Two Identical Townhomes, One Street, $23,000 Apart
Updated: Aug 6
Two units. Same community, same floor plan, same street.
109 and 110 Castle Pointe Blvd went on the market in Piscataway within days of each other — a rare side-by-side test of what actually moves a townhome.
On paper, 110 had the edge. It came with a renovated kitchen. Hand a buyer both spec sheets and ask them to pick sight-unseen, and most take 110 without hesitating.
Here's how it actually played out.
The numbers
110 Castle Pointe Blvd — renovated kitchen
Listed: $625,000
Sold: $657,000
About 5% over asking
109 Castle Pointe Blvd — original kitchen
Listed: $629,900
Sold: $680,000
Roughly 8% over asking
13 offers in the first week — highest at $685,000, with strong terms
The unit without the renovated kitchen sold for $23,000 more.
That isn't luck. Two nearly identical units, same market, same season, listed within $5,000 of each other. Almost every variable was controlled. What was left was execution.
What created the gap
109 Castle Pointe was my listing — but the plan only works if the seller runs it.
These sellers trusted me on the pricing, agreed to stage, and worked through a short list of basic repairs I recommended before we went live. None of it was expensive. All of it showed up in the result.
Here's what went into it.
Basic repairs
Nothing structural, and nothing that needed a contractor. The sellers freshened up the foyer with paint, swapped out the mirror in the powder room, and re-caulked the bathroom tubs.
These are the things buyers register without being able to name them — a tired entry, a dated fixture, a tub that reads as neglected. Each one is small. Together they tell a buyer whether a home has been looked after.
A weekend of work, and none of it appears on a spec sheet.
Staging
Buyers don't calculate square footage. They picture themselves in a room. An empty or under-furnished space forces them to do work they won't do — so they discount for it.
Staging also quietly reframed the kitchen. When the rest of the home reads as move-in ready, a dated kitchen becomes a project a buyer is willing to take on, not a reason to walk.
Photography
Almost every buyer meets a home on a screen before they see it in person. That first scroll decides whether a showing gets booked at all.
Professional photography — right time of day, right composition — isn't a cosmetic upgrade. It's the difference between making a shortlist and being skipped.
Targeted marketing
None of this reaches buyers if it isn't shown to the right ones. The marketing on 109 was aimed specifically at buyers already searching to buy in this community and this floor plan — not a generic blast across every platform. That's why the traffic converted the way it did: the people walking through were already looking for exactly this.
Pricing
The list price on 109 wasn't a reaction to what 110 was doing, and it wasn't a guess. It was chosen deliberately, to pull the widest possible pool of buyers through the door in the first week.
Price to attract volume, and competition sets the ceiling for you.
Thirteen offers in seven days is what that approach looks like. The older kitchen didn't undercut it — the strategy accounted for it.
I never give sellers a bottom line going in. I price the home strategically, put in the work to get buyers through the door, and let the market drive the number up from there — no promises, just a pleasant surprise for my sellers at the end.
Timing and access
Offers were concentrated into a tight window. Showings were scheduled to build momentum rather than trickle out over a month.
13 offers in a week didn't happen by accident. The listing was launched to produce exactly that.
The honest takeaway
Both units sold over asking. Both sellers did fine. This isn't a story about one home failing — 110 got a good result.
But the seller at 110 had the better product and got the smaller outcome.
That's the part worth sitting with. Renovations are expensive and slow. Presentation and strategy cost a fraction of a kitchen remodel and, in this case, returned more.
The market rewards the home that shows best — not necessarily the home that is best. Buyers respond to what they're shown, and what they're shown is a choice the seller and their agent make.
If you're thinking about selling
Ask any agent you interview one specific question: what exactly are you doing to market my home, and what does it cost?
If the answer is "list it and hold an open house," you're paying full commission for a sign in the yard.
The gap between a good result and a great one usually isn't the property. It's the plan.
109 Castle Pointe Blvd, Piscataway — listed and sold summer 2026.
Thinking about what your home could bring in this market? Let's talk about the numbers before you spend a dollar on renovations.
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