Stephanie Ribodal looked at lots of new houses and heard about plenty of incentives when she went house-hunting in Phoenix this spring. As soon as she walked into what would be her first home, she was sold. She loved the location, which is close to her family, the stainless steel appliances, the upgraded cabinets and carpet, the corner lot and the three-car garage.

But the homebuying incentive that really got her heart racing — and ultimately made her decide to purchase the Richmond American spec house — was the special, available-for-a-limited-time interest rate of 4.875 percent on a 30-year, fixed rate, FHA-backed loan with 3 percent down.

“No one I know has an interest rate lower than me,” Ribodal says, “and it really helps to keep the mortgage affordable since I'm single and the only one paying the bills. As a young professional and first-time homebuyer, this was an excellent incentive.”

Ribodal’s experience is the perfect example of a home-buying incentive that truly makes sense for today’s buyer, says Howard Dvorkin, founder of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Consumer Credit Counseling Services and author of Credit Hell: How to Dig Out of Debt.

“The best incentive I can think of is a substantially lower interest rate,” he says. “That’s the gift that keeps on giving.”

What about some of the other incentives out there?

“People are offering TVs, cars and trips. They appeal to your ego and your greed,” Dvorkin says. “You’re paying for it one way or another. It’s built into the pricing. The craziest one I’ve heard about is buy one, get one free. That’s insane.”

Steven Piazza, vice president of Livonia, Mich.-based Quicken Loans, recommends considering anything that lowers the purchase price of the house, which translates into more affordability. That includes offers to cover closing costs or buy down the interest rate, and down payment assistance, as long as it’s done in accordance with lending laws. It also applies to price guarantees, which new-home builders have begun offering as a way to assure buyers that if the base price on their house drops between the time they sign the contract and close on the house, they’ll get the lower price.

He brushes off the notion of buying a house because someone offered a free car, a trip or a flat-screen TV.

“They’re attention getters, but from the buyer’s perspective, they don’t make sense,” he says. “You can do those voluntarily. Just take the dollar amount off the purchase price.”

A free swimming pool? Take a pass, Dvorkin says. It might make your house easier to sell at some point, but it also represents a significant monthly expense whether you use it or not.

A popular incentive that builders offer is money to spend in their design center for options and upgrades, such as fancier kitchen cabinets, granite countertops, or whole-house wiring. Piazza notes that options are traditionally a way for builders to increase their profit on a house. “You just have to look at the total price and look at the trade-off,” he says. “Do you need that extra feature for the whole purchase price? Is it something you’d pay for anyway?”

One common structural incentive that Piazza and Dvorkin both see value in is a free finished basement. It adds square footage to the house, which adds value, and a lot of flexibility. Plus, it’s a feature that can’t be added later on.

“When my sister bought her first house, they didn’t have a lot of money and opted not to have a basement,” Dvorkin says. “She’s still in same house 25 years later and she’s still complaining that she should have bought the basement.”

Another group of incentives that have popped up include offering to pay a buyer’s monthly homeowners association fees or their power bills for a period of time. This can be a good idea if the buyer is confident about paying those bills once the help ends, says Ethan Ewing, a consumer finance expert and president of San Mateo, Calif.-based Bills.com. Treat it as a bonus, not a necessity. “If they couldn’t afford the house without this perk,” he says, “they can’t afford the house.”