How to List Your Property for Film & TV Productions in New Jersey

How to List Your Property for Film and TV Productions in New Jersey

New Jersey’s film industry is booming. With Netflix building a massive studio at Fort Monmouth, state tax credits locked in through 2049, and over 43 municipalities now certified as Film Ready communities, productions are actively searching for properties across the state. If you own a home, office building, warehouse, or any other type of real estate in the NJ/NY tri-state area, here is exactly how to get your property in front of the right people.

Step 1: Understand What Productions Are Looking For

Before you list, it helps to know that film and television productions need far more than mansions and penthouses. Location scouts are constantly searching for everyday spaces that read well on camera. Corporate offices, hospital corridors, school gymnasiums, diners, gas stations, suburban homes, industrial warehouses, parking structures, and even empty retail spaces are all in high demand.

What makes a property attractive to productions? Interesting architectural details, good natural light, flexible layouts that allow crews to set up equipment, accessible parking for production trucks, and proximity to New York City (being within the union zones significantly increases your property’s value to productions).

Step 2: Partner with a Film Location Brokerage

You could try to market your property directly to productions, but it is extremely difficult to get in front of the right decision-makers without industry connections. Location managers and scouts work with trusted brokerages who have pre-vetted, photographed, and cataloged properties that are ready for filming.

Reset Locations is a film location brokerage that specializes in the NJ/NY/PA tri-state area. We work alongside location scouts and managers — not in place of them. Scouts come to us because we open doors to properties that are otherwise difficult to access. We have spent years building and maintaining relationships with high-level property owners, corporate landlords, and institutional decision-makers, and those relationships are what make our database valuable.

There is no cost to list with us. Reset Locations gets paid only after you get paid — we earn a commission on successful bookings, so our incentives are completely aligned with yours.

Step 3: Prepare Your Property for Scouting

When we come to scout your property, we are looking at it through the eyes of a location manager. A few things you can do to make the best impression: make sure the space is clean and uncluttered, ensure all lights are working, provide access to every room and area (including basements, rooftops, and parking), and think about what makes your property unique — that unusual staircase, the period-appropriate kitchen, or the dramatic lobby could be exactly what a production needs.

You do not need to renovate or invest money to make your property film-ready. Productions often bring their own set dressing and can transform a space to match their creative vision. What matters most is the bones of the space — the architecture, the layout, the light.

Step 4: Understand the Business Side

Once a production is interested in your property, Reset Locations handles the owner side of the negotiation — the fee and the property terms. Insurance and crew logistics stay with the production’s own location department. You will know exactly what to expect before any crew arrives. Typical location agreements cover the daily rate, prep and strike day rates, rules about what can and cannot be modified, insurance and liability coverage, parking arrangements, and access schedules. For a detailed breakdown of what fees look like, see How Much Do Film Locations Pay in New Jersey?

This is where many property owners feel the most uncertain — and it is exactly where having a brokerage in your corner matters most. The film production process can feel overwhelming if you have never been through it before. Reset Locations stays in close coordination with both you and the production team throughout the entire process, from the initial inquiry all the way through wrap day. We make sure you understand what is happening at every stage, answer every question, and handle any issues that come up so the experience is as seamless as possible. Location scouts and managers appreciate this too — when the property owner is comfortable and informed, the shoot goes smoother for everyone. For more on what the process looks like step by step, read What to Expect When a Film Crew Wants to Use Your Property.

For commercial property owners, hosting a film production can add directly to your net operating income without requiring a long-term lease commitment. Many of our commercial clients earn significant revenue from common areas — lobbies, hallways, atriums, and conference rooms — that are not generating rent.

Step 5: Get Started Today

The demand for NJ filming locations is growing every month. Productions that used to film exclusively in New York are now crossing the Hudson in record numbers, and the pipeline of shows and films being produced in the state is only getting larger.

To talk to us about representing your property, visit our For Owners page. We will schedule a time to see the property, photograph it properly, and — if it is a fit for what productions ask us for — represent it to the scouts and location managers we work with. There is no cost and no obligation.

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