549 Sheltrow Rd

This is an off-grid cabin of 900 square feet built in 2021 over a full concrete basement on 35 acres on Sheltrow Road in Crystal Falls Township, Iron County, Michigan. The remarks describe a two-bedroom cabin on a quiet dead-end blacktop, bordered on two sides by 1,000 acres of commercial forest land, with about 22 apple trees, two plum trees and raspberries, the Paint River boat landing less than a mile away, power available about a quarter mile off, and year-round road access. The listing gives two bedrooms, no baths, water as none, sewer as none and a leased propane tank. It was listed on June 1, 2026 at $254,900, cut to $219,900 on June 30 and to $182,000 on September 15. The county record shows the land selling for $40,000 in 2018 and $51,000 in September 2020.

It is the third Crystal Falls property we have covered, after a log hunting camp on 80 acres on the Fence River and an off-grid camp on Net River Road that the county files under Amasa. This one checks out: the county files it in Crystal Falls Township with the 49920 ZIP the listing uses.

The cabin

The photos show a one-story cabin with blue-gray siding and a metal roof in a gravel clearing at the end of a two-track through hardwoods, with basement windows along the back. Inside, the ceilings are white panel, the floors are bare, and one long room holds a kitchen with an island and wood cabinets, a dining table under a row of windows, and a living area with two sofas, a recliner and a propane wall heater. The primary bedroom has a bed, dressers and deer mounts. A small unfinished room holds a bucket toilet and pails under a window. The floor plan in the listing draws two bedrooms, the kitchen, the living and dining areas and two small rooms of about four and a half by six and a half feet.

The basement and the systems

The basement is one open room under bare joists, with a workbench, stacked lumber and a pantry of wooden shelves. A tankless water heater hangs on the concrete wall. The power system in the photos is a single battery with heavy cables on a plank and a power inverter on another. A propane tank, which the listing says is leased, sits in the trees, and an open-front shed stands by the drive.

The land

The listing gives 35 acres, wooded, with 1,155 feet of road frontage. The county’s legal description is the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 3, Township 43 North, Range 33 West, less the south 165 feet, 35 acres, split from a larger parcel in 2018. The aerials show the cabin in unbroken hardwoods with conifers and a wet opening to one side. Reverse geocoding the coordinates gives Sheltrow Road at Erickson Landing in Crystal Falls Township, at about 1,512 feet, with the Paint River, Peterson Creek and Chicagon Slough all within two and a half kilometers.

The facts

What to know before you call

Off grid means a battery and an inverter. The remarks say the cabin runs fully off-grid and ask why you would connect. The photos show what that is: one battery with heavy cables on a plank in the basement and a power inverter on another. No solar panel, generator or charge controller appears in any photo, and the listing names none. Ask what charges the battery, what the system runs, and what comes with the sale. The remarks put utility power about a quarter mile away, so ask the power company for a written line-extension quote, because a quarter mile of new line is a five-figure question and it may cross land that is not yours.

No water, no sewer, and a tankless water heater. The listing gives water as none and sewer as none, no bathrooms, and a tankless water heater among the appliances. The photos show the heater on the basement wall, a kitchen sink, and a small unfinished room with a bucket toilet. Ask where the water comes from, where the sink drains, and whether the Dickinson-Iron District Health Department has ever issued a well or septic permit for the parcel. A cabin built in 2021 with a full concrete basement and neither is a cabin whose certificate of occupancy is worth asking to see.

Commercial Forest on two sides, and what that means. The state’s Commercial Forest layer confirms the remarks. The quarter-quarter to the north and the land to the west are enrolled, 126 acres under one timber company, with 83 more beyond that under another owner, 240 across the section line to the north and 40 to the south. This parcel is not enrolled. Commercial Forest land is open to the public on foot for hunting and fishing by law, so the 1,000 acres of forest as your backyard is also every hunter’s, and its owners cut it on their own schedule. There is no national forest within two kilometers and the parcel is outside any proclaimed boundary. State forest land is within two kilometers and does not adjoin.

Land at $51,000 in 2020, a cabin in 2021, $254,900 in June. The public record shows the 35 acres selling for $40,000 in November 2018, the year it was split off, and for $51,000 in September 2020. The cabin went up in 2021. The first asking price was five times the land price, and two cuts in fifteen weeks have taken $72,900 off it. The price now has to be carried by a 900-square-foot cabin with no well, no septic, no bathroom and no power service. Ask what it cost to build and get your own number for finishing it.

Several tax figures, and uncapping on top. The listing says $2,392. Zillow’s history shows $1,067 on a $70,800 assessment for 2024. The county feed on Redfin shows $1,381 for 2025 and $1,842 for 2024. The assessment went from $17,500 to $70,800 as the cabin was added to the roll. Michigan caps the growth of taxable value each year and uncaps it when the property changes hands, so the first bill after a sale resets to the state equalized value, which is half of market value, or about $91,000 on a $182,000 sale. A cabin that is not a principal residence also pays the 18 school operating mills. Ask the Crystal Falls Township assessor for the current taxable and equalized values and figure the bill at the equalized value.

Not in a forest program. Commercial Forest land is taxed at $1.35 an acre, which would be about $47 a year on 35 acres. Every figure above is twenty times that or more, so the parcel is on the regular roll, and the state’s layer does not list it. The Qualified Forest Program needs 20 acres and a management plan, so 35 acres could enroll, and the bill does not show whether it has. Ask. The county’s zoning code for the parcel reads CF while the listing says residential, so ask the township what CF means on its map and what it allows.

Blacktop, gravel, or unpaved. The remarks say a quiet dead-end blacktop with year-round road access. The listing’s road surface field says gravel and its lot features say unpaved. The photos show a gravel and dirt drive through the woods and no public road. Ask where the blacktop ends, whether the Iron County Road Commission plows Sheltrow Road to this driveway, and who plows the two-track from there.

Nine hundred square feet, and two small rooms. The listing counts 900 livable square feet and 1,800 in all, which is the main floor plus the unfinished basement. The floor plan shows two rooms of about four and a half by six and a half feet, one of which is the room with the bucket toilet. The county record carries no building data at all, so ask whether the cabin is on the assessment roll as built and whether the township issued a building permit in 2021.

Twenty-two apple trees, and none in the photos. The remarks count about 22 apple trees, two plum trees and raspberries. The 35 photos show hardwoods, ferns, a grassed trail, an opening with wildflowers and the forest from the air, and no orchard. Ask where the trees are and how old they are.

Thirty-five photos, the listing’s full set. Zillow and Redfin carry the same 35 in the same order. We used all of them, taking the sharper file of each from whichever site had it, with the listing’s first photo as the cover. Two are floor plans and nine are aerials of forest canopy. There is no photo of Sheltrow Road, the second bedroom, a bathroom, the fruit trees or the boat landing. Nothing is virtually staged.

You can see everything else we have listed on the properties page.

To ask about this one, call Zachary Goodman at Keller Williams Classic Realty NW on 906-284-1073, or the office on 906-284-7249, and reference MLS 50209587. Tell them where you saw it.