built in 1902, according to the municipal permit record. The sellers describe the entry hall, the staircase and the principal-room fireplaces as original to the house. Later work, including the kitchen and the rear addition, was completed in the past two decades.
The second version is less colorful, but every sentence can be defended. It also tells the reader something real about what has and has not changed.
Be careful with people
Naming a person connected to a house carries extra weight. A famous owner, a notable architect, a family associated with a place. If the claim is documented, it is a strong selling point and worth stating clearly. If it is not, leave it out of print.
Some points to keep in mind:
- Do not name private individuals in marketing copy without their consent, even if the information is public record. Previous owners are not part of the house's selling story unless they are historically significant and documented.
- Avoid any description of a former resident's identity, background or character. Describe the house, not the people who lived in it.
- Be careful with stories involving events inside the house, including anything painful. Disclosure obligations in Illinois are a legal matter and should go through your managing broker, not through a copywriter.
Describe change as part of the story
Most houses have been altered. A history that admits this is more credible and more interesting. A kitchen replaced in the nineties, a porch enclosed, an addition at the back, a restored original floor: each is a fact worth recording. Another is marketing mid-century modern homes in Highland Park.
A short timeline can work well in a property book: a column of years and a line for each, drawn from documents and the seller's file. It gives the reader a sense of the house's life without requiring a long narrative. Mark which entries are documented and which are the seller's account.
Use photographs to carry history
Archival images, where the seller has them, are the strongest history material of all. A photograph of the house when it was new, a plan from the original drawings, a street view from decades earlier. They cannot be misread. Check that you have the right to reproduce them: the seller may own a print but not the image rights. If a photograph came from a library, historical society or published book, ask about permissions before printing.
Use them sparingly. One or two archival images beside the modern photography tell more than a page of text.
Placement and length
History does not belong at the top of a brochure unless it is the house's defining feature. For most properties, a brief note on the opening spread, a few sentences, is enough, with fuller material on a later page for the reader who wants it. In a property book, a dedicated page with a short narrative and a timeline works well.
Keep it short. Three hundred well-chosen words are better than a thousand padded ones. Consider following the house's own pacing: a plain house gets a plain account.
A checklist
- Every date, name and attribution has a named source in the project file.
- Seller's accounts are attributed to the seller.
- Tradition is marked as tradition, or left out.
- Style and era claims are descriptions of what is visible.
- Private individuals are not named without consent.
- Archival images are cleared for reproduction.
- Disclosure questions have gone to the managing broker.
- The copy describes the property, not the people. See Fair Housing-safe listing copy.
History is one of the best things a house can offer a buyer, and one of the easiest to get wrong. Done carefully, it earns trust. Our listing brochures include research notes and sourcing for exactly this reason: so the story on the page is the one the record supports.