diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 73c6a84ba..87f5ca66d 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -50,7 +50,8 @@ it raises the chances we can quickly merge or address your contributions.
 ## Setting up Go to work on Terraform
 
 If you have never worked with Go before, you will have to complete the
-following steps in order to be able to compile and test Terraform.
+following steps in order to be able to compile and test Terraform (or 
+use the Vagrantfile in this repo to stand up a dev VM).
 
 1. Install Go. Make sure the Go version is at least Go 1.2. Terraform will not work with anything less than
    Go 1.2. On a Mac, you can `brew install go` to install Go 1.2.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 39db263a2..8eace965f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -46,11 +46,14 @@ All documentation is available on the
 ## Developing Terraform
 
 If you wish to work on Terraform itself or any of its built-in providers,
-you'll first need [Go](http://www.golang.org) installed (version 1.2+ is
-_required_). Make sure Go is properly installed, including setting up
-a [GOPATH](http://golang.org/doc/code.html#GOPATH).
+you'll first need [Go](http://www.golang.org) installed on your machine (version 
+1.2+ is _required_). Alternatively, you can use the Vagrantfile in the root of 
+this repo to stand up a virtual machine with the appropriate dev tooling 
+already set up for you.
 
-Next, install the following software packages, which are needed for some dependencies:
+For local dev first make sure Go is properly installed, including setting up
+a [GOPATH](http://golang.org/doc/code.html#GOPATH). Next, install the following 
+software packages, which are needed for some dependencies:
 
 - [Git](http://git-scm.com/)
 - [Mercurial](http://mercurial.selenic.com/)