Warmer breezes, tulips blooming and open house signs are rituals of spring. The annual reawakening after the shorter days of winter arent always the best time to get a deal on a home. Mark Nash author of 1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home offers tips on why the dynamics of the residential spring market traditionally arent the optimal time to get the best price on a home. Plus he offers the best times to get a better deal in resort, lake, skiing and vacation locales.

Not everyone wants to move in winter, uproot children to a new school midway in the semester or that their landlord demands that their lease expires in May. These are some of the factors that build demand for spring real estate markets. With these factors converging and creating the largest pool of homebuyers each year, property sellers and real estate agents attempt to maximize prices. There are ways to sift through available homes and determine if they warrant their prices and if you should wait until the off-season to buy.

-Pushing market prices. Every spring sellers and real estate agents try to test the market to see if they can push the previous years appreciation gains higher by suggesting a new threshold of higher prices that dont have sold comparable's or appraisals to back them up. Ask for sold comparable's from the last three months to verify pricing in spring market.

-Look right before spring market begins. If you must buy in spring market, the best time to look is right before the weather turns consistently to spring. A late snowstorm, rain for days or damp and chilly weather keep spring buyers out of the market. Youll have less competition and possibly not get into a multiple offer if you bundle up, pull the snow boots on or grab the rain gear and look at houses before the masses. Holidays and school breaks such as Easter, spring vacation and Memorial Day temporarily slow the spring market.

-Multiple offers. The biggest danger of competing with other spring market buyers is falling in love with the same house that one or more other buyers have also fallen in love with. If you write an offer and one or more love struck buyers do, youll be in whats called multiple offers. As a rule-of-thumb you will likely pay more than you wanted if you are the wining offer in multiples. Its best to have an alternative house if you find yourself in this situation, so you dont get carried away price-wise to win a negotiation.

-Make sure the home is not a leftover. You might be new to the real estate market in the spring, but one of the homes you like could be a hold over from the winter or last falls market. Ask your agent what the actual days-on-market or market time is. Some Multiple Listing Services (MLS) allow brokers to roll back market time if the listing changes brokerages or is taken off market has had a price change. Telltale signs are photos of the house in marketing or the MLS from another season, old property tax information or dates on disclosures dated longer than the stated market time. A recent way to circumvent MLS rules that report actual market time is for listing agents to change property addresses from street to court or add a letter after a house number to rollback market time odometers.

-White elephants outlive spring market. Many times unusual or tired homes are left off market intentionally until spring market when more buyers are in buy mode. Some of these homes become plan A for those who lost their A home in multiple offers. Do not buy any home just because you think you need to buy a home. You could pay for it dearly later. If the typical home in an area is a four bedroom dont buy a two bedroom, colonial dont buy the adobe style or every home is brick and the one youre buying is frame. Weird floor plans, decorating and finishes are expensive and sometimes cant be overcome at all or without a lot of expense.

-Good months to get a home deal. Off-season times when markets have traditionally cooled are July and August and mid-October until the end of January. Realty agents know at the minimum that spring market doesnt start to ramp up until after the Super Bowl. December is one of the best months to get a deal; most would-be buyers are distracted by the holidays, spending on gifts and n some areas inclement weather.

-Exceptions: resort, lake, skiing and vacation locales. Not all markets are at their price highs orlow's in spring.

Resort: Where people escape cold climates. Best values April to August.

Lake and vacation: Second homes where people go in the summer. Best values: November to April.

Ski Destinations: Homes near the slopes. Best values: April to September.