where are you that the market is hot? it's not here in Illinois. buyers are taking their time shopping around because of the huge amount of inventory. great time for buyers, not such a great time for sellers at the moment.

those incentives are a perfect way for sellers to get the buyers telling their agents that they want to see that home. i think it's a great idea to offer buyer incentives right now ---- at least in the Illinois market.

one of my collegues was desperate to get her listing sold because the sellers had another purchase with a home sale contingency. they offered $2,000 credit toward buyer's closing costs and sold the house in 4 days.

If you've been watching the news I'm sure that you have heard that the market is not as "hot" as it used to be, even a few months ago. The areas of the country where homes were selling like hotcakes and going under contract in a matter of days (mostly on the east and west coasts) are now normalizing and I can understand buyers offering incentives to try and make their home or investment property more attractive than the next one.

Also keep in mind that while there are national Real Estate trends, how your market is performing can be a VERY local thing. One city may have inventory moving faster than another, and even a few blocks can make a huge difference. You can have one neighborhood where homes are selling very quickly within a mile or two of another neighborhood where homes are sitting on the market for months.

I think they do this to remove fear. That's what stops many buyers from taking action - fear of loosing money. They negate this fear by removing some of the future variables and costs - but with most - Vendors meet the cost of doing this in the purchaser price or by other means..
" other means" ???? Sound like a conspiracy ? In units they lock in Body Corporate management for 10 years at a high fee to a company they own. With Rates they show you an indexed rate when it will be locked, or a future value. Or they get you on "account keeping fees" on loans. Or by some other compulsory cost (like waste collection, capital improvement levies to amenities like gardens or lifts....

Look at these proposals carefully to see if you have an anxious to sell vendor or simply "bait" to get you on a sharp hook.

If it is good - do it - if not - dont !!! But dont simply judge on the purchase price but value of the property and the cost of holding it.....