diff --git a/builtin/providers/aws/resource_aws_route_table_association.go b/builtin/providers/aws/resource_aws_route_table_association.go
index 846836008..4b39a79b7 100644
--- a/builtin/providers/aws/resource_aws_route_table_association.go
+++ b/builtin/providers/aws/resource_aws_route_table_association.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"log"
 
+	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/helper/resource"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/helper/schema"
 	"github.com/mitchellh/goamz/ec2"
 )
@@ -129,3 +130,29 @@ func resourceAwsRouteTableAssociationDelete(d *schema.ResourceData, meta interfa
 
 	return nil
 }
+
+// TODO: remove this method when converting to aws-sdk-go
+// resourceAwsRouteTableStateRefreshFunc returns a resource.StateRefreshFunc that is used to watch
+// a RouteTable.
+func resourceAwsRouteTableStateRefreshFunc(conn *ec2.EC2, id string) resource.StateRefreshFunc {
+	return func() (interface{}, string, error) {
+		resp, err := conn.DescribeRouteTables([]string{id}, ec2.NewFilter())
+		if err != nil {
+			if ec2err, ok := err.(*ec2.Error); ok && ec2err.Code == "InvalidRouteTableID.NotFound" {
+				resp = nil
+			} else {
+				log.Printf("Error on RouteTableStateRefresh: %s", err)
+				return nil, "", err
+			}
+		}
+
+		if resp == nil {
+			// Sometimes AWS just has consistency issues and doesn't see
+			// our instance yet. Return an empty state.
+			return nil, "", nil
+		}
+
+		rt := &resp.RouteTables[0]
+		return rt, "ready", nil
+	}
+}