There is no such cap, as we're seeing all over the United States. In fact, just when you think you've heard every possible home-seller incentive scenario, new ones crop up that seem even more outrageous.

The list is a long and sometimes sadly amusing one: a pair of round-trip airline tickets to anywhere in the world plus two weeks' stay at a five-star resort, a free swimming pool, sports season tickets or seat options, classic cars, free minitractors for mowing or snow-blowing on that big lot, gasoline gift cards, club memberships, plasma TVs, "all-appliances-included," and/or all the furnishings that the owners bought on the advice of home stagers.

These little song-and-dance items make for interesting press accounts and may even attract more agents and tickle the buying bones of a few more potential buyers, but they usually defy logic for a buyer when you pencil in their true values in your purchase equation. Also, such incentives ultimately obscure the amount buyers are paying for homes these days, and make accurate home pricing much more of a challenge.

My advice on such exotic offers: Smile, compliment the sellers for their creativity, then ask for their cash equivalent of the offer or at least a more finite form of financial relief.Among those incentives that are likely to positively impact your bottom line more than the spate of off-the-wall giveaways are extensive pre-move-in remodeling work, paid homeowner or condo-association fees, several months of mortgage payments, a couple years of paid property taxes, seller-financing and, as you noted, all closing costs.

Realize that the most enduring -- and valuable -- purchase incentives are those that help lower your mortgage interest rate in the long term. A $5,000 entertainment system won't save you a dime on your mortgage payment and will be worth considerably less dollar-for-dollar upon resale.For now, the sky seems to be the limit, Maria. So don't be timid. Take what the market gives you -- but preferably in dollars and "sense."