504 Valley Dr

This is a one-bedroom cabin of 649 square feet on 1.03 acres in the Wildhorn subdivision west of Divide, in Teller County, Colorado, at about 8,600 feet. The lot borders national forest, the remarks say the land burned in the Hayman Fire and has grown back in aspen, and the owner, who the listing names as the artist Amy Spring, painted the ceiling as sky and the walls as hills. It was bought for $89,900 in February 2014, listed at $329,000 on August 8, 2026, cut to $319,000 on August 17 and to $299,999 on September 10. That is $462 a square foot. This is the first Colorado property we have written up.

The land and setting

The photos show a hillside lot of pine and aspen with a dirt drive coming up between a detached garage and the cabin, stone steps up the slope to the deck, and, on the ridge behind, a line of standing dead trees. The aerials show green regrowth across the hills with grey snags through it. The remarks say the Hayman Fire touched the land. That fire burned through this part of Teller County in 2002. The listing gives the lot as bordering national forest, hillside, sloped, wooded, rural, with a hiking trail, and the remarks put the forest boundary to the north.

The elevation matters. The United States Geological Survey puts the ground at the listing’s coordinates at about 8,600 feet. Divide itself, on Highway 24 about twenty-six miles west of Colorado Springs, sits at 9,165 feet and averages about seventy-eight inches of snow a year. The road in the photos is dirt, and the aerials show it as a two-track through the trees.

The house

The cabin was built in 1998, one story on a crawl space, wood siding and a metal roof, with a vaulted ceiling and beams. The listing gives 649 square feet, one bedroom and one full bath. The floor plan in the listing gives 724 square feet with 674 on the main level and 50 in the loft, and lists another 170 square feet of loft under a low ceiling that it does not count. The plan shows a living room, a dining area, a kitchen, a bedroom of about 10 by 11 with a walk-in closet, a bath, a laundry, a room of about 5 by 11 off the back with its own small deck, and a deck of about 9 by 15 off the living room.

Every wall in the main room is a painted landscape and the ceiling is a painted sky. The remarks also describe sculpted plaster elements inside the cabin. The photos show a free-standing wood stove on a stone hearth, luxury vinyl floors, oak cabinets, a white gas range and refrigerator, a tub with a tile surround, and a loft under the roof with a tent set up in it. Heat is propane and wood. Cooling is ceiling fans. Water is a well. Sewer is not listed. Power is connected, with 220 volts in the garage.

The garage is detached and oversized, two spaces, with a gravel drive and room for an RV. The county record gives it 840 square feet. The floor plan draws it as a garage of about 19 by 24 with a storage room of about 10 by 24 beside it, and a separate shed of about 12 by 13. The remarks call the room beside the garage a studio. The listing also lists a greenhouse. No photo shows the inside of the garage or the studio.

The facts

What to know before you call

Eighty-six hundred feet and a dirt road. The USGS puts the lot at about 8,600 feet. Divide averages seventy-eight inches of snow. The road in the photos is dirt, and the listing does not say who maintains it or plows it. Teller County keeps a list of the roads its Road and Bridge department maintains. Ask whether Valley Drive is on it, whether the county plows it in winter, and if not, who does and what it costs.

Heat is propane and wood. There is no central system listed. The wood stove is the heat in the photos. Ask what the propane serves, who owns the tank, what a winter’s propane and firewood cost, and what keeps the pipes from freezing in the crawl space when nobody is home.

The well permit decides what the water is for. Colorado water runs on prior appropriation, and a well permitted after 1972 on a lot under 35 acres usually carries a household use only permit from the Division of Water Resources. That means water inside the house and nothing else. No garden, no greenhouse, no animals, no outdoor tap, unless the subdivision has an augmentation plan that allows it. The listing lists a greenhouse. Ask for the well permit number and read the permitted uses on it. Ask for the well log, the yield and a water test.

Septic. Sewer is not listed. A cabin on one acre with no district in the listing is on a septic system. Ask for the Teller County permit, the age and the last pumping, and ask the county whether it requires an inspection when the title transfers.

Fire, and whether anyone will insure it. The remarks say the Hayman Fire touched this land. The photos show the snags. Colorado’s home insurance non-renewals rose 77 percent between 2018 and 2023 and have kept rising in the mountain counties. The state opened its FAIR Plan, an insurer of last resort, in April 2025, and from July 2026 a carrier that uses a wildfire risk score to price or drop a policy has to tell the owner the score. Get a written quote from a carrier before you write an offer, not after, and ask the seller what they pay now, who carries it, and whether they have been non-renewed.

Colorado taxes, and a bill that just jumped. Colorado taxes a share of actual value. After the 2024 laws, residential property is assessed at 6.25 percent of actual value for most local governments and 7.05 percent for schools in 2025, with a further reduction in 2026. The listing gives an actual value of $343,236, above the ask, and a 2025 tax of $1,505. The county record shows $1,173 for 2024, so the bill rose 28 percent in a year. Zillow’s own tax history disagrees with the county record for 2024 and shows $734. Ask the Teller County assessor for the current notice of valuation and the mill levy, and whether the value is under protest.

From $89,900 to $329,000. The cabin sold for $84,000 in 2001 and $89,900 in 2014, after a 2013 listing that started at $119,900 and was cut twice. The August 2026 ask was 266 percent above the 2014 price. It has been cut twice in a month and is now $462 a square foot for one bedroom. Ask what the showings have said.

Six hundred forty-nine feet, or 724. The listing and the county say 649. The floor plan in the listing says 724, and draws a room of about 5 by 11 off the back and a loft under a low ceiling that it leaves out. Ask which figure an appraiser will use, and whether the loft, the back room and the deck were permitted.

One bedroom, and a loft that is not one. The loft in the photos sits under the roof with a tent in it. It has a low ceiling and the floor plan does not count it. Do not plan on it as a second bedroom for a lender, an appraiser or a guest over five feet tall.

The murals go with the house. Every wall in the main room is painted, with sculpted plaster elements per the remarks. It is a wall you cannot repaint without losing part of what you paid for. Decide before you go whether you want it.

Divide or Florissant. The listing address is Divide, 80814. The Zillow map shows the neighboring lots on Valley Drive with Florissant addresses, 80816. Ask which post office serves the cabin and which fire district covers it.

Thirty photos, from Redfin’s full set. Redfin carries 32 images and Zillow 31, with a different aerial or two on each. We used Redfin’s 28 photographs and two of its four floor plans, leaving out a loft-only plan and a composite that repeats the others. Not shown: the inside of the garage or the studio, the greenhouse, the back room, the small back deck, the crawl space, the well, the septic, the road in winter, and any neighbor.

You can see everything else we have listed on the properties page. For other small cabins on forest land we have a 2016 cabin on one deeded acre at 8,500 feet in the Nez Perce National Forest in Idaho and an off-grid cabin on Forest 13 Highway in Wetmore, Michigan.

To ask about this one, call Renae Trichell at 719-323-1641 or Jacob Thetford at 719-400-8771 at High Country Realty LLC, and reference MLS 4128614. Tell them where you saw it.