How to market a home near a NJ Transit train station

In much of northern and central New Jersey, the train station is part of what a buyer is paying for. Train towns draw many buyers moving out of New York City, Hoboken and Jersey City, and for them the commute is near the top of the list. A listing near the train should make that easy to see, without overstating it. Here's how.

Who's shopping in a train town

Buyers moving out from the city tend to share a few habits that shape how you market to them:

• They're shopping from a distance. Many will look at a home online several times before they can visit, often on a weeknight, from an apartment an hour away.
• They care about the walk, not just the distance. Is there a sidewalk the whole way? A hill? How long does it really take?
• They work from home some days. Where the desk goes matters almost as much as the commute.
• They're learning the town as they go. They may know the station's name and little else.

Know which line you're on

"Near the train" means different things on different lines, and buyers coming from the city often know which line they want. Our town pages note each town's station:

• Morris & Essex Lines: Summit, Short Hills, Millburn, Chatham, Madison and Morristown.
• Gladstone Branch: New Providence, with its New Providence and Murray Hill stops, and Bernardsville.
• Raritan Valley Line: Westfield and Bridgewater.
• Montclair-Boonton Line: Montville, at its Towaco station.
• North Jersey Coast Line: Red Bank, Spring Lake, Manasquan and Bay Head, the last stop on the line.

Service, transfers and travel times vary by line and by train, and they change. Check NJ Transit's current schedule before you quote a commute, and say "about" when you do.

Show the walk, honestly

If the home is a short walk from the station, that's worth more than any adjective in the description. A few ways to make it real:

• Walk it yourself and time it. Then say it plainly, in minutes, and only what you've measured.
• Show it from above. A drone photo can show the home, the downtown and the route between them in one frame, where the airspace allows. Many New Jersey towns sit near airports, so every flight is checked first; drone photos for New Jersey listings explains how.
• Show it on video. A short clip of you heading from the front door toward town says more about the neighborhood than a paragraph. Our listing video can include exterior and neighborhood footage.
• Don't oversell it. If the walk is long or there's a busy road to cross, let buyers hear it from you, not discover it at the showing.

Make remote viewing easy

Buyers shopping from the city may pick which homes to see on a single Saturday. Give them enough online to put yours on the list:

• A [3D tour](/services#3d-tours), so they can walk the home room by room from their couch and share it with whoever they're buying with. More in does my listing need a 3D tour?
• A [floor plan](/services#floor-plans), so they can see where the bedrooms are, how big the rooms are and whether their furniture fits. Older homes near town often have additions or unusual layouts, which is where a plan helps most.
• Photos of every room, in the order a buyer would walk through it, so the tour and the plan make sense together.

Photograph the home office

For a buyer who works from home a few days a week, the office may be the most important room after the kitchen. Set it up as an office, with a clear desk, good light and nothing personal on the screen, and make sure it's in the photos. If there's no dedicated office, show the spare bedroom, the den or the finished basement corner that could be one. Virtual staging can furnish an empty room as an office, as long as it's labeled; see is virtual staging allowed in listing photos?

Condos and townhomes near the station

Many train towns, including Summit and Morristown, have condos and townhomes close to the station. Buyers there are often comparing several units in the same building or community, so the details decide it: the layout, the light, the storage, the parking. A floor plan and a full set of interior photos let buyers compare like with like. Show the shared spaces too, if the building has them.

Write the description for the commute

• Name the station and the line. "Walk to the Madison station on the Morris & Essex Lines" tells a city buyer far more than "close to transit."
• Mention what's on the way. Coffee, the library, a park: the places a buyer will pass on the walk. Only what's actually there.
• Describe the place, not the buyer. Fair housing rules apply. Talk about the station, the downtown and the home, never who it's "ideal for."