What Should I Know Before Selling a Richland Alphabet House?

A government house that became a private one

When construction began at the Hanford Engineer Works in 1943, the government needed housing for its workers, and it needed it in a hurry. Spokane architect G. Albin Pehrson drew a set of standard plans for the new town of Richland, and each plan was named with a letter. Some plans were duplexes and some were single-family houses, each with its own footprint and roofline.

For years, the families who lived in these houses rented them from the government. That changed in the late 1950s, when the government moved the houses into private ownership and Richland incorporated as a first-class city on December 10, 1958.

Since then most alphabet houses have changed hands many times, and nearly all of them have been remodeled at least once. A few still look much as they did during the war. Others you would only recognize by the pitch of the roof. When you sell one, you are selling every one of those decisions, and a buyer’s inspector will try to find each of them.

Figuring out which letter you own

Start on the sidewalk. The footprint, the roof pitch, where the chimney comes through, and the number of front doors narrow it down quickly. Two front doors on one building usually mean a duplex plan, even under new siding and windows. Some duplexes have since been converted to a single home, so one front door doesn’t settle it.

Then go to the paper:

• The Benton County Assessor’s record shows the year built and the recorded square footage. Additions can skew the square footage, but the year is a good first clue.
• The City of Richland’s historic preservation pages and the Hanford History Project at Washington State University Tri-Cities are good places to look into the history of the plans. Matching a published floor plan to your own rooms usually settles the question.
• Neighbors often know their own letter, and a matching house nearby is a strong clue.

This matters for the sale. Buyers who want an alphabet house often shop by plan, and an appraiser will look for recent sales of similar homes close by. A listing that names the wrong letter, or calls a heavily altered house “original,” loses credibility the moment a knowledgeable buyer walks in.

Where they sit

Most alphabet houses are in central Richland, on the older street grid around the Uptown shopping district and the blocks that run toward Howard Amon Park and the Columbia. The Gold Coast Historic District, a neighborhood of these homes in central Richland, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Location is a big part of what you are selling. From these blocks a buyer can walk to the river trail and to Uptown, and the drive north to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Hanford Site is short. Mature shade on a July afternoon is something the newer subdivisions in South Richland and on Badger Mountain can’t offer yet.

The inspection, system by system

Most of the buyer’s inspection goes to the parts of a 1940s house that wear out.

If you don’t know whether an old tank is still in the basement or buried by the foundation, find out before a buyer does. The article on selling a house with an old heating oil tank covers how to check and what decommissioning involves. It is written for Spokane, and the same questions come up in central Richland.

A sewer scope before you list is one of the cheaper ways to take a surprise off the table. If the line is sound, you have a video to hand buyers. If it isn’t, you can price the repair on your own schedule instead of inside a buyer’s inspection deadline.

What to update, and what to leave alone

People shopping for alphabet houses tend to come in two kinds. Some want the history: wood floors and the proportions of a wartime house on a tree-lined street. Others mostly want central Richland and would be just as happy in a 1960s rambler a few blocks over. You are usually selling to both at once.

The updates that help nearly every sale are the ones behind the walls. Drains, supply lines, the panel, the heating system, and air conditioning that can keep up with August all get paid for, as long as you can document the work.

The changes that tend to cost you are the ones that erase the house. A second story that breaks the original roofline, original floors torn out, or a flip-style interior that could be anywhere can leave the history buyer cold without winning anyone else over. Original wood windows are a real tradeoff. They are part of the look, and they leak air. Repair and weatherstripping usually keep both kinds of buyer reasonably happy.

A brand-new kitchen in the months before a sale is rarely worth the money or the disruption. A buyer who wants the house for its bones would often rather do the kitchen their own way.

If you own a duplex, confirm how it is being used and how the city treats it before you list. Two rentable units and one home that happens to have two front doors attract different buyers with different financing. If one side has a tenant right now, the article on selling a rental with tenants in it covers what the buyer takes on.

What the Gold Coast listing does and doesn’t limit

For most private owners, a National Register listing is recognition. On its own it generally doesn’t stop you from remodeling or selling your own house with your own money. Limits usually come from local ordinances, or from projects that use federal money or need federal approval.

Two things are worth checking before you sell. First, confirm that your address is actually inside the district boundary, since many alphabet houses sit outside it. Second, ask the City of Richland’s planning office whether any local review applies to exterior changes where you are. Buyers who love the district will ask both questions, and a written answer from the city carries more weight with them than a neighbor’s recollection.

Listing it, or asking for a cash offer

An alphabet house with updated systems and a folder of receipts has a real audience on the open market, and if you have a little time, listing is often the stronger move. The Tri-Cities selling page covers what buyers there look at and how to plan showings around the summer heat.

The math shifts when the house still has original plumbing and wiring, a tank nobody has dealt with, a basement that takes water, or a lifetime of belongings inside. Financed buyers and their lenders can get nervous about that combination. Those are the sales where a cash offer request is worth running next to a listing estimate. Cash buyers are independent investors, and their number accounts for the repairs and their own margin. In exchange, you may skip the work and most of the showings.