From the May issue: Prospective buyers playing hard-to-get? How about sweetening the deal with an iPad? Some developers and brokers are turning to quirky giveaways, hoping the extra incentives will help fill buildings during this tough economy. The freebies, often tacked on to traditional incentives such as fee eliminations or coverage of certain taxes, are the latest trend in attention-getting promotions.

In one online ad, a broker with Platinum Properties offered to throw in two custom suits worth $2,000 each with the keys to a penthouse apartment. The broker could not be reached to say if the penthouse had been rented.

Last month, Alchemy Properties gave away iPads and 42-inch high-definition televisions to anyone who signed a contract to buy units at the Griffin Court Condominium in Midtown. More than 150 people stopped by the property during the promotion’s first two weeks, said the president of Alchemy, Kenneth Horn. [more]

Conventional wisdom tells us that seemingly too-good-to-be-true Craigslist apartments are often just that. But Time Out New York decided to put this theory to the test, visiting the real-life counterparts of some photo-less, dubiously advertised units. The result was surprisingly positive, with just one of the four units examined deemed to be a complete aberration from its promised credentials. The sub-standard apartment in question, a $1,850-per-month one-bedroom with a “bathroom the size of an airplane lavatory” and a “window in the closet; ideal for growing cannabis” was called out for being worse than promised in its ad.