The. Pass. Is. Closed. (or How to Own a Vacation Home)

When you get up before dawn tomorrow morning to sit in your snowsuit, remote control in hand, obsessively clicking back to the weather channel, I want you to relax, close your eyes, and think, “My ski cabin is well built, well insured, and situated well outside of avalanche territory.”

After a million dollar Lake Wenachee vacation home was crushed by snow yesterday, avalanche expert Mike Stanford was quoted in the Wenachee World saying, “People build houses in the stupidest places.”

Lt. Maria Agnew, emergency management director for Chelan County, said… “If you look at where this home was built, with a steep drainage behind it, it’s a natural path for avalanches. There have been avalanches there before.”

Avalanche Q&A:
Q: What causes avalanches?
A: Usually wind, not snow.

Q: How steep is an avalanche prone slope?
A: Generally greater than 25 degrees.

Q: What do you do if you get caught in one?
A: Escape the slab, grab a tree, and swim. [link]

Unsolicited insurance advice: If you own a vacation home (especially one you rent out), a house, and a car or two, it might be time to consider umbrella insurance. For a few hundred dollars a year, umbrella insurance will kick in where your traditional policies leave off, totaling a million dollars or more in coverage. One little lawsuit could make you lose more than just your ski cabin.

What? Keep the luxury insurance, you don’t own a vacation home? Around 10% of Americans own vacation homes, and more and more of them are advertising and renting them to vacationers as a mortgage offset.

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, columnist Terri Cullen describes one couple’s experiences with managing their second home as a vacation rental.

You can’t beat the pros: You have a built in family vacation spot, one where your kids – or pets, or parents – can roam free. (Or maybe you live in the burbs or the sticks and you’ve always dreamed of a pied a terre loft.) Depending on the property’s desirability, it can pay for itself. And in some cases second home expenses can be tax deductions, as long as you force yourself to stay there at least 17 days a year.

Need more of the facts? Check out the Vacation Home Survival Guide at Forbes.

And the cons? As happened to the couple in the WSJ story, a burst pipe can do more than just leave you soaked. When your would-be renters find other lodging, it can leave you struggling with an extra mortgage payment as well as maintenance costs.

To say nothing of how an an avalanche might impact your budget.