The home and auto industries are two of the hardest hit sectors in the U.S. Rising foreclosures mark the housing sector, while closing car manufacturing plants are common in the auto plant.

Given the parallel routes these two industries pass through, it is not surprising to hear American couples throwing in a used car as a freebie, just to unload on the market a debt-ridden home.

The Washington Post featured couple Mark and Elaine Hendricks, who offered to throw in a 2000 Mustang convertible to the buyer of their Woodbridge, VA, residence, but the property still has no takers.

"We wanted to try something unusual, thinking maybe it might be crazy enough to bring somebody in. But with so many houses on the market, a free car doesn't do the trick," Mark Hendricks told the Washington Post.

Other sales gimmick include giving away other prizes, upping the commission and auctioning or raffling off their units.

The number of homeowners in a similar situation has worsened the situation for many of them. In Prince William County, MD, the number of single-family units below $200,000 on the block skyrocketed over 15,000 percent in April compared to a year ago.

Even landlords are resorting to marketing gimmicks. According to the New York Daily News, Park Avenue plastic surgeon Stephen Greenburg has offered his five-bedroom, four-bathroom Hamptons house for rent. The lease is $500,000, which comes with a swimming pool, tennis court, and bottomless plastic surgery procedures.

He also threw in a personal chef, a limousine, massage and spa treatments, a nurse and allowance to purchase new clothes that would be flattering to the newly sculpted body. There is one medical precondition, though. "The most important thing is that the procedures have to be appropriate for (the patients)," Greenburg told the News.