Host, Christine Karpinski: Today's question comes from Catherine in North Carolina.

Q: She writes, "I am trying to find liability insurance on my second home so that I can rent it out on a short term basis. I have called numerous insurance companies, and no one will offer me coverage. Surely, all of these homes for rent must have liability coverage. What am I doing wrong?"

A: Hi Catherine. There's probably a couple of things that you are doing wrong when you are talking to insurance companies. First off, I would recommend is: don't go to a traditional captive insurance agent. By that I mean your traditional Met Life, State Farm, Allstate, those types of companies. Often, they just have insurance for those nice "wrap it up with a cute little bow and put it in the perfect package" kind of home. When we rent out our vacation homes, that puts us into a different category. You're going to have to go to independent agents.

The next thing you're going to need to do is to change your vocabulary. When you're talking to agents, the first thing they'll ask is, "Who is your property manager?" If you say, "I don't have a property manager." That's going to shut you off right there. They're going to say, "No. Sorry, you have to have a property manager." But that necessarily isn't true in the definition of what we call a property manager. Most often, what they're looking for is somebody who is feet on the ground, who will be checking up on the home periodically. We do have property managers, we just happen to call them something else. They are our housekeepers, our maintenance people, even the snow removal people, or your lawn and landscaping people. We do have local property managers.

For a more in depth answer on this, I recommend a couple of things. You can either listen to the HomeAway Podcast on insurance called "Insurance Simplified." You can also read a chapter in my book, "How to Rent Vacation Properties by Owner." The second edition has a very detailed chapter on getting homeowners insurance for vacation rental properties.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of "Ask Christine." If you have a question, we'd love to hear from you. Please leave a message at (512) 493 4340.

Don't forget to enjoy your vacation home yourself. Happy renting by owner!