Sell a condo get some IKEA

I learned this from the The Morning Call of Lehigh Valley, PA. Apparently the developers of Porter 156 were offering current residents $1000 IKEA gift certificates if they could find buyers for still available units. Hmmmm. Isn't a standard real estate commission somewhere around 6%? Seems like somebody was getting shafted.

. . .Porter 156, [is] a 217-unit condo conversion completed last fall in a former bra factory. The building, in East Boston, has about 25 unsold new loft-style units and 25 just-purchased units on the market for $300,000 to the mid-$600,000s, local agent Brian Perry says. That has prompted its developers, ELV Associates and Metric Construction, to turn to residents for help: During the December holidays, the developers left cards in owners' apartments offering a $1,000 gift certificate to Ikea for owners who found buyers for any remaining units.