Riverfront cabin on the Skykomish, Baring

He wanted a place on the river: somewhere his family could get away to, and that could earn some of its keep as a vacation rental when they weren't using it.

Riverfront cabins come up in the upper valley most years. Riverfront that isn't in a mapped flood zone is a much shorter list, and that requirement narrowed the search more than price did.

Many of the cabins we looked at sat inside FEMA's mapped flood hazard area. That brings flood insurance a lender will require, and limits on how much you can remodel or add on before the whole building has to meet floodplain rules.

This one sits right above the Skykomish on a level lot, and it's outside the mapped floodplain. For someone who plans to put money into the cabin, that was the deciding factor.

Plenty of older cabins out here were built or added onto without permits, and we passed on a couple for exactly that reason. Before going further on this one, we checked the county records to confirm the cabin was legally built.

That check matters most when you plan to remodel. Unpermitted work usually has to be sorted out before the county will sign off on anything new, and it can complicate insurance, financing and short-term rental plans.

The cabin listed on August 13 at $475,000 and was under contract two weeks later. We negotiated it to $450,000, about 5% under list, and closed on September 25 with a conventional loan.

The county lists the cabin at 370 square feet, which puts the price over $1,200 a square foot. That number says more about Baring than about this cabin: here you're paying for the river, the trees and the setting, not the floor area. It's one reason price per square foot is a poor yardstick for cabins.

My buyer is working with a few contractors I know in the valley on some updates. After that, the plan is to use it as a family getaway and a vacation rental. It's on a paved county road, about 20 minutes from Stevens Pass.